Explicit intervention for Spanish pragmatic development during short‐term study abroad: An examination of learner request production and cognition

Abstract

The present study examined the impact of pedagogical intervention on students’ request performance during short‐term study abroad (SA). Prior to departure, students received explicit instruction about requests. During their time abroad, they were given tasks to strategically develop their pragmatic competence. Requests were assessed with a discourse completion task. Results indicated that over time the students improved their request performance, as rated by two native Spanish speakers. Examination of the students’ requests revealed that their use of strategies also improved. Retrospective verbal reports (RVRs) performed after the posttests indicated that during second language (L2) Spanish request production, the students attended to politeness, task outcome, and past experiences. In addition, the RVRs indicated that specific sociopragmatic factors and pragmalinguistic strategies targeted during the pragmatic intervention informed learners’ cognition during request planning and production. Findings suggest that when combined with pedagogical intervention, SA has the potential to facilitate students’ L2 pragmatic development.