Meaning-focused grammar instruction: examining British, Chinese, French and Italian textbooks for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

The present study seeks to provide an analysis of how grammar instruction is presented in four selected Chinese as a foreign language textbooks published in four different countries. It explores how each textbook presents grammar, and to what extent grammar activities are presented in a meaning-use focused and contextualized way. Two research questions guided the analysis: How is grammar presented in the grammar description and target language samples? To what extent are grammar exercises contextualized and meaning-use focused? The results show that the role of grammar is still conspicuous, and textbooks tend to provide more activities that focus on meaning-form relationships than communicative tasks, still focusing more on accuracy than on interaction and meaning-use relationships. Activities promoting interaction, communicative tasks and meaning-use focused integrated in the analyzed textbooks are still rare. The paper also highlights the importance of cooperation among teachers, researchers, and authors in producing teaching materials.