Cover not available
Part of
Relevance Theory: Recent developments, current challenges and future directions
Edited by Manuel Padilla Cruz
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 268] 2016
► pp. 193–238

Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence

| National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The study evaluates pragmatic competence in an academic context under different conditions of treatment. Control and experimental groups are used to assess the effects of intervention and language proficiency on developing pragmatic competence. Using the relevance-theoretic framework (Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995), it will be argued that EFL learners rely on relevance-theoretic mechanisms for comprehension and search for relevance, and on epistemic vigilance for acceptance of communicated information. Editorials are used as test-beds for examining how epistemic vigilance may be exercised against the risk run by humans to be ‘accidentally or intentionally misinformed’ (Sperber et al. 2010; Wilson 2010). It is concluded that epistemic vigilance is a key mechanism to developing pragmatic competence in L2.
Keywords: epistemic vigilance, genre, implicatures, inference, metapragmatic abilities
Published online: 20 October 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.268.08ifa
References (58)
References
Al-Gahtani, Saad, and Carsten Roever. 2012. “Proficiency and Sequential Organization of L2 Requests.” Applied Linguistics 33 (1): 42–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alcón-Soler, Eva, and Maria Pilar Safont-Jordà. 2008. “Pragmatic Awareness in Second Language Acquisition.” In Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd ed. Vol. 6: Knowledge about Language, ed. by Jasone Cenoz and Nancy Hornberger, 193–204. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alcón-Soler, Eva, and Alicia Martínez-Flor (eds). 2008. Investigating Foreign Language Learning, Teaching and Testing. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Alcón-Soler, Eva, and Josep R. Guzmán-Pitarch. 2010. “The Effect of Instruction on Learners’ Pragmatic Awareness: A Focus on Refusals.” International Journal of English Studies 10 (1): 65–80.Google Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen. 1993. “Symbolic Representation and Attentional Control in Pragmatic Competence.” In Interlanguage Pragmatics, ed. by Gabriele Kasper and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 43–57. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 1994. “Analysis and Control in the Development of Second Language Proficiency.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 16: 157–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper. 1989. “Investigating Cross-cultural Pragmatics: An Introductory Overview.” In Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies [Advances in Discourse Processes 31], ed. by Shoshana Blum-Kulka, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper, 1–34. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Bouton, Lawrence F. 1994. “Conversational Ιmplicature in the Second Language: Learned Slowly When Not Deliberately Taught.” Journal of Pragmatics 22: 157–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1996. “Pragmatics and Language Learning.” In Pragmatics and Language Learning (Monograph Series Vol. 7.), ed. by Lawrence F. Bouton, 1–20. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Brown, James Dean. 2001. “Pragmatics Tests: Different Purposes, Different Tests.” In Pragmatics in Language Teaching, ed. by Kenneth Rose and Gabriele Kasper, 301–325. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Richard, and Jessica Williams. 1997. “Sentence to Ten Cents: A Case Study of Relevance and Communicative Success in Nonnative-Native Speaker Interactions in a Medical Setting.” Applied Linguistics 18 (3): 374–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Paiva, Beatriz, and Susan Foster-Cohen. 2004. “Exploring the Relationships between Theories of Second Language Acquisition and Relevance Theory.” Second Language Research 20 (3): 281–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foster-Cohen, Susan. 2000. “The Relevance of Relevance Theory to First and Second Language Acquisition.” In Selected Papers on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, ed. by Marianthi Makri-Tsilipakou, 9–23. Thessaloniki, Greece: Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.Google Scholar
. 2004. “Relevance Theory, Action Theory and Second Language Communication Strategies.” Second Language Research 20 (3): 289–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Paula. 2004a. “Pragmatic Comprehension of High and Low Level Language Learners.” Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language 8 (2): A-1. [URL] (accessed 17 September 2011).Google Scholar
. 2004b. “Developmental Differences in Speech Act Recognition: A Pragmatic Awareness Study.” Language Awareness 13 (2): 96–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgiou, George K., and Jagannath Prasad Das. 2014. “Reading Comprehension in University Students: Relevance of PASS Theory of Intelligence.” Journal of Research in Reading 37 (1): 101–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hagiwara, Akiko. 2009. “Comprehending Utterances in Japanese as a Foreign Language: Formulaicity and Literality.” In Pragmatic Competence, ed. by Naoko Taguchi, 227–248. 
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
House, Juliane, and Gabriele Kasper. 2000. “How to Remain a Non-Native Speaker.” In Kognitive Aspekte des Lehrens und Lernens von Fremdsprachen. [ Cognitive Aspects of Foreign Language Learning and Teaching ]. Festschrift für Willis J. Edmondson zum 60. Geburstag , ed. by Claudia Riemer, 101–118. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
House, Juliane. 2013. “Developing Pragmatic Competence in English as a Lingua Franca: Learning to Use Discourse Markers to Express (Inter)subjectivity and Connectivity.” Journal of Pragmatics 59 (A): 57–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ifantidou, Elly. 2011a. “Genres and Pragmatic Competence.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 327–346. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011b. Genres and Pragmatic Understanding. Athens: Patakis.Google Scholar
. 2013a. “Pragmatic Awareness: An Index of Linguistic Competence.” In Research Trends in Intercultural Pragmatics, ed. by Istvan Kecskes and Jesús Romero-Trillo, 105–144. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2013b. “Pragmatic Competence and Explicit Instruction.” Journal of Pragmatics 59 (A): 93–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ifantidou, Elly, and Angeliki Tzanne. 2012. “Levels of Pragmatic Competence in an EFL Academic Context: A Tool for Assessment.” Intercultural Pragmatics 9 (1): 47–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jeon, Eun Hee, and Tadayoshi Kaya. 2006. “Effects of L2 Instruction on Interlanguage Pragmatic Development.” In Synthesizing Research on Language Learning and Teaching, ed. by John M. Norris and Lourdes Ortega, 165–211. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kasper, Gabriele, and Richard Schmidt. 1996. “Developmental Issues in Interlanguage Pragmatics.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18: 149–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kasper, Gabriele, and Kenneth R. Rose. 2002. Pragmatic Development in a Second Language. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kubota, Mikio. 1995. “Teachability of Conversational Implicature to Japanese EFL Learners.” IRLT (Institute for Research in Language Teaching) Bulletin 9: 35–67.Google Scholar
Liszka, Sarah Ann. 2004. “Exploring the Effects of First Language Influence on Second Language Pragmatic Processes from a Syntactic Deficit Perspective.” Second Language Research 20 (3): 212–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Littlemore, Jeannette, and Graham D. Low. 2006. “Metaphoric Competence and Communicative Language Ability.” Applied Linguistics 27 (2): 268–294. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Flor, Alicia, Esther Usó-Juan, and Ana Fernández-Guerra (eds). 2003. Pragmatic Competence and Foreign Language Teaching. Castelló de la Plana: Publications de la Universitat Jaume I.Google Scholar
Martínez-Flor, Alicia, and Esther Usó-Juan. 2010. Speech Act Performance. Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Masahiro, Takimoto. 2009. “The Effects of Input-Based Tasks on the Development of Learners’ Pragmatic Proficiency.” Applied Linguistics 30 (1): 1–25.Google Scholar
Matsumura, Shoichi. 2003. “Modelling the Relationships among Interlanguage Pragmatic Development, L2 Proficiency, and Exposure to L2.” Applied Linguistics 24 (4): 465–491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Padilla Cruz, Manuel. 2013. “Metapsychological Awareness of Comprehension and Epistemic Vigilance of L2 Communication in Interlanguage Pragmatic Development.” Journal of Pragmatics 59 (A): 117–135. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roever, Carsten. 2006. “Validation of a Web-Based Test of ESL Pragmalinguistics.” Language Testing 23 (2): 229–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rose, Kenneth, and Gabriele Kasper (eds). 2001. Pragmatics in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sequeiros, Xosé Rosales. 2004. “Interpretation of Reflexive Anaphora in Second Language VP-Ellipsis: Relevance Theory and Paradigms of Explanation.” Second Language Research 20 (3): 256–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Skehan, Peter. 1998. Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1986/1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. 
Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, Fabrice Clément, Christophe Heintz, Olivier Mascaro, Hugo Mercier, Gloria Origgi, and Deirdre Wilson. 2010. “Epistemic Vigilance.” Mind and Language 25 (4): 359–393. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taguchi, Naoko. 2002. “An Application of Relevance Theory to the Analysis of L2 Interpretation Processes: The Comprehension of Indirect Replies.” International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching IRAL 40 (2): 151–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. “Task Difficulty in Oral Speech Production.” Applied Linguistics 28 (1): 113–135. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008. “The Role of Learning Environment in the Development of Pragmatic Comprehension: A Comparison of Gains between EFL and ESL Learners.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30: 423–452. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(ed). 2009. Pragmatic Competence. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Context, Individual Differences and Pragmatic Competence. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Takahashi, Satomi. 2005. “ Pragmalinguistic Awareness: Is it Related to Motivation and Proficiency?” Applied Linguistics 26: 90–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “The Effect of Pragmatic Instruction on Speech Act Performance.” In Speech Act Performance: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues, ed. by Alicia Martínez-Flor and Esther Usó-Juan, 127–142. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takahashi, Tomoko, and Leslie M. Beebe. 1993. “Cross-Linguistic Influence in the Speech Act of Correction.” In Interlanguage Pragmatics, ed. by Gabriele Kasper and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 138–158. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Jenny. 1983. “Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure.” Applied Linguistics 4: 91–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Compernolle, Rémi A., and Lawrence Williams. 2012. “Teaching, Learning, and Developing L2 French Sociolinguistic Competence: A Sociocultural Perspective.” Applied Linguistics 33 (2): 184–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vega Moreno, Rosa E. 2007. Creativity and Convention: The Pragmatics of Everyday Figurative Speech. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Vincent X. 2011. Making Requests by Chinese EFL Learners. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1985. “Different Cultures, Different Languages, Different Speech Acts: Polish vs. English.” Journal of Pragmatics 9 (2-3): 145–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre. 2010. “Understanding and Believing.” Plenary talk delivered at the 4th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication , Madrid 15–17 November.
Ying, Hong Guang. 2004. “Relevance Mapping: A Study of Second Language Learners’ Processing of Syntactically Ambiguous Sentences in English.” Second Language Research 20 (3): 232–255. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.