Pragmatic Instruction Research Articles

Teaching the pragmatics of English as an international language: A focus on pragmatic markers

The current era of globalization and emergence of English as an international language (EIL) has brought about new opportunities for L2 pragmatic learning and teaching. The common view of pragmatic learning as an approximation to native-likeness is changing towards conceiving pragmatic ability as a tool to interact with people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the majority of whom are non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. While such reality is widely acknowledged, few attempts have been made to teach pragmatic competence in EIL. Addressing this concern, the present study investigates the effects that a pedagogical intervention on EIL pragmatics has on the oral use of pragmatic markers (PMs): a key tool for successful communication in the current increasingly multicultural and multilingual society. Seventy-three Spanish EFL students were divided into an instructional ( n = 34) and a control group ( n = 39). The instructional group received 4 interventional sessions that included (1) awareness of the legitimacy of EIL, (2) meta-pragmatic awareness of pragmatic behavior across the world, (3) task-supported instruction on PMs, and (4) strategy-based instruction. Pragmatic competence was assessed by students’ use of PMs in oral academic presentations. The results revealed that the instructional group had more significant changes in the frequency and variety of PMs used than the control one, as they widened the repertoire of PMs uttered in their academic presentations. These findings project the future of pragmatic instruction in EIL and provide directions for reorienting the EIL curriculum towards the integration of L2 pragmatics.

Teaching second language pragmatics in the current era of globalization: An introduction

The increasing mobility of speakers of different languages to different countries, together with the globalized world we live in, have led to multilingual societies in which linguistic exchanges between both native and non-native speakers have become a very common practice. This reality emphasizes the need to help learners of foreign and second languages become not only linguistically competent but also pragmatically competent, in order not to sound impolite or inappropriate in the target language. Addressing this need, studies in interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) have explored which methodology is most effective for teaching pragmatics. Earlier ILP studies compared explicit versus implicit instruction, highlighting the key role of explicit metapragmatic explanations. More recently, scholars have investigated how to create opportunities to for authentic pragmatic practice inside the classroom. To do so, some studies have implemented task-based language teaching to provide students with goal-oriented meaningful activities that address their real-world needs. Other studies have incorporated technology-enhanced materials such as simulated immersive environments and computer-mediated communication to promote students’ engagement in authentic use of the language beyond the classroom. Another current concern in L2 pragmatic instruction is how to account for the emergence of English as an International Language (EIL), and the consequent need to guide learners into acquiring language as a tool to mediate across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Different studies have adopted an EIL perspective, proposing the enhancement of students’ metapragmatic awareness and strategies to deal with the hybrid nature of English and its associated varieties and cultures. The special issue ‘Teaching second language pragmatics in the current era of globalization’ aims to illustrate such current trends, with six contributions by distinguished scholars in the field of L2 pragmatics from all over the globe.

An analysis of apology in an Indonesian ELT textbook and the teacher's strategy to teach the apology


 The apology is one of the speech acts that language functions cover. Considering that students must have pragmatic competence to use language appropriately in context, this research looked at apologies in an Indonesian senior high school ELT textbook, as well as the strategies used by teachers to teach apology. This study employed a qualitative approach which involves a textbook analysis and a semi-structured interview of the teacher’s teaching strategies to collect the data. The collected data then were classified, transferred into tables, and analyzed using Limberg (2015)’s principles of teaching pragmatics. The findings of this study show that the textbook entitled Bahasa Inggris Kelas XII covers some parts of Limberg’s principles of teaching pragmatics of apology. There is one principle that is not covered, namely, the principle of drawing a comparison. However, the findings of this study expose that the teacher’s teaching strategies cover all Limberg’s principles of teaching pragmatics of apology. Therefore, English teachers and institutions are expected to take into account the materials used to teach apology to students to raise students’ pragmatic competence.

Pragmatically speaking

Abstract The relationship between second language (L2) comprehensibility and pragmatics is explored in two experiments involving instruction of speech acts to learners enrolled in a Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program. The study was designed to determine whether improved pragmatic competence results in enhanced comprehensibility (how easy L2 speech is to understand). Two intact classes participated; one received 25 hours of pragmatics instruction, while the control group received the standard curriculum (no focus on pragmatics). Both classes were recorded in role-plays based on several scenarios at pre- and post-test. Transcriptions of the role-plays were coded according to a rubric; although the control group showed superior performance at the outset, the experimental group’s scores exceeded those of the Control group at post-test with a medium effect size. A subset of pre- and posttest role-plays (two refusals and two requests) were randomly assigned to 56 native English listeners who rated the speech samples for social appropriateness, comprehensibility, and fluency. The experimental group’s posttest productions on all scenarios were perceived as significantly more socially appropriate, with three scenarios showing significant improvement in comprehensibility. Although one scenario improved in fluency, another showed a decline. The results suggest that pragmatics instruction enhances L2 speech comprehensibility.

Teacher agency in pragmatic pedagogy

Despite the existence of a large body of research on pragmatic instruction, teachers’ beliefs about teaching and assessing pragmatic competence have received scant attention. The present study sought to investigate Persian-speaking EFL teachers’ beliefs and perceived knowledge about pragmatic instruction and assessment and their self-reported instructional practice. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire was administered to 204 EFL teachers and 30 of these teachers also participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that even though the teachers were aware of the importance of pragmatics, they did not consider themselves highly competent in teaching the subject to learners or in the assessment of learners’ pragmatic abilities. The most frequent method they reported having used was pragmatic corrective feedback. Further, the teachers believed that their colleagues and institute directors also gave little weight to the improvement of learners’ pragmatic abilities, and they further argued that textbooks and exams, while containing some pragmatics-related sections, failed to enhance and measure learners’ pragmatic knowledge. These results have critical implications for teachers’ pragmatic awareness in their professional development and for the inclusion of more explicit pragmatic activities in textbooks.

Localized Globalization: Directives in Augmented Reality Game Interaction

AbstractIn what has been termed the global era, individuals from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds frequently participate in joint activities that require intercultural communication. Concomitantly, research on communication in contexts involving mobile technologies is nascent, and investigations addressing pragmatics in particular are few. In this article, we examine place‐based mobile augmented reality (AR) apps, which have been shown to provide learners with valuable opportunities for location‐situated social and collaborative interaction and embodied experience of place. We focus on cataloguing social actions, specifically directives, in 4 groups of mobile AR game players using English as a lingua franca (ELF) to communicate. We uncovered a variety of directive strategies, both verbal and nonverbal, that are rarely discussed in pragmatics teaching and learning yet were critical to the unfolding communicative action. Implications of the study findings for pragmatics instruction are provided within the broader recommendations for ELF pragmatics.

İngilizce öğretmenlerinin edimbilim öğretimi için materyal uyarlaması konusundaki görüşleri üzerine örnek bir inceleme

The teaching of pragmatic features in the field of ELT has received more attention recently. Many studies indicated that English textbooks fail to represent the features of pragmatics. Yet, textbooks are a valuable source of information for students, so it is vital for teachers to be able to enrich the textbook activities for teaching pragmatics. However, to what extent teachers can achieve this has not been investigated yet. Moreover, no studies have been found investigating the views of EFL teachers on the teaching materials for pragmatics instruction. To fill in this gap, a dialogue activity aiming to teach requests was modified based on the relevant literature. The modified activity was presented to the attention of 100 Turkish EFL teachers. Then, the views of EFL teachers on the modified activity were investigated through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study also aimed to question if teachers were willing to adapt textbook activities for more effective pragmatics instruction. The results indicated that teachers found the modifications useful for pragmatics instruction. Furthermore, no statistically significant difference was found between those who had taken a course on pragmatics during their teacher training and the ones who had not. It was found that teachers regarded material adaptation for the instruction of pragmatics as a must. Even so, they admitted that none of them had made such adaptations as they thought they were not equipped with a satisfying level of knowledge on pragmatics.

“It’s of no value compared to your value”

Abstract In the present study, we attempt to develop EFL learners’ metapragmatic awareness of English compliments, which still remains an under-researched issue. Initially, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners, Persian and British English native speakers. Although the analysis of the language learners’ realization of compliments and responses to compliments seemed to indicate that their pragmatic development was overall adequate, it also suggested the influence of the native socio-pragmatic schema on their pragmatic performance. We therefore undertook a pragmatic instruction aimed at developing the EFL learners’ metapragmatic awareness of complimenting. The results suggested that through discussion, analysis, small-scale research, and reflections on the native and target pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic complimenting conventions the learners were developing metapragmatic awareness. Finally, we make recommendations for more effective pragmatic teaching in EFL contexts.

Advertising Pragmatics of Contemporary Media for Polylingualism and Polyculturalism

The article considers advertising pragmatics of contemporary media for polylingualism and polyculturalism as the urgent need for advertising information about different types of goods has become a prerequisite for the development and dissemination of a hybrid type of text – advertising text, announcement of things or services. The research aims at the functional specifics of advertising texts in polycultural and polylingual contexts, among which is a variety of publications and outdoor advertising. To achieve the objective, it is important to consider the goals (set tasks) associated with the research questions. They are: (i) to outline the presentation patterns of trademarks and define the essence of the advertising text in the poly-lingual context, (ii) to determine the pragmatic direction of advertising texts of modern media, accounting for the discursive-functional aspects, (iii) to trace manifestation of multiculturalism and/or polyculturalism and polylingualism of the advertising text as a non-standard type of text. It is stated advertising slogan is a communicative message that has a pragmatic instruction to convey true information about the subject of advertising to the largest number of people in order to encourage them to take action - to use and purchase the advertised product. The slogan is focused primarily on achieving the maximum pragmatic effect: to present the brand, distribute the advertised products, actually sell the product, and even forcibly impose it on a potential consumer. It is found the following aspects are clearly combined, which logically represent the advertising text as a non-standard object of linguistic description in the polylingual cultures: 1) polylingual components:introduction into the advertising message of linguistic facts by different types of fonts, a combination of natural and unnatural semiotic systems (signs, drawings, symbols), introduction to the text of visuals; 2) multicultural and/or polycultural components.

Teaching and learning how to make requests in different contexts in Italian as a foreign language

This study is motivated by the dearth of research in pragmatic instruction in Italian as a foreign language (IFL) with beginner learners. Based on the limitations in the way IFL textbooks present requests, instructional material was designed with the following objectives: to improve learners’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic competences and to raise their awareness of request realisation across different contexts. The material, designed for a 60-minute pedagogical intervention, was then used in an Italian language school in Sao Paulo with five intact classes of beginner Brazilian learners of Italian. We implemented a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental methodological design, where three classes were randomly selected to serve as the experimental group, and two classes served as the control group. The data collected through written DCTs and simplified retrospective questionnaires revealed that the learners in the experimental group showed a more significant improvement in their socio pragmatic, pragmalinguistic and metapragmatic competence compared to the control group. These results suggest a positive effect of consciousness-raising activities on learners’ declarative knowledge in the short term.

Pragmatic failure revisited: Jaworski’s (1994) study in a new light

In the current conditions of globalization and the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF), the notions of pragmatic competence and appropriateness as well as pragmatic failure become of paramount importance to the language learners and instructors. The current article discusses these questions through an approximate replication of Jaworski’s (1994) study of pragmatic failure in responses to English greetings by Polish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The need for the replication arises from the lack of studies addressing pragmatic failure of EFL learners and the need to approach pragmatic behaviour of EFL learners in the conditions of ELF. The replication duplicates the methods of data collection and analysis of the original study but alters the native language (L1) of the participants and expands the study through the analysis of responses and the ratings. The data consists of Russian EFL learners’ responses to the “How are you?” greeting question in the examination context. The results showed that Russian EFL learners achieve pragmatical success: the majority of the responses was rated as appropriate by the English native speakers. It is concluded that the original study’s concern with teaching pragmatics should be applied and investigated in greater details focusing on ELF. Additionally, the notions of pragmatic competence and pragmatic failure need to be reevaluated and applied in the context of ELF.

(Im)politeness in Intercultural Email Communication between People of Different Cultural Backgrounds: A Case Study of Jordan and the USA

ABSTRACT This study investigates how people from different cultures negotiate meanings in email interactions. The data is composed of 120 emails written by two groups of students: sixty emails are written by Jordanian university students and sixty by American university students. The emails are supposed to be written to hypothetical friends. The data were analysed qualitatively, relying primarily on discourse analysis complemented by the theory of politeness, in addition to the notion of cultural stereotypes. The evaluation of the data indicated that the American students used much more indirect strategies than their Jordanian counterparts. The results of this study offer insights into the nature of politeness strategies as employed by the two groups of students. This study argues for the importance of including pragmatic and intercultural communication instruction in language classes to teach students how to be polite in a foreign language.

The Effect of Study-Abroad on Pragmatic Transfer

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the effect that studying abroad may have on pragmatic transfer in requests, refusals, and expressions of gratitude, produced by Japanese learners of English. Twenty-two Japanese college students completed a multimedia elicitation task (MET) before and after studying in the US for one semester, together with twenty-two L1 English speakers and twenty L1 Japanese speakers as baseline data. The MET is a computer-based instrument for eliciting oral data. Unlike previous studies on pragmatic transfer, which often lack statistical evidence, this study includes statistical analysis. The analysis revealed that negative pragmatic transfer occurs within a limited range. The identified transfer includes pragmalinguistic transfer, whereby, assuming that their politeness levels are equal, learners directly translate L1 expressions into L2; and sociopragmatic transfer, whereby learners transfer L1 discourse patterns and functions. Resistance to L2 norms and increased fluency can be influencing factors. The results indicated that the effect of study-abroad is limited because most of the negative transfer which was identified before studying abroad remained after studying abroad. Thus, the necessity of explicit pragmatic instruction was proposed.

A Meta-Analytic Study of Instructed Second Language Pragmatics: A Case of the Speech Act of Request

Research on the effectiveness of request instruction in L2 pragmatics has been extensive, yet inconclusive. The present meta-analysis aims not only to provide a quantitative and reliable measure of the effects of instruction for the speech act of request in Iran, but also to illustrate a description of the relationship between some variables that moderate its effectiveness (age, gender, proficiency level, treatment type, research design, and data collection procedure). To do so, a total of 37 studies were retrieved and by establishing a set of different inclusion/exclusion criteria, 17 primary studies were coded and analyzed. Results revealed that (1) there is an overall large effect size on the effectiveness of the instruction of request (g = 1.48) in an Iranian context; (2) some variables were found to be a moderator for this effectiveness like gender and treatment type; (3) considering gender, the male group produced a larger effect size (g = 3.09) than the female one (g = 1.10); (4) and regarding treatment types, the explicit group yielded a larger effect size (g = 1.53) than the implicit one (g = 1.20). A thorough interpretation of the results, as well as a discussion of practical, theoretical, and methodological implications of this study, is provided to tackle a number of conundrums surrounding the instruction of request and shed light on how to reorient future research.

Strategies of Cultivating Students' Pragmatic Competence in Higher Vocational English Teaching

Cultivation of students’ pragmatic competence is one of the objectives of higher vocational English teaching and plays an important role in it. This paper analyzes differences between pragmatic teaching and language teaching, probes into necessity of pragmatic teaching, and puts forward several cultivation strategies of students' pragmatic competence in higher vocational English teaching: pragmatic awareness cultivation,classroom explicit teaching and creating real situations.

Corpus Pragmatics and Multimodality: Compiling an ad-hoc Multimodal Corpus for EFL Pragmatics Teaching

Corpus Pragmatics and Multimodality: Compiling an ad-hoc Multimodal Corpus for EFL Pragmatics Teaching

PRAGMATICS: WHY USE AUDIOVISUAL INPUT IN SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING CONTEXTS?

The teaching and acquisition of pragmatics in second and foreign language learning contexts has been traditionally reduced to coursebooks’ decontextualized dialogue samples and static images with almost no effects on learners’ communicative competence. This paper outlines rationale on the teaching of pragmatics since it has become of essential importance as specified in different language proficiency paradigms i.e. the CEFR. Thus, attention is centered on the use of audiovisual materials as a rich input source used for that aim. With this in mind, a review of studies appraising for the validity of language used in audiovisual genres is provided. In addition, an overview of its applicability and effects as a part of the general education curricula and in second and foreign language instruction is presented. Results from the studies reviewed reported overall advantageous outcomes when using this type of input for different instructional aims and more specifically with pragmatics’ acquisition purposes.

Effects of peer collaboration on EFL learners’ comprehension of conversational implicatures

This study investigated the effects of peer collaboration on EFL learners’ comprehension of conversational implicatures by comparing their performances and verbalizations between individual and collaborative work on a multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT). Thirty-three Taiwanese EFL learners (11 individuals and 11 pairs) were asked to report their cognitive processes while performing the MDCT. The verbal protocols were transcribed and analyzed in terms of the strategies found in pragmatic-related episodes (PREs). The results indicated no significant difference in the scores of the MDCT between the individual and collaborative groups, but showed that the two groups tended to use different strategies to infer the implicatures. In addition, pair collaboration led to more negotiation and scaffolding, which facilitated the learners’ pragmatic development in implicatures. This study concludes with pedagogical implications for pragmatic teaching and learning.

Function of Nonverbal Signs in Balia Rituals The Kaili ethnic in Palu, Indonesia

The purposes of this study are to find and describe the function of nonverbal signs in Balia ritual in Central Sulawesi, which are found in (1) equipment, (2) attribute, (3) instrument, (4) color, and (5) motion. The function of nonverbal sign on attribute is found in pajama (men's clothing), siga (men's headband), silu (women's headband), shawl, fan, babe (a type of machete used by men), which includes two functions of the sign, which are the symbol-sinsign and icon-sinsign . The function of nonverbal sign of the instrument are the kakula (a type of gamelan), gong, gimba (a type of drum), lalove (Kaili's flute) including three sign functions, namely icon-qualisign – inconicsinsign , qualisign-inconicsinsign , and symbol-inconicsinsign . The function of nonverbal sign on color is found in red, yellow, white, and black colors that include two sign functions, namely icon-symbol-qualisign and symbol-qualisign . The function of nonverbal sign on motion is found in meaju, motaro, raego, motaro , and salonde , including one sign function, namely the rhematic symbol-iconic sinsign .This research is a descriptive qualitative research with ethnographic and interdisciplinary approaches. The research data was in the formof photo documentation and recordings and facts at the research location. The data collection activities were carried out using observation techniques, field notes, in-depth interviews, and recording/documentation. The data analysis technique used objective hermeneutics which was divided into two procedures, namely (1) series analysis and (2) detailed analysis.For the validity of the data, triangulation was carried out at each stage of the research, research tools, and clarification of research findings to informants namely the balia ritual leader and followers of the balia ritual, focus group discussions, and external auditors who knows deeply about the balia ritual. The findings of this study are the function of nonverbal signs in the Kaili ethnic balia ritual in Palu-Indonesia which is found in (1) equipment, (2) attribute, (3) instrument, (4) color, and (5) motion. Theoretically, this study strengthens pragma-semiotics because the findings of this study indicate the function of nonverbal signs in balia rituals in the context of nonverbal language. In practical terms, these findings are useful for universities related to teaching pragmatics and semiotics that develop interdisciplinary science by integrating two theories, namely pragmatics and semiotics into pragma-semiotics. Keywords : function, nonverbal signs, balia ritual, pragma-semiotics DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-24-08 Publication date: December 31 st 2020

A proposal to teach implicature to intermediate students of English

Teaching pragmatics in language learning is growing more and more relevant in order to achieve the goal that the speakers of a language can communicate effectively with both native and non-native speakers. As a result, misunderstandings when communicating will be avoided. Within pragmatics, implicature is one of the most problematic aspects for students to grasp. Besides, not being able to handle it correctly may interfere or even hinder communication. Therefore, teaching implicature effectively becomes a must for twenty-first century teachers. This means that their goal has to be to equip their students with the necessary skills they will need to manage successfully in a globalised world where English is used as a lingua franca. This paper begins by revising the main concepts about pragmatic competence, together with the most common and effective ways to teach pragmatics. Then, some possible ways to assess the acquisition of pragmatic competence, as well as a proposal to teach implicature to intermediate students of English are presented in this paper. The proposal takes as a reference the different stages, activities, kind of input, materials and ways to teach and assess implicature that have proven effective in previous research studies into this issue. The different parts of this proposal are described, as well as the materials to be used with it. They are mainly authentic input, as well as examples of the most habitual types of activities employed for this purpose. Finally, the results which are expected to be achieved through this proposal are outlined.