The Effect of Explicit Instruction on Pragmatic Competence Development; Teaching Requests to EFL Learners of English (original) (raw)
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The Assessment Tool Of L2 Learners' Pragmatic Competence: Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT)
Journal of English and Education, 2016
Research studies have shown that pragmatic competence is teachable. The importance of teaching pragmatics has also been recognized, but still foreign language teachers are reluctant to teach pragmatics in their classrooms. This might be partly due to the lack of some valid methods for assessing pragmatic competence. This essay contends that while the Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) has some pitfalls, the WDCT effectively assesses learner's pragmatic competence.
Teaching English Pragmatic Features in EFL Context: A Focus on Request Speech Acts
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2018
This study attempted to explore the possible impacts of teaching English pragmatic features to Iranian high school students' use of request speech acts. To this end, a sample of Iranian female high school students (n=50) between 12 to 18 years range of age participated in the study. The students with the same level of proficiency were assigned into two experimental and control groups. The data were collected by administering Multiple-Choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT) as both the pre and the post-tests. The pragmatic features were selected from the high school English textbooks and the excerpts taken from the Top Notch series (2A, 3A, 2B). With the focus on request speech acts, the control group received conventional instructions whereas the experimental group was exposed to the researchers' request speech act interventions. After statistical analysis of the findings, the data revealed that teaching pragmatic features has significant impact on the Iranian high school students' performance on request speech acts. Besides, the overall responses by the experimental group showed that indirect request speech acts were more widely used than direct request speech acts as the sign of social and cultural politeness.
2013
This study aims to investigate the effect of explicit and implicit instructions on developing pragmatic competence among Iranian intermediate EFL learners using speech act of complaint. To homogenize participants, Nelson (Fowler & Coe, 1976) test was administered, and a homogeneous sample comprised of 33 males and 9 females were selected from a population of 90 at the intermediate level. Then the homogenized sample was randomly assigned to two experimental groups, A and B. After that, learners were given a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) pre-test. The two groups were under the explicit and implicit instructions of the instructor, separately, at Masjed.I.Soleiman (MIS) Oil Company for 14 sessions. Having been exposed to the treatments, the two groups took a similar post-test to see whether learners learned complain strategies appropriately. The results of three t-tests indicated that there was a significant difference between the performances of both experimental groups on pre and po...
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2014
This study deals with the application of the pragmatics research to EFL teaching. The need for language learners to utilize a form of speech acts such as request which involves a series of strategies was significance of the study. Although defining different speech acts has been established since 1960s, recently there has been a shift towards empirical studies which focus on perception and production of various speech acts by EFL or ESL learners. The present article reveals the researcher's interest in a set of strategies in which native speakers of target language use for performing speech activities. The study intended to enhance EFL learners' awareness of request speech act by teaching the materials used for speech acts. To achieve the aim, the teacher used some sorts of educational activities such as teacher-fronted discussions; role plays, cooperative grouping, and other pragmatically oriented tasks were used to increase the learning of speech acts. Discourse Completion Test was developed as a pretest and posttest to measure the effects of instruction on the pragmatic awareness of the students. The results revealed a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the use of request speech act in experimental group.
Pragmatic Competence in Learner English: The Case of Jordanian EFL Learners
Theory and Practice in Language Studies
The study investigates the Jordanian EFL learners’ pragmatic competence through their production of the speech acts of responding to requests, making suggestions, making threats and expressing farewells. The sample of the study consists of 130 Jordanian EFL learners and native speakers. 2600 responses were collected through a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The findings of the study revealed that the tested students showed similarities and differences in performing the strategies of four speech acts. Differences in the students’ performances led to pragmatic failure instances. The pragmatic failure committed by students refers to lack of linguistic competence (i.e., pragmalinguistic failure), sociocultural differences and pragmatic transfer (i.e., sociopragmatic failure). EFL learners employed many mechanisms to maintain their communicative competence; the analysis of the test on speech acts showed learners’ tendency towards using particular strategies, resorting to one strategy re...
The Impact of Instruction on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners‘ Production of Requests in English
Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2010
The present study investigated the extent to which two instructional paradigms-explicit vs. implicit instruction-affect learners' ability to use the speech act of request in English. Ninety homogenous adult Iranian intermediate EFL learners attending a language school in Isfahan, Iran, were randomly assigned to three groups: Explicit Group (EG), Implicit Group (IG) and Control Group (CG)). A pre-test was given to the three groups to measure the participants' ability to use requests prior to any treatment. Then, all the groups were exposed to short conversations (audio and script) including certain requests. However, while the EG received explicit and deductive instruction by means of direct awareness-raising tasks and metapragmatic explanations, the IG was provided only with typographical enhancement of the request strategies in focus. The students in the CG did not receive any instruction. The results of the post-test, administered after the treatment, indicated that both explicit and implicit instruction exert a significant effect on the learners' production of request strategies in English. It was also found that participants who received explicit instruction outperformed those in the implicit group; however; the observed difference was not statistically significant. Accordingly, it can be claimed that an implicit and unobtrusive method such as input enhancement can be as effective as explicit instruction which requires the execution of various awareness-raising tasks and explanation of metapragmatic information. Index Terms-explicit language instruction, implicit language instruction, pragmatic development, speech acts, requests I. INTRODUCTION A few decades ago research in interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) focused mainly on the interaction norms employed in different languages and cultures. Mostly, such research aimed at comparing second language (L2) learners' speech act realization with those of native speakers (Kasper, 1989). More recently, however, research findings indicate that there are considerable differences between L2 learners and native speakers with regard to their perception and production of speech acts (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001). Accordingly, the linguistic area of pragmatics in the context of second language acquisition (SLA) has witnessed a surge of interest in studies that examine L2 learners' pragmatic competence in their interlanguage. More specifically, research in the last decade has focused on the role of instruction in pragmatic development (for reviews, see Martinez
Does Direct Instruction Develop Pragmatic Competence? Teaching Refusals to EFL Learners of English
Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2012
To achieve communicative competence, L2 learners' need to develop their pragmatic competence and this may be fostered with the help the learners receive from their teachers. This paper is an attempt to investigate the efficacy of explicit instruction of refusal at pragmatic level to four types of acts-invitations, suggestions, offers and requests. Adopting a pretest/posttest design as with treatment and control group, the two groups in this study were exposed to the treatment. Data collected by means of written Discourse Completion Test (DCT) as well as written self report suggest that the instructional approach resulted in gain in L2 pragmatic ability of the experimental group. The delayed posttest used in the study confirmed the findings. The findings may contribute to the interlanguage pragmatic pedagogy, especially in the EFL context and suggest that meta-pragmatic information the L2 learners received through pedagogy may lead to learners' L2 pragmatic development.
A Comparative Study of Pragmatic Competence of Learners with High and Low English Proficiency
This study compares the pragmatic competence in performing speech act of apologies and thanks of 16 high and 14 low English proficiency learners. A multiple-rejoinder discourse completion task (multiple-rejoinder DCT) consisting of 24 scenarios was employed for data collection. Three native English speakers rated the data based on the scoring criteria adapted from the Cohen and Olshtain Communicative Ability Scales and a modified version by Pinyo, Aksornjarung, and Laohawiriyanon, 2010. A series of t-tests revealed significant differences in the pragmatic competence performed by the two subject groups. Participants with high English proficiency showed high pragmatic ability and vice versa. Findings also suggest that linguistic competence is necessary for L2 learners in acquiring pragmatic competence.
Assessing L2 Pragmatic Development: Pragmatics SIG Forum
The JALT Pragmatics SIG Forum brought together 3 researchers who are investigating learner L2 pragmatic competence and ability through various assessment tools. This paper recounts their presentations and subsequent discussion with forum attendees. Joseph Siegel discussed the use of oral discourse completion tests and role-play tasks that he used as pragmatic assessment tools in recent research on the topic of pragmatic development during study abroad. Yusuke Okada investigated the change in a learner's participation in a peer-peer multi-party EFL speaking test comparing her first and second examination and discussed the idea of interactional competence as an assessment objective. Aki Siegel assessed one participant's word search sequences in L2 interactions outside the language classroom through conversation analysis. The forum provided insights on several methods for pragmatic assessment. A t the JALT Pragmatics SIG Forum, three speakers discussed their views, shared findings, and offered personal experiences related to pragmatic assessment and research. The first speaker, Joseph Siegel, compared the use of oral discourse completion tasks to role-play tasks as options for eliciting spoken pragmatic output. The second presenter, Yusuke Okada, examined student interactional competence in a multi-person interaction via a discursive pragmatic approach. The third speaker, Aki Siegel, detailed how word search sequence interaction changed during L2 interactions outside the classroom context. Following the three speakers, discussion with audience members provided stimulating insights into pragmatic assessment and set potential objectives for future research.
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The present study investigated the effect of pragmatic eliciting tasks on EFL pre-intermediate learners speaking proficiency. Thus this study aimed at comparing the English language learners who practiced pragmatic eliciting tasks and the ones who used traditional speaking activities such as questions and answers, discussion, etc. In doing so, 40 learners out of 80 were selected through Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) with the band score of 30 to 39. Then they were non-randomly divided into two equal experimental and control groups through convenience sampling method. Both groups took a teacher-made pre-test on speaking proficiency and the scores were recorded. The experimental group received pragmatic eliciting tasks including explicit uses of pragmatic functions of speech (i.e., greeting, thanking, etc.) while the control group received these pragmatic tasks implicitly. Finally, both groups took a posttest which was the modified pre-test. Data were analyzed through independent ...