Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the production of pragmatic markers (PMs) by multilingual students in a CLIL context. Previous studies have analyzed pragmatic competence in multilingual settings (e.g., Cenoz, 2003; Martín-Laguna & Alcón-Soler, 2015; Portolés, 2015; Safont & Portolés, 2016). However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has investigated the use of PMs across languages at the oral level in the multilingual classroom. As suggested by Nashaat-Sobhy (2017, p. 69), there is a need for studies that support or refute whether CLIL helps students communicate more appropriately. In an attempt to fill this gap, the overall aim of this research study is to explore how multilingual students use PMs across languages –namely Spanish, Catalan and English- in terms of frequency and type of PM.
 
 Participants were 19 Spanish students in an instructional context where three languages are in contact, namely English, Catalan and Spanish. They completed a language background questionnaire and comparable oral decision-making tasks carried out in pairs, one task in each of the target languages. The analysis explored the frequency and type of PMs (i.e. textual and interpersonal markers). Findings revealed significant differences in the frequency and type of both interpersonal and textual PMs across the three languages, shedding some light on the particular characteristics of the pragmatic competence of multilingual learners in a CLIL setting.
Highlights
The promotion of linguistic diversity in education has always been an important consideration in implementing Content and Language-Integrated (CLIL) programs
The purpose of this study is to investigate the production of pragmatic markers (PMs) by multilingual students in a CLIL context
The present study focuses on one specific aspect of multilingual students' pragmatic competence; that is, pragmatic markers (PMs)
Summary
The promotion of linguistic diversity in education has always been an important consideration in implementing Content and Language-Integrated (CLIL) programs. In Spain, educational authorities have embraced this dual approach in an attempt to enhance the acquisition of English as a foreign language (EFL) and to promote multilingual practices (see Juan-Garau & Salazar-Noguera, 2015, for a discussion of the implementation of CLIL in multilingual educational settings in Spain). In this context, different studies have explored second language (L2) acquisition by multilingual learners, revealing their advantage over monolingual students for the acquisition of different linguistic abilities such as requestive behavior (Cenoz, 2013). The production of pragmatic markers in speech is used to measure pragmatic competence because they “[...] contribute to the pragmatic meaning of utterances and play an important role in the pragmatic competence of the speaker” (Müller, 2005, p. 1)
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