Abstract
Despite the conspicuous momentum of research on L2 pragmatic competence, this construct is not adequately represented in in-service high school teachers’ professional development programs in Iran. This study investigated the impact of an awareness-raising workshop on in-service high school English language teachers’ (a) pragmatic awareness and (b) attitudes towards instructed pragmatics. The participants were divided into a control group (CG) (N=21) and an experimental group (EG) (N=24). The workshop intended for EG was held in four 3-h sessions over 2 weeks, rotating on pragmatic competence and the instruction of speech acts, implicature, and pragmatic routines. Pragmatic awareness was measured through a 12-item test, wherein the participants detected problems in the pre-given apology and request statements, and produced, in written form, their own speech acts. Moreover, attitudes were probed through a 30-item scale developed by the researchers on the basis of two focus-group interviews. The results showed that (a) CG and EG made significant gains in their pragmatic awareness from the pretest to the posttest, but EG’s gain was significantly greater, and (b) EG, but not CG, held more positive attitudes towards instructed pragmatics at the post-treatment phase. The study has implications for high school language teachers’ professional development programs.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call