The effects of input enhancement and recasts on the development of second language pragmatic competence

Abstract

This study investigates the combined effects of input enhancement and recasts on a group of Vietnamese EFL learners' performance of constructive criticism during peer review activities. Particularly, the study attempts to find out whether the instruction works for different aspects of pragmatic learning, including the learners' sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic knowledge, as well as their frequency of externally and internally modifying their criticism. Over a course lasting approximately seven instructional hours, the learners received visually enhanced pragmatic input and recasts of their errors of form and meaning. The learners' pre-to-posttest improvement was investigated using three production tasks, namely a discourse completion task, a role play, and an oral peer-feedback task. The findings show there is potential for input enhancement and recast in teaching different aspects of second language pragmatics and are discussed with implications for classroom practices and future research.