Abstract
Drawing on the findings of longitudinal studies in uninstructed contexts over the last two decades, this synthesis explores variations in developmental patterns across second language (L2) pragmatic features. Two synthesis questions were addressed: (a) What are the variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features?, and (b) What are the potential explanations for the variations? In response to the first question, previous studies showed that L2 pragmatic development is a non-linear, dynamic process, with developmental paces varying across pragmatic features (Ortactepe, 2013; Taguchi, 2010, 2011, 2012; Warga & Scholmberger, 2007). These studies revealed that some aspects of pragmatic features (e.g., semantic strategies of speech acts) develop faster than others (e.g., lexical features such as mitigators). In response to the second question, three potential explanations were identified to account for the developmental variations: (a) language-related, (b) situation-dependent, and (c) learner-related explanations, with three subcategories for the language-related explanation: (a) the functions of pragmatic features, (b) the frequency of availability of target features, and (c) the similarity and difference between languages with respect to the target feature.
Highlights
Pragmatic competence in a second language (L2) involves mastering pragmalingistic and sociopragmatic knowledge (Thomas, 1983), as well as developing efficient control of both knowledge bases when encoding and decoding language functions in a sociocultural context (Taguchi, 2010, 2011)
This pathway aligns with the non-linear perspective in complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), which claims that language development is a non-linear, complex process in which changes emerge at uneven paces
This section synthesizes the findings of the 26 studies to answer the two questions: (a) What are the variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features and (b) What are the potential explanations for the variations? Since the variations found in these studies are associated with explanations, the findings for these two questions are presented together according to the three explanations: (a) language-related, (b) situation-dependent, and (c) learner-related
Summary
Pragmatic competence in a second language (L2) involves mastering pragmalingistic and sociopragmatic knowledge (Thomas, 1983), as well as developing efficient control of both knowledge bases when encoding and decoding language functions in a sociocultural context (Taguchi, 2010, 2011). Several studies on speech acts (e.g., Schauer, 2009) uncovered that semantic strategies used to structure a speech act progressed faster than lexical and syntactic forms These findings suggest that pragmatic development is a non-linear, dynamic process with uneven developmental paces in developmental patterns (e.g., Ortactepe, 2013; Taguchi, 2012; Warga & Scholmberger, 2007). Despite this generalization, with the notable exception of Taguchi’s (2010) synthesis, very few studies have systematically addressed the uneven developmental paces or explored the potential explanations for variations in these longitudinal studies. Before addressing these two questions, the following section will first briefly introduce the background guiding this synthesis
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