Motivation and Second Language Pragmatics: A Regulatory Focus Perspective.

Yiran Zhang,Mostafa Papi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.753605

Yiran Zhang, Mostafa Papi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.753605

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Abstract

This study investigates how learners’ chronic motivational characteristics, that is their regulatory focus (Higgins, 1997), can account for differences in L2 pragmatic production in general and across situations with different levels of power, social distance, and imposition. One-hundred-twenty-one L1-Mandarin learners of English as a second language completed a regulatory focus questionnaire and a discourse completion task focusing on two types of speech acts: request and opinion. Multiple regression results showed that learners’ promotion focus, concerned with advancement, growth, accomplishments, positively predicted their pragmatic production in general, and especially in situations where the learner is subject to a higher degree of imposition, has lower power and is socially distant from the interlocutor. On the other hand, the prevention focus, which is concerned with safety, security, and calmness, negatively predicted pragmatic production, especially in those situations. The findings provide support for the role of motivational dispositions in the level of learners’ L2 pragmatic competence. Theoretical and instructional implications are discussed.

Highlights

Second language (L2) pragmatics is one of the crucial areas in second language acquisition (SLA) research
The results indicated that Promotion positively and Prevention negatively predicted their pragmatic production in IPD+ situations which represented the situations in which the respondent needs to make a request or share opinions that have a higher degree of impositions, with an interlocutor who has higher power and a larger social distance
The current study adopted regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) in order to investigate how English learners’ chronic motivational characteristics lead to differences in their L2 pragmatic competence and how the effect varies across situations with different levels of power, social distance, and imposition

Summary

Introduction

Second language (L2) pragmatics is one of the crucial areas in second language acquisition (SLA) research. Lack of L2 pragmatic knowledge and the ability to use the language properly can affect the efficiency and quality of the communication, and cause misunderstandings. Various models of communicative competence (Bachman, 1990; Bachman and Palmer, 1996, 2010) have explicitly positioned pragmatic competence as a central component of L2 ability, along with grammatical, discourse, and strategic competencies. These models emphasize the importance of the sociocultural conventions and norms of language use in L2 learning. Other than learner-external factors such as experience in target language community (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei, 1998; Niezgoda and Rover, 2001; Taguchi, 2008), and pragmatic instruction (for review see Taguchi, 2015) that have found to influence L2 pragmatics, studies have been conducted to identify individual learner

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