The impact of pragmatic consciousness-raising tasks on EFL learners’ speech act strategy use
Although there are growing attempts to equip learners with strategies in the ESL/EFL classroom, there has not been much
effort to implement strategies to assist learners in the learning of speech acts (e.g.,
Cohen &
Ishihara, 2005). This study investigated the impact and effectiveness of instruction on EFL learners’ use of speech act strategies.
A group of 131 Iranian undergraduate students were instructed through deductive consciousness-raising (C-R), inductive C-R, and L1-based C-R
tasks for seven weeks. The results obtained through
Cohen and Ishihara’s (2005) speech act
strategy inventory indicated that instruction had a significant impact on participants’ utilization of speech act strategies. It also came
to light that the learners were generally receptive to deductive and L1-based pragmatic C-R tasks. The findings suggest that pragmatic C-R
tasks and especially L1-based tasks are effective means for applying strategies to supporting learners in the acquisition of speech acts.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1Consciousness-raising tasks
- 2.2L1-based consciousness-raising tasks
- 2.3Speech act strategies
- 2.4Requesting
- 2.5The present study
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Instruments
- 3.3Treatment materials
- 3.4Data collection procedures
- 3.5Data analysis
- 4.Results
- 4.1Research question #1
- 4.2Research question #2
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1Suggestions for further research
- 5.2Pedagogical implications
- 6.Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
-
References
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