Teaching English Writing in the Twentieth Century Seen through Handbooks for Mother-tongue and Foreign Speakers

The production and consumption of handbooks for Mother-tongue Speakers (MTS) and for Foreign Speakers (FS) have remained distinct, characterized by two different theoretical traditions. This divide has never been based upon the systematic contrastive and comparative analysis of the two types of handbooks, but purely on abstract histories of ‘method’ and origins. This work features the analysis of the prefaces and contents of six handbooks—three addressed to MTS and three to FS - covering the periods 1750–1920, 1920–1960, since 1960) to see whether similarities between the two text-types exist. The results of the analyses disclose interesting similarities, suggesting the need to further pursue this innovative line of research.