Analysing Request Modification Devices in Films: Implications for Pragmatic Learning in Instructed Foreign Language Contexts

Abstract

E. Alcon Soler and M.P. Safont Jorda (eds.), Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning, 245–280. Learners’ exposure to rich and contextually appropriate input has been regarded as a necessary condition for the development of their pragmatic competence in the target language (Kasper 2001; Kasper and Roever 2005). However, in foreign language contexts, learners lack the opportunities to face authentic pragmatic input and chances for interaction outside the classroom. Therefore, different researchers have already praised the use of audiovisual material as a valuable source that can present learners with samples of appropriate language use in a variety of contexts (Alcon 2005; Rose 2001; Washburn 2001). In an attempt to expand this line of research, this paper explores whether the use of films can be regarded as a suitable source of authentic input in the foreign language setting by analysing the occurrence of a particular pragmatic feature, that of request modification devices, in a corpus of ten films. To do so, the paper begins with a theoretical review of the role that audiovisual input has played in developing pragmatics in foreign language contexts on the one hand, and the description and function of the pragmatic aspect under study (i.e. request modification devices) on the other hand. A detailed analysis of the number and types of modification devices identified in the films is then presented in full conversational examples. Finally, some pedagogical implications for the integration of these film excerpts in instructed foreign language pragmatics are suggested.