The Explicit Instructional Order of Syntactic Complexity Features Across CEFR Levels

This study explores which syntactic complexity features receive explicit instructional focus in an English coursebook series, how they are sequenced across proficiency levels from A2 to C1, and to what extent they are explicitly practiced at each level. To that end, we examined the English coursebook series Language Hub across five proficiency levels (Elementary A2, Pre‐Intermediate B1, Intermediate B1+, Upper Intermediate B2, and Advanced C1) for explicit instruction on syntactic complexity features. We manually coded and analyzed 1304 syntactic features that were explicitly introduced and practiced in the Grammar and Vocabulary sections of the coursebook units through highlights, underlining, bold, colors, or detailed linguistic explanations. Our results revealed a clear progression in the instructional sequencing of the syntactic complexity features in the coursebook, with relatively simple phrasal features at lower levels, basic clausal features at intermediate levels, and increasingly complex variations of clausal features at higher levels. The B1‐level book showed the most explicit instruction, mainly on clausal features, followed by B2 and A2, with less explicit instruction in the B1+ and C1‐level books. We discuss our results and their theoretical and pedagogical implications.