L2 Pragmatic Competence Research Articles

Investigating L2 Refusals: A Case Study of Chinese Native Speakers’ L2 Pragmatic Competence

The speech act the researcher studies in this paper is refusal which, according to Ellis (2008), involves high level of pragmatic competence of the speaker, especially when it is compared with other speech acts like apology and request . Refusal seems to be particularly high-demanding for L2 learners, for L2 linguistic proficiency might be the hindrance. The researcher studies on one Chinese L2 learner’s pragmatic competence by focusing on the pragmatic strategies adopted in his L2 refusals. The result of this study suggests that L2 pragmatic competence is restrained by learners’ linguistic proficiency from utilizing more effective pragmatic strategies. Both linguistic and pragmatic transfer limits Chinese L2 learners’ pragmatic behaviors. Therefore, pedagogical intervention involving pragmatic knowledge for enhancing Chinese L2 learners’ pragmatic competence is advised and it might be even more helpful to the learners if culture is covered in the intervention.

Do current EFL Coursebooks work for the Development of L2 Pragmatic Competence? The case of Suggestions

Abstract Many learners may not be aware of socially and culturally appropriate forms of the second language (L2). Therefore, students must be provided with language teaching materials that present authentic-like examples of speech act strategies to develop their pragmatic competence. The aim of this paper is to describe how the speech act of suggestion is presented in current EFL (English as a foreign language) coursebooks. In this regard, the cases of suggestions included in 8 pre-intermediate coursebooks were investigated based on the strategies of suggestions. The coursebooks were also compared according to whether they are good representatives of authentic-like materials for presenting suggestion to facilitate the development of L2 pragmatic competence.

Developing Multiple-Choice Discourse Completion Tasks as Pedagogical Materials in L2 Pragmaticserials in L2 Pragmatics

<p>This study reports the development of pragmatics teaching materials in the format of multiple-choice<br />discourse completion tasks (MDCTs) by two groups of American in-service TESOL teachers in the<br />United States. One advantage of using MDCTs as pedagogical materials in L2 pragmatics instruction<br />is that they incorporate positive (i.e., the key) and negative (i.e., the distractors) evidence, both of<br />which have been demonstrated to facilitate language learning in SLA research. The other advantage is<br />that they prepare students for multiple-choice standardized tests, which are very common in<br />test-oriented educational systems like Taiwan, China, Japan and Korea. In this study, we asked one<br />group of teachers to design MDCTs based on social appropriateness. Four months later, we asked the<br />other group of teachers to rate and comment on the content and form of the learner speech act data.<br />Each teacher was then required to construct a multiple-choice pragmatics task with a balance between<br />social appropriateness and grammatical accuracy. We close our paper by discussing the pragmatics<br />tasks created by these teachers and suggesting construction principles as a guide to teaching, learning<br />and assessing L2 pragmatic competence.</p>

The relative effects of explicit and implicit form-focused instruction on the development of L2 pragmatic competence

This study evaluates the relative effectiveness of two types of form-focused instruction on the acquisition of the speech act set of constructive criticism by sixty-nine Vietnamese learners of English. Over a 10-week course, the explicit group (N=28) participated in consciousness-raising activities, received explicit meta-pragmatic explanation and correction of errors of forms and meanings. The implicit group (N=19), on the other hand, participated in pragmalinguistic input enhancement and recast activities. The two treatment groups were compared with a control group (N=22) on pre-test and post-test performance, consisting of a discourse completion task, a role play and an oral peer-feedback task. A delayed post-test comprising of the same production tasks was also conducted for the two treatment groups to measure long term retention. The results revealed that both of the treatment groups significantly improved in the immediate post-test over the pre-test, outperforming the control group. The treatment groups also maintained their improvement in the delayed post-test. However, the explicit group performed significantly better than the implicit group on all measures. These findings are discussed with implications for classroom practices and future research.

The effects of pragmatic consciousness-raising activity on the development of pragmatic awareness and use of hearsay evidential markers for learners of Japanese as a foreign language

This study investigates the effects of pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) activities in the acquisition of pragmatic competence, focusing on hearsay evidential markers such as rashii ‘I heard that’ in Japanese. PCR is an inductive approach to facilitating awareness of how language forms are used appropriately in a given context. Schmidt (1995) has proposed in his noticing hypothesis that L2 learners must first demonstrate a conscious awareness of some particular form in the input before any subsequent processing or intake of that noticed form can take place. This study explores the question of whether awareness is necessary for L2 pragmatic learning. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test/delayed post-test format was adopted. Forty-one learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) were divided into two groups: the PCR treatment group and the control group. The tests consisted of metapragmatic knowledge tests and an oral discourse production test. In total, four treatment sessions were given to the PCR group just before the post-tests. This study showed that the PCR group performs better than the control group on both the immediate post-tests and the delayed post-tests. Through the PCR activities, JFL learners may become aware of critical differences between L1 and L2, and enhance their L2 pragmatic competence successfully.

Interlanguage pragmatic development: the relation between pragmalinguistic competence and sociopragmatic competence

The past few years saw significant advances in the field of interlanguage pragmatics development since several researchers’ call for more studies focusing on the development of pragmatic competence of second or foreign language learners. The existing literature, however, still leaves us an incomplete picture of the nature of the relation between pragmalinguistic competence and sociopragmatic competence in the development of L2 learners’ pragmatic competence, as the research findings suggest two conflicting patterns: pragmalinguistic competence precedes sociopragmatic competence and vice versa ( Rose, 2000). A review of the preceding research demonstrates contradictory views on the relation between sociopragmatic competence and pragmalinguistic competence in the development of L2 pragmatic competence and suggests the need to expand the scope of data analysis in future studies. The present study attempts to shed light on how these two aspects of pragmatic competence are related by collecting both perception and production data and extending the scope of data analysis to analyze the difference in the use of strategy, content and form across situations involving a teacher and a classmate.

Pragmatic and grammatical competence, length of residence, and overall L2 proficiency

This study examines the influence of length of residence in the target language community and overall L2 proficiency on L2 pragmatic competence with a reference to L2 grammatical competence. Participants were 126 international students in the US with two academic levels of English proficiency from 17 countries, speaking 20 languages. A questionnaire consisting of 20 scenarios was administrated to the participants measuring their pragmatic and grammatical competence. Results revealed that both length of residence and overall L2 proficiency influenced L2 pragmatics significantly with overall L2 proficiency demonstrating a stronger influence. Findings also showed that there was a strong and positive correlation between pragmatic and grammatical competence for advanced participants and all participants as a group.

THE ROLE OF COMPUTER MEDIATION IN THE INSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF L2 PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE

This article provides a selective review of the role of computer mediation in the instruction and development of second language (L2) or interlanguage pragmatic competence within foreign and second language education. Both researchers and practitioners have noted consistently that several aspects of the teaching and tutored learning of L2 pragmatics have been reported as problematic and/or underexplored in the published knowledge base to date, including the availability and authenticity of instructional materials, the provision of opportunities for the performance and practice of L2 pragmatic competence in meaningful interactions, the relative lack of developmental data documenting the precise (and varied) pathways of L2 pragmatic competence over time, and the efficacy of particular pedagogical interventions in classroom-based L2 pragmatics instruction. The role of computer mediation in each of these underexplored areas is examined with a special emphasis on the teaching and learning of L2 pragmatics in Internet-mediated partnerships and on the use of (learner) corpora in L2 pragmatics instruction and research.

Developing KFL Students’ Pragmatic Awareness of Korean Speech Acts: The Use of Discourse Completion Tasks

Teaching pragmatic competence in Korean-as-a-foreign language (KFL) settings is still an underdeveloped area, when compared to teaching other language areas, such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The first step to enhance pragmatic language teaching in foreign language (FL) education is to raise the FL instructors’ and students’ pragmatic awareness (Kasper & Rose, 2001). This paper investigates a case of raising pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic awareness of Korean speech acts to intermediate KFL students in an American university, using a discourse completion task (DCT). This study discusses how the DCT approach, as a pragmatic-consciousness-raising (PCR) technique, can assist FL instructors in developing pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic awareness of the target speech acts. The study shows that DCT provided a very practical tool for our students to recognise the pragmatic features. Conducting a survey with L1 and L2 speakers made the learning process more engaging, relevant, and interesting for most students. Although the discussion and procedures presented in this paper are from an American college-level intermediate KFL course, the cases presented may be adapted for use in any foreign language course that has struggled with teaching L2 pragmatic competence.

Language learning

Language learning

Learner Corpus Analysis and the Development of L2 Pragmatic Competence in Networked Inter-cultural Language Study: The Case of German Modal Particles

This article reports on a corpus-based, developmental pedagogical intervention for the teaching of German modal particles (MPs) in which learners examined their own emerging MP use as well as that of their native-speaking keypals in the context of electronically mediated, project-based collaboration. Individual learner development was traced micro-genetically over a period of nine weeks using Telekorp, a bilingual learner corpus with a built-in control corpus. The current study contributes to the teaching of second language (L2) pragmatics with respect to the authenticity of the interactions, the corpus-enabled nature of the intervention, the developmental scope of the data, and the potential for ‘hyper-noticing’ in Internet-mediated intercultural foreign language education.

Pragmatic development in L2 use of criticisms

This paper presents a study of the development of L2 pragmatic competence in the speech act of criticisms. Data were collected from three proficiency groups of Vietnamese foreign language learners of English via a conversation elicitation task and a written questionnaire. An interview was also conducted to probe into the learners’ pragmatic decision-making. Results show that the strongest difference among the learners lay in the area of modifiers to criticisms, rather than in the criticism strategies per se. Specifically, as the learners became more proficient in the L2, they mitigated their criticisms more often, thanks to a better control over language processing. However, they still lagged far behind the native speaker group in the frequency of their use of mitigators. These proficiency effects were explained by the EFL context, which probably did not much facilitate pragmatic development, given the learners’ insufficient exposure to the target norms.

Learner Corpus Analysis and the Development of L2 Pragmatic Competence in Networked Inter-cultural Language Study: The Case of German Modal Particles

This article reports on a corpus-based, developmental pedagogical intervention for the teaching of German modal particles (MPs) in which learners examined their own emerging MP use as well as that of their native-speaking keypals in the context of electronically mediated, project-based collaboration. Individual learner development was traced micro-genetically over a period of nine weeks using Telekorp, a bilingual learner corpus with a built-in control corpus. The current study contributes to the teaching of second language (L2) pragmatics with respect to the authenticity of the interactions, the corpus-enabled nature of the intervention, the developmental scope of the data, and the potential for ‘hyper-noticing’ in Internet-mediated intercultural foreign language education.

Machiko Achiba, Learning to request in a second language: A study of child interlanguage pragmatics. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2003. Pp. xii, 223. HB £42.95/US $69.95/Can $99.95.

The question of “how second languages are learned” (Gass & Selinker 1994:1) is central to second language acquisition (SLA) research; however, although a number of longitudinal studies have been carried out examining second language (L2) grammatical development, very little attention has been devoted to L2 learners' development of pragmatic competence over time. As Achiba points out, the majority of previous studies on L2 (or interlanguage) pragmatics have observed the single-moment pragmatic realization of a group of L2 learners with similar proficiency levels and compared it with that of native speakers or L2 learners with different proficiency levels or first language (L1) backgrounds. The current paucity of knowledge regarding the developmental aspect of L2 pragmatic competence has led to calls for detailed longitudinal interlanguage pragmatic studies (cf. Kasper & Schmidt 1996, Kasper & Rose 1999). Achiba's study, which carefully observes the pragmatic development in English requestive realization of a seven-year-old Japanese girl over a period of 17 months, certainly meets these essential needs.

Interlanguage Pragmatics : Syntactic and Lexical Downgrading in Request Realization by Japanese EFL Learners

This study examines the use of syntactic and lexical downgraders by Japanese EFL learners in order to mitigate requests in high imposition situations to listeners of higher status. The relationships between learners' use of syntactic and lexical downgraders, and their grammatical competence and time spent in an English-speaking environment, were analyzed. Their request realizations were also compared with those of Native Speakers. In general the learners demonstrated the ability to use appropriate syntactical downgrading but an inability to use appropriate lexical downgrading. Reasons for this are discussed along with suggestions as to how instruction could have a more positive effect on the acquisition of forms of mitigation. INTRODU CTION This study investigates the extent to which Japanese EFL learners use syntactic and lexical downgrading in polite, high imposition requests, as compared to native speakers of English. Various studies have examined the use of internal and external mitigation of speech acts (Faerch & Kasper 1989; Trosberg 1995; Hassall 2001). However, there appear to be fewer studies which look in more detail at high-imposition requests and compare the respective use of syntactic and lexical downgrading. This study also examines the relationship between learners' pragmatic competence and (1) their grammatical competence and (2) time spent in an English-speaking country. Studies have been undertaken comparing the pragmatic competence of EFL and ESL learners (Bardovi-Harlig & Dornyei, 1998; Niezgoda & Rover, 2001). In contrast, this study compares the pragmatic competence of EFL learners with varying lengths of time spent in an Englishspeaking environment, and seeks to shed light on the matter of whether L2 exposure is more effective for pragmatic development than improving grammatical competence. It is the aim of this study that, by focusing in detail on microlinguistic aspects of speech act production, it will be possible to see more clearly those aspects of speech act production which learners acquire more easily, and those which cause more difficulty. Furthermore, it should be possible to see more clearly which factors are most effective in the enhancement of L2 pragmatic competence. BACKGROUND Speech Acts Study into the second language learning and acquisition of the pragmatics of speech acts has developed strongly over the past two decades. Seminal works in this field include: Blum Kulka, House & Kasper (1989) and Kasper & Blum-Kulka (1993). A large number of studies have been undertaken into a variety of speech acts, with the strongest focus on requests and apologies. This research has led to questions concerning what factors lead to the successful production of speech acts in the L2. Studies have been conducted in the area of instruction in pragmatics (Rose & Kasper, 2001). The relationship between pragmatic competence and grammatical competence has also been examined (Bardovi-Harlig & Dornyei, 1998; Niezgoda & Rover, 2001) with the conclusion that there is no clear relationship between them. A further area of study has been the difference in pragmatic awareness between ESL and EFL learners. Bardovi-Harlig & Dornyei (1998) concluded that ESL learners tend to have a more developed pragmatic awareness. However,

The Cross-linguistic Development of Address Form Use in Telecollaborative Language Learning: Two Case Studies

In this paper we explore the influences of the telecollaborative learning environment on the development of L2 pragmatic competence in foreign language learning from a sociocultural perspective (Lantolf, 2000). Typically, telecollaboration involves the application of global computer networks in foreign language study (e.g., Warschauer, 1996) for the purposes of linguistic development and intercultural learning. In particular, we focus on the ‘microgenesis’ or development of the T/V distinction in pronouns of address as a test case representative of broader L2 pragmatic concerns. We present two detailed case studies of this phenomenon: one for French (tu vs. vous) and one for German (du vs. Sie). The rationale for this type of analysis emerges from Vygotsky's developmental approach to cognition (1978) where it is emphasized that development can only be understood by specifying its history. We argue that, in contrast to the traditional language classroom, the telecollaborative language class provides the learner with increased opportunities for social interaction with native-speaking peers and, thus, with a wider range of discourse options (Kramsch, 1985a) for the disambiguation of the numerous sociopragmatic meanings of the pronouns of address in French and German.

The Role of an Interactive Book Reading Program in the Development of Second Language Pragmatic Competence

The development of pragmatic competence in another language is significant to second (L2) and foreign language (FL) learners’ ability to communicate successfully in the target language. Although a great deal of research has focused on defining and comparing the content of pragmatic competence across culture groups, far less attention has been given to examining its development. Our study is a partial response to this gap. The purpose of the study was to investigate the connection between Korean children's participation in an interactive book reading program and their development of pragmatic competence in English. We found that their participation led to significant changes over a 4–month period in the mean number of words, utterances, and talk management features as measured by the changes in children's use of these during role play sessions. The findings suggest that participation in such reading programs provides opportunities for the development of at least some aspects of L2 pragmatic competence.