L2 Pragmatics Research Articles

Validity argument for assessing L2 pragmatics in interaction using mixed methods

This study investigates the validity of assessing L2 pragmatics in interaction using mixed methods, focusing on the evaluation inference. Open role-plays that are meaningful and relevant to the stakeholders in an English for Academic Purposes context were developed for classroom assessment. For meaningful score interpretations and accurate evaluations of interaction-involved pragmatic performances, interaction-sensitive data-driven rating criteria were developed, based on the qualitative analyses of examinees’ role-play performances. The conversation analysis performed on the data revealed various pragmatic and interactional features indicative of differing levels of pragmatic competence in interaction. The FACETS analysis indicated that the role-plays stably differentiated between the varying degrees of the 102 examinees’ pragmatic abilities. The raters showed internal consistency despite their differing degrees of severity. Stable fit statistics and distinct difficulties were reported within each of the interaction-sensitive rating criteria.The findings served as backing for the evaluation inference in the validity argument. Finally, implications of the findings in operationalizing interaction-involved language performances and developing rating criteria are discussed.

Operationalizing conversation in studies of instructional effect in L2 pragmatics

Abstract This paper examines how conversation is operationalized in studies that investigate the effect of instruction on L2 pragmatics. This survey of 81 instructional effect studies published from 2000 to 2013 considers the operationalization of conversation at three points in the design of such studies: the task(s) used for evaluation, the input used as models, and the activities used for practice. The findings suggest that how conversation is operationalized is a variable that should be taken into account to better understand the range of outcomes reported by studies of how instruction affects development of L2 pragmatics.

Using film to provide a context for teaching L2 pragmatics

This qualitative study examines the pragmatic tools that first-year learners of German from two intact classes have at their disposal at the beginning and at the end of an eight-week period. The control ( n = 15) and treatment groups ( n = 22) watched a feature film, The Edukators, as part of the study. The control group answered comprehension questions based on the film, while the treatment group completed tasks focused on pragmatics, using the film as context-rich scaffolding for analyzing authentic, discourse-length language. The pre- and post-tests were administered eight weeks apart and elicited dialogs based on interactions in the film. Learners' metapragmatic reflections were also analyzed. The data suggests that participants in the treatment group were better able to vary their responses to reflect relationships between interactants or the purpose of the exchange, utilizing the social context portrayed in the film and explicit pragmatic instruction. Their ability to express pragmatic variability, albeit with limited linguistic tools, has implications for understanding beginning language learners' pragmatic abilities and for the possibilities of using films for teaching pragmatics in foreign language contexts, where other types of authentic input may be scarce.

Individual Variation in L2 Study-Abroad Outcomes: A Case Study from Indonesian Pragmatics

Abstract This is a study of two Australian learners of Indonesian during a short stay abroad. It examines their contrasting success in acquiring L2 address terms, in tandem with their contrasting experiences of the L2 culture setting. It thereby helps explain the persistent finding of great individual variation in L2 gains – and in particular pragmatic gains – during study abroad. The study shows that the contrasting success of these two learners is linked to their L2 identity development. At the same time, it dispels a simplistic view of the relationship between identity development and pragmatic development, by showing that their language outcomes emerge through a highly contingent process. The study also helps us understand how certain specific factors can influence learning of L2 pragmatics during study abroad, such as low initial proficiency, prior foreign language learning experience, timing of formal instruction, and the presence of peer L2 learners during naturalistic interactions.

Individual Variation in L2 Study-Abroad Outcomes: A Case Study from Indonesian Pragmatics

AbstractThis is a study of two Australian learners of Indonesian during a short stay abroad. It examines their contrasting success in acquiring L2 address terms, in tandem with their contrasting experiences of the L2 culture setting. It thereby helps explain the persistent finding of great individual variation in L2 gains – and in particular pragmatic gains – during study abroad. The study shows that the contrasting success of these two learners is linked to their L2 identity development. At the same time, it dispels a simplistic view of the relationship between identity development and pragmatic development, by showing that their language outcomes emerge through a highly contingent process. The study also helps us understand how certain specific factors can influence learning of L2 pragmatics during study abroad, such as low initial proficiency, prior foreign language learning experience, timing of formal instruction, and the presence of peer L2 learners during naturalistic interactions.

Using conversation tasks and retrospective methodology to investigate L2 pragmatics development: the case of EFL criticisms and responses to criticisms

Data collection methods constitute a major area of concern in interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) research, since there is no easy way to collect the type of data that is relatively ‘naturalistic’ while at the same time allowing for researcher control. Further, current ILP research also suffers from the shortage of studies making use of self-report data to understand how L2 learners plan and execute their speech act behaviour. This article discusses the advantages of an innovative method devised for collecting naturalistic data on ‘institutional’ criticisms and responses to criticisms in the L2 in a controlled manner. The article also addresses the potential of retrospective interviews in researching interlanguage (IL) pragmatic knowledge and issues involved in pragmatic decision-making, especially when used alongside the performance data. This article is grounded on data from 4 hours of recordings of 72 peer-feedback conversations by 36 EFL learners and 8 hours of recordings of 36 retrospective interviews with these learners.

Connecting production to judgments: T/V address forms and the L2 identities of intermediate Spanish learners

This study investigates the L2 identities of native English-speaking intermediate-level Spanish learners by combining two methods, production and metapragmatic judgments, and focusing on T/V address forms (tú and usted). Twelve intermediate-level Spanish learners interacted with Spanish speakers in oral role-play scenarios designed to elicit different address forms. Learners answered a questionnaire one week later about desired address form use in various interactional scenarios (which were matched with role-play scenarios). An analysis of questionnaire judgments revealed that these learners were both cognizant of the second-order indexical potential of T/V address forms and determined to utilize this indexical potential to construct notions of their desired L2 identities. Conversely, learners’ address-form production exhibited an overgeneralization of T, a result that starkly contrasts with the overgeneralization of V found in previous studies. Whereas some learners failed to consistently produce their desired address forms, compromising their selfconstructed ideal L2 identities, others showed an adeptness at matching their production to their judgments. I thus suggest that future research on L2 pragmatics and L2 identity move beyond a focus on L2 pragmatic competence and toward a consideration of learners’ indexical awareness and agency.

Learner background factors and learning of second language pragmatics

AbstractLearner background factors have been shown to affect learning of L2 pragmatics, which has been demonstrated especially for proficiency and length of residence. However, these factors have generally been investigated individually, not allowing conclusions as to their relative contributions. In this study, we use Poisson regression to investigate the effect of proficiency, length of residence, gender and multilingualism on learners' comprehension of implicature, recognition of routine formulae and production of speech acts in English. 229 ESL and EFL learners completed a web-based pragmatics test with 12 items per section. We found that only proficiency significantly affected implicature comprehension, length of residence and proficiency were significant factors in the recognition of routine formulae, and proficiency and gender significantly impacted speech act production. Although the effect of proficiency in our study is far greater than for any other background factor, we caution against overemphasizing its importance to learning of pragmatics overall.

Pragmatic Knowledge and Ability in the Applied Linguistics and Second Language Assessment Literature: A Review

Almost forty years after Stalnaker’s (1974) initial call for “the development and application of a pragmatic theory in which detailed explanations of phenomena relating to linguistic contexts can be given” (p. 214), a unifying construct definition and theory still does not exist to explain fully pragmatic knowledge and ability (Roever, 2011, 2013). Given that test validity and reliability are crucial concerns in the field of second language (L2) assessment, it is important that we try to develop a more comprehensive theoretical construct, so that tests of pragmatic ability will have more construct validity, better represent the target language use (TLU) domain of the test construct, and thus have results that are hopefully more generalizable and useful to stakeholders. This paper presents a brief review of the extensive pragmatics literature and examines how the construct of pragmatic knowledge and ability has been operationalized from the perspective of theoretical and applied linguists. The paper presents (1) an introduction to the theoretical foundations of pragmatics, (2) a brief survey of applied empirical studies in L2 pragmatics, and (3) an overview of how the L2 assessment field has conceptualized pragmatic knowledge and ability, looking also at the various theoretical frameworks that have been proposed and utilized. Validation studies for the assessment models, although scarce, are discussed where appropriate. Lastly, some general ideas and suggestions are offered to help lead us towards a unifying construct definition of pragmatic knowledge and ability.

Awareness of meaning of conventional expressions in second-language pragmatics

This study explores L2 learners’ awareness of meaning of L2 conventional expressions and the effect of form-meaning associations on the use of the expressions in L2 pragmatics. Definitions and examples were elicited through an aural Vocabulary Knowledge Scale modified for expressions. Elicited definitions were used to explore the meanings that learners assign to conventional expressions and learners’ examples were used to investigate the use to which they put them in conversation. One hundred and thirteen learners participated in a 22-item task in which all conventional expressions were presented aurally. Learner awareness of the meaning of conventional expressions seems likely to play a role in whether learners use an expression, and which expression among related expressions they use to the exclusion of others. Moreover, plausible meanings may be gradually associated with a conventional expression and refined rather than acquired at the same time as the form of the expression.

Metapsychological awareness of comprehension and epistemic vigilance of L2 communication in interlanguage pragmatic development

L2 learners may make interpretive mistakes at both the explicit and the implicit levels of communication. They may not construct the right lower- or higher-level explicatures, turn explicatures into unintended implicatures, miss implicit contents or recover alternative implicatures. Defective mastery of the L2 code, lack of the necessary pragmalinguistic and/or sociopragmatic knowledge, and selection of an inadequate processing strategy may cause learners to arrive at unintended interpretations, which may accidentally appear relevant or irrelevant. If they behave as naïvely optimistic hearers and trust unintended interpretations, they could end up making wrong attributions of beliefs and intentions. Therefore, this paper argues that instruction in L2 pragmatics should develop a necessary meta-psychological awareness of comprehension as a way to develop or fine-tune learners’ epistemic vigilance (Mascaro and Sperber, 2009; Sperber et al., 2010) of the reliability of the interpretive routes they follow and the believability of the interpretations they arrive at. It also claims that epistemic vigilance is essential when comprehension skills are underdeveloped or not as sophisticated as those of natives, since it may trigger a more sophisticated processing strategy that enables hearers to avoid or overcome misunderstandings, namely cautious optimism.

Pragmatic development during short-term study abroad: The case of address terms in Indonesian

The study examines the development of knowledge about Indonesian address terms by Australian study-abroad participants during a short summer course. It uses a multi-method approach, combining written pre- and post-tests, elicitation of oral comments on written test responses, regular interviews and regular diary-keeping tasks. The learners rapidly acquired new address terms for the vocative slot. However they developed only modest knowledge about terms for the pronoun slot, and showed low concern for conforming to those L2 norms. The study shows that substantial L2 pragmatics can be acquired during even short periods of study abroad. It shows how processes such as transfer of training and L1 transfer can work together to impede pragmatic development, and shows that study-abroad participants will often lack access to systematic efforts to socialize them regarding L2 pragmatic norms, and that a highly salient identity as a foreigner in the L2 culture setting can constrain study-abroad participants from adopting L2 pragmatic norms.

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 Differential Effects of Explicit and Implicit Instruction on EFL Learners' Use of Epistemic Stance

This study investigated the immediate and long-term effects of explicit and implicit classroom interventions on L2 pragmatics. The linguistic focus of the interventions was epistemic stance, which has rarely been studied in research on instructed SLA within the field of interlanguage pragmatics. Eighty-one learners of English at a Japanese university were divided into explicit (n = 37) and implicit (n = 44) groups for 3 hours of instruction. Written production data were collected before the interventions, immediately after them, and five months later. Learners' use of epistemic stance forms was analysed by using: (i) a measure of individual use of epistemic stance forms; and (ii) learner corpus analysis. The explicit intervention was found to be considerably more effective than the implicit intervention in both the short- and long-term for most of the targeted forms. However, in cases when learners lacked a form for a specific function before the intervention, both types of instruction appeared to be equally effective. While this research generally provides strong support for explicit instruction, the potential of implicit interventions for certain forms needs further investigation.

Interlanguage Pragmatics in SLA

Interlanguage Pragmatics has gained more attention among Pragmatics researchers. This paper reviews the recent researches on Interlanguage pragmatics in Second Language Acquisition, and selects the research which focuses on learning process. It presents them into four groups: cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, research about pragmatic transfer, and instructed learning of L2 pragmatics. And it puts forward some research questions for further study, which may lead the researchers to obtain more practical information for promoting L2 pragmatics.

Compliment Response Strategies by Thai and Chinese EFL Teachers: A Contrastive Study

This study investigated compliment responses (CRs) by Thai and Chinese EFL teachers. The data were collected through the written discourse test (DCT) in English, containing four settings in terms of appearance, character, ability and possession. A total of 60 Thai and Chinese EFL teachers participated in the study. The results revealed that more similarities were observed than differences in CR strategies used by Thai and Chinese EFL teachers. The teachers from the two countries followed the same patterns of preferences: that is, they employed Accept strategies the most and Reject strategies the least. However, Accept strategies and Evade strategies used by Chinese participants were slightly more frequent than those used by Thais, whereas Thai teachers employed more Reject strategies than Chinese teachers did. In the four situations, some differences existed between the two groups. Chinese teachers employed more varieties of micro strategies than their Thai counterparts did. Interestingly, Thai and Chinese EFL teachers transferred their native cultures in L1 to L2 in some situations. The findings suggested that EFL teachers’ awareness regarding their L2 pragmatics should be improved.

High-level requests: A study of long residency L2 users of English and French and native speakers

With few exceptions the field of L2 pragmatics has focussed on intermediate and advanced learners and there is little knowledge to date regarding highly proficient, immersed L2 speakers’ pragmatic performance. This study concerns L2 speakers having been immersed culturally and professionally for a considerable length of time. Our focus is on-line production of the request sequence by Swedish speakers of L2 English and L2 French having lived and worked approximately 10years in the L2 country against matched native controls. The task is a role play between an employee and her/his boss implying high demands on the pragmatic knowledge of the participants. Our main results indicate that both groups of L2 users significantly underuse lexical and syntactic downgraders. It is argued in this paper that this underuse is not due to a lack of pragmalinguistic resources, i.e., they use the same types as the native speakers, but is of a socio-pragmatic nature, i.e., they do not downgrade to the same extent. Furthermore, L2 users significantly underuse ‘situation-bound’ routinized formulaic sequences for expressing the Head act. This result, in contrast, points to a lack of pragmalinguistic resources.

The effect of instruction on conventional expressions in L2 pragmatics

This study investigates the effects of instruction (input plus focused metapragmatic noticing) on the oral production of conventional expressions, particularly those conventional expressions which perform specific pragmatic functions in English. Using a pre-test–instruction–post-test design we tested 36 university-level students in six intact intensive English classes in order to determine whether guided metapragmatic noticing activities help learners increase oral production of targeted conventional expressions and whether such gains (if they are realized) can be generalized to other conventional expressions. Students were divided into two groups of three classes each; the two groups received instruction on a different set of expressions. Results showed that both instructional groups showed significant gains on one set of conventional expressions but not another, suggesting that learning conventional expressions is sensitive to instruction but also constrained by the transparency of the expression and the learners’ level of linguistic development.

Humor Scholarship and TESOL: Applying Findings and Establishing a Research Agenda

Research in the areas of second language (L2) pragmatics and of conversational humor has increased in recent decades, resulting in a strong base of knowledge from which applied linguists can draw information for teaching purposes and undertake future research. Yet, whereas empirical findings in L2 pragmatics are beginning to find their way into textbooks, recommendations and activities, intended to integrate humor into the L2 classroom with the goal of increasing learners' proficiency in the use and understanding of L2 humor, remain based on intuition alone. Despite parallel developments in L2 pragmatics and humor studies, the two areas of scholarship have largely ignored each other, with humor scholars focusing mainly on native language uses of humor, and applied linguists avoiding the study of humor by L2 users. The purpose of this article is to bring these two fields together by outlining some major linguistic and sociolinguistic findings of humor scholarship, discussing how these understandings might help us integrate humor into the L2 classroom in a principled manner, and suggesting directions for future research on humor and L2 learners.

Teaching Pragmatics: Trends and Issues

Theoretical, empirical, and practical interest in pragmatic competence and development for second language (L2) learners has resulted in a large body of literature on teaching L2 pragmatics. This body of literature has diverged into two major domains: (a) a group of experimental studies directly testing the efficacy of various instructional methods in pragmatics learning and (b) research that explores optimal instructional practice and resources for pragmatic development in formal classroom settings. This article reviews literature in these two domains and aims at providing a collective view of the available options for pragmatics teaching and the ways that pragmatic development can best be promoted in the classroom. In the area of instructional intervention, this article reviews studies under the common theoretical second language acquisition paradigms of explicit versus implicit instruction, input processing instruction, and skill acquisition and practice. In the area of classroom practice and resources, three domains of research and pedagogical practices are reviewed: material development and teacher education, learner strategies and autonomous learning, and incidental pragmatics learning in the classroom. Finally, this article discusses unique challenges and opportunities that have been embraced by pragmatics teaching in the current era of poststructuralism and multiculturalism.