Profiling Pragmatic Ability of Foreign Language Learners

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Profiling Pragmatic Ability of Foreign Language
Learners

• Marija Kusevska, Biljana Ivanovska, Nina
  Daskalovska Liljana Mitkovska Goce Delcev
  University-Stip, Republic of Macedonia

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Project title

• The role of explicit instruction in developing
  pragmatic competence in learning English and
  German as a foreign language
• Goce Delcev University-Stip, Republic of
  Macedonia

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Aims of the project

• 1. to research how explicit instructions
  influence the development of pragmatic competence
  in foreign language learning and
• 2. to investigate the role of the Internet as a
  platform for foreign language learning.

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Focal points of the project

• comparison of the realization of the speech acts
  of requesting, apologizing and complaining in
  Macedonian and in English, i.e German
• realization of the above speech acts in the
  interlanguage of English and German language
  learners in Macedonia
• definition of the reasons that bring about
  pragmatic failure by foreign language learners
• the role of explicit instructions in the
  development of the pragmatic competence of
  English and German foreign language learners
• the role of the Internet as a medium for learning
  foreign languages.

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Project phases

• Phase 1. Review of existing research Design of
  appropriate instruments for pragmatic competence
  assessment Selection of English and German
  language students who will be participating in
  the project and administration of the instruments
  for profiling students pragmatic competence
• Phase 2. Definition of the pragmatic features to
  be observed Design of e-learning modules
  Introducing student-participants to the project
• Phase 3. Definition of the instruments for
  evaluation of the effects of the explicit
  instructions
• Phase 4. Dissemination of the results (monograph
  and conference).

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Motivation

• lack of valid data on communicative competences
  of Macedonian learners of English and German
• lack of syllabi focusing on teaching
  communicative competences
• need of tracing effective methods for reinforcing
  communication skills

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Defining learners pragmatic ability or
interlanguage pragmatics

• Pragmatics is the study of language from the
  point of view of users, especially of the choices
  they make, the constraints they encounter in
  using language in social interaction and the
  effects their use of language has on other
  participants in the act of communication.
  (Crystal, 1985 240)
• Pragmatic failure (Thomas, 1983) could occur when
  learners misunderstand what a speaker of a TL
  says, and/or when they produce inappropriate
  expressions that do not meet the TL pragmatics or
  cultural norms.

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What learners should know

• Sociopragmatic knowledge refers to the specific
  local conditions on language use for it is
  clear that the Cooperative Principle and the
  Politeness Principle operate variably in
  different cultures or language communities, in
  different social situations, among different
  social classes, etc. (Leech 1983 10).
• - This means knowledge of the context,
  recognition and production of illocutionary
  meaning, distribution of politeness strategies,
  the speaker-hearer relashionships, formality of
  the situation, social values and cultural
  beliefs, etc.

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• Pragmalinguistic knowledge, on the other hand,
  refers to the particular linguistic resources
  which a given language provides for conveying
  particular illocutions.
• - This means knowledge of socially appropriate
  language use with respect to the sociopragmatic
  variables.

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What abilities do learners have to acquire in
order to become pragmatically competent

• The ability to perform speech acts
• The ability to convey and interpret non-literal
  meanings
• The ability to perform politeness functions
• The ability to perform discourse functions
• The ability to use cultural knowledge

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Instruments for assessing interlanguage pragmatic
ability

1. define instruments for measuring pragmatic
   competence,
2. context variables, i.e. the setting in which the
   speech act takes place, the interlocutors and
   their relationship, etc.
3. the importance of authenticity, and
4. the importance of retrospection

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• The responses will be analysed for
• (1) ability to use the correct speech act
• (2) typicality of expressions
• (3) appropriateness of amount of speech and
  information given
• (4) level of formality
• (5) directness and
• (6) politeness.

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Discourse Completion Test

• requests, apologies and complaints
• six tasks for each speech acts 18 tasks
• contextual setting, participants role, social
  status (vertical distance/power), social distance
  (horizontal distance), severity of offence/degree
  of imposition
• piloting the DCT
• 134 students

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Situation Contextual setting social status/ vertical distance/ power Social distance/ horizontal distance Severity of offence
Apologies
1. Library book medium
2. Borrowed book high
3. Baggage reclaim - medium/low
4. Shopping bag - high
5. Appointment - - high/low - cultural
6. Term paper - - high
Requests power/ social status social distance degree of imposition
1. Project high for the speaker/ medium for the hearer
2. Invitation -/ high for the speaker/ medium for the hearer
3. Ride - medium for the speaker/ high for the heare
4. Lighter - low
5. Notes - - medium
6. Down payment - - high
Complaints power social distance Severity of offence
1. Wrong mark high
2. Wrong medicine high
3. Noisy party - medium
4. Cut in line - low
5. Late pick up - - medium
6. Dent - - high
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Role plays

• are more similar to real life speech situations
• as in real conversation there is a distributed
  responsibility among interlocutors for the
  creation of sequential coherence, identities,
  meaning, and events. (McNamara, p 46)
• the situation is described in more detail, roles
  are described more precisely, there is a moment
  of surprise
• there is language planning, asking for
  clarification, conversation management, etc.

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• Still, it cannot establish context as in real
  world. There is nothing at stake, the face of the
  speaker and the hearer is not really threatened,
  speakers may be bolder and risk more than in real
  life.
• 9 role plays, three for each of the speech acts
• same variables as in DCT tasks

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Drawbacks

• It is more difficult to organize it and manage
  the whole situation. It is difficult to keep
  track of a large number of students.
• It is difficult to ensure that pairs are formed
  of students of the same level of proficiency.
• It is time consuming and it is difficult to
  transcribe the conversations.
• For most of the students it is an interesting
  experience. However, for some students it may be
  stressful.

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Retrospective interview

• To check if the students are aware of the norms
  of interaction in a given context power, social
  distance and severity of offence/degree of
  imposition
• To check if the students are aware of the
  characteristics/norms of interaction of the
  English and Macedonian culture (positive
  politeness/ negative politeness directness/
  indirectness)
• To check how the actual environment influences
  their behavior (classroom, not natural
  environment)

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Verbal reports from raters-native speakers

• collecting verbal report from the raters
• to check native-speakers expectations in the
  given situations and if this coincides with
  learners production
• to check how native speakers would react to
  learners utterances
• to receive some guidance from native speakers on
  how they think our learners should improve their
  communication skills

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Issues often investigated in interlanguage
pragmatics

• Misunderstandings between speakers
• L1 pragmatic transfer
• Participating in a conversation as a listener
  (backchannelling)
• Understanding the unsaid and assessing the unsaid
  
• Avoiding a speech act to accommodate a target
  culture norm
• Nonverbal behaviour
• Relationship between language proficiency and
  pragmatic competence

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What learners should know about speech acts

• speech acts are what we do with words to achieve
  a specific goal request, invite, refuse,
  apologize, complement, complain, agree, disagree,
  etc. Ss need to be able to formulate speech acts
  appropriately with respect to who the speakers
  and hearers are, the context, the seriousness of
  the offence, urgency, etc., as well as to combine
  speech acts into speech act sets
• to apply the politeness principles in their L2 as
  well as to vary their strategies for speech act
  realization with reference to their
  interlocutors, the social distance between them
  and the context.

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• to be able to recognize their interlocutors
  indirect strategies and decode the implicit
  meaning of their utterances
• to be able to apply the appropriate linguistic
  means in accordance with the socicultural norms