Pragmatics as a Pedagogical Target

Abstract

Abstract Pragmatics is the study of language use. It encompasses how speakers say what to whom in a given speech community. The teaching of pragmatics involves helping language learners learn what to say in situations (sociopragmatics) and how to say it (pragmalinguistics) as well as what not to say. Different languages, cultures, and speech communities often have different pragmatics, which creates the need to learn pragmatics along with other aspects of language. Research into the effect of instruction on pragmatics shows that instruction is effective across a range of learner and contextual variables including proficiency, instructional context, types of instruction, pragmatic targets, and ways in which development is measured. Although pragmatics researchers have demonstrated that the effects of instruction on pragmatics are very robust, the teaching of pragmatics in language classrooms lags behind more traditional areas of teaching, such as grammar and pronunciation. This entry discusses what pragmatics is, what makes it an important target of instruction and how it is different from traditional areas of teaching, the relation of pragmatics to existing approaches to teaching, and pedagogical proposals for teaching pragmatics. It then reviews the major findings of instructional effect studies and what challenges have to be met in order to see curriculum‐level integration of pragmatics and what possible solutions might be. The entry ends by considering possible future directions for the teaching of pragmatics.