Chapter published in:

Task-Based Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Pragmatics
Edited by Naoko Taguchi and YouJin Kim
[Task-Based Language Teaching 10] 2018
► pp. 138–157

Chapter 6. Developing pragmatic competence through tasks in EFL contexts

Does proficiency play a role?

Mayya Levkina | University of Barcelona

Although task-based language teaching, on the one hand, and teaching pragmatics on the other, are not considered to be new trends anymore, there is still a gap in the research regarding how pragmatic features can be taught using a task-based approach. To fill the gap, the present study examines whether speech acts of apology, justification, and thanking are teachable through tasks in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. The study further investigates the role of L2 proficiency in the development of pragmatic awareness. The participants are 38 third-year university students in Spain who are enrolled in English for the Media course with two different levels of proficiency in English (B1 and C1 on the CEFR). The experiment consists of a pretest involving e-mail writing tasks and a posttest. Pretest/posttest tasks are analysed by rating the appropriateness of speech acts of apology, justification, and thanking on a six-point appropriateness scale and on grammar scales. Results display some positive effects of the task-based instruction on the learning of pragmatics in both proficiency groups. However, the results of the posttests for the grammar scales and the overall gains did not correlate with the proficiency scores, which suggests that L2 development of pragmatics cannot be fully attributed to L2 learners’ proficiency.

Published online: 15 August 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.10.06lev

References

Alcón, E.

(2005) Does instruction work for learning pragmatics in the EFL context? System 33(3), 417–435.

Aston, G.

(1995) Say ‘thank you’: some pragmatic constraints in conversational closings. Applied Linguistics, 16, 57–86.

Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S.

(1996) Language testing in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baralt, M., Gilabert, R., & Robinson, P.

(Eds.) (2014) Task sequencing and instructed second language learning. London: Bloomsbury.

Bardovi-Harlig, K.

(1999) Exploring the interlanguage of interlanguage pragmatics: a research agenda for acquisitional pragmatics. Language Learning, 49, 677–713.

Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Bastos, T.

(2011) Proficiency, length of stay, and intensity of interaction and the acquisition of conventional expressions in L2 pragmatics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 8(3), 347–384.

Bergman, M. L., & Kasper, G.

(1993) Perception and performance in native and nonnative apology. In G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 82–107). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Blum-Kulka, S., & Olshtain, E.

(1984) Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics, 5(3), 196–212.

Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G.

(Eds.) (1989) Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Celaya, M. L., & Barón, J.

(2015) The interface between grammar and pragmatics in EFL measurement and development. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 3(2), 181–203.

Cohen, A.

(1994) Assessing language ability in the classroom. Rowley, MS: Newbury House.

Cohen, A., & Olshtain, E.

(1994) Researching the production of second-language speech acts. In E. E. Tarone, S. M. Gass, & A. D. Cohen (Eds.), Research methodology in second-language acquisition (pp. 143–156). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Colston, H. L.

(2002) Pragmatic justifications for nonliteral gratitude acknowledgements: Oh sure, any time. Metaphor and Symbol, 17, 205–226.

Coulmas, F.

(1981) “Poison to your soul”: Thanks and apologies contrastively viewed. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine: Explorations in standardized communication situations and prepatterned speech (pp. 69–91). The Hague: Mouton.

Council of Europe E.C.

(2001) Common European framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dörnyei, Z., & Skehan, P.

(2003) Individual differences in second language learning. In C. J. Doughty, & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 589–630). Oxford: Blackwell.

Economidou-Kogetsidis, M.

(2011) “Please answer me as soon as possible”: Pragmatic failure in non-native speakers’ e-mail requests to faculty. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(13), 3193–3215.

Foster, P., & Skehan, P.

(2008) The influence of source of planning and focus of planning on task-based performance. Language Teaching Research, 3(3), 215–247.

Gilabert, R.

(2005) Task complexity and L2 oral narrative production. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Barcelona.

Gilabert, R., Manchón, R., & Vasylets, O.

(2016) Mode in theoretical and empirical TBLT research: advancing research agendas. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 117–135.

Hickey, L.

(1991) Comparatively polite people in Spain and Britain. Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies, 4, 2–6.

Holmes, J.

(1993) New Zealand women are good to talk to: An analysis of politeness strategies in interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 20(2), 91–116.

Housen, A., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I.

(Eds.) (2012) Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kasper, G., & Rose, K. R.

(1999) Pragmatics and SLA. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 19, 81–104.

(2002) Pragmatic development in a second language. Oxford: Blackwell.

Kim, Y., & Taguchi, N.

(2015) Promoting task-based pragmatics instruction in EFL classroom contexts: The role of task complexity. Modern Language Journal, 99, 656–677.

(2016) Learner-learner interaction during collaborative pragmatic tasks: The role of cognitive and pragmatic task demands. Foreign Language Annals, 49, 42–57.

King, B. W., & Holmes, J.

(2014) Gender and pragmatics. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (1–6). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.

Kuiken, F., Mos, M. & Vedder, I.

(2005) Cognitive task complexity and second language written performance. In S. Foster-Cohen, M. P. García-Mayo, & J. Cenoz (Eds.), EUROSLA Yearbook (Vol. 5) (pp. 195–222). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I.

(2007a) Cognitive task complexity and linguistics performance in French L2 writing. In M. P. García Mayo (Ed.), Investigating tasks in formal language learning (pp.117–135). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

(2007b) Cognitive task complexity and written output in Italian and French as a foreign language. Journal of Second Language Writing, 17(1), 48–60.

Lakoff, R.

(1975) Language and woman’s place. New York, NY: Harper and Row.

Levkina, M., & Gilabert, R.

(2014) Task sequencing in the L2 development of spatial expressions. In M. Baralt, R. Gilabert, & P. Robinson (Eds.), Task sequencing and instructed second language learning (pp. 37–71). London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Lambert, C., & Robinson, P.

(2014) Learning to perform narrative tasks: A semester-long classroom study of L2 task sequencing effects. In M. Baralt, R. Gilabert, & P. Robinson (Eds.), Task sequencing and instructed second language learning (pp. 207–230). London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Long, M. H.

(1985) A role for instruction in second language acquisition: Task-based language training. In K. Hyltenstam & M. Pienemann (Eds.), Modelling and assessing second language acquisition (pp. 77–99). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Malicka, A., & Levkina, M.

(2012) Measuring task complexity. Does EFL proficiency matter? In A. Shehadeh & C. Coombe (Eds.), Task-based language teaching in foreign language contexts. Research and implementation (pp. 43–66). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Martínez-Flor, A., & Fukuya, Y. J.

(2005) The effects of instruction on learner’s production of appropriate and accurate suggestions. System, 33(3), 463–480.

Michel, M. C., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I.

(2007) The influence of complexity in monologic versus dialogic tasks in Dutch L2. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 45(3), 241–259.

North, B.

(2000) The development of a common framework scale of language proficiency. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Nunan, D.

(2004) Task-based language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A. D.

(1983) Apology: A speech-act set. In N. Wolfson & E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 18–35). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

(1990) The learning of complex speech act behavior. TESL Canada Journal, 7, 45–65.

Ortega, L.

(2003) Syntactic complexity measures and their relationship to L2 proficiency: A research synthesis of college-level L2 writing. Applied Linguistics, 24(4), 492–518.

Révész, A., Sachs, R., & Hama, M.

(2014) The effects of task complexity and input frequency on the acquisition of the past counterfactual construction through recasts. Language Learning, 64, 615–650.

Robinson, P.

(2001) Task complexity, task difficulty, and task production: Exploring interactions in a componential framework. Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 27–57.

(2010) Situating and distributing cognition across task demands: The SSARC model of pedagogic task sequencing. In M. Putz & L. Sicola (Eds.), Cognitive processing in second language acquisition: Inside the learner’s mind (pp. 243–268). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Roever, C.

(2009) Teaching and testing pragmatics. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 560–577). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Rose, K. R.

(1992) Speech acts and questionnaires: The effect of hearer response. Journal of Pragmatics, 17(1), 49–62.

(2000) An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 27–67.

(2005) On the effects of instruction in second language pragmatics. System, 33(3), 385–399.

Rose, K. R., & Ng, C.

(2001) Inductive and deductive teaching of compliments and compliments responses. In K. R. Rose & G. Kasper (Eds.), Pragmatics in language teaching (pp. 145–170). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Safont, M. P.

(2003) Instructional effects on the use of request acts modification devices by EFL learners. In A. Martínerz-Flor, E. Usó Juan, & A. Fernández Guerra (Eds.), Pragmatic competence and foreign language teaching (pp. 211–232). Castellón de la Plana, Spain: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I.

Schmidt, R.

(2001) Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3–32). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Searle, J. R.

(1969) Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Skehan, P.

(2008) Individual differences in second language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13(2), 275–298.

Spada, N.

(1986) The interaction between types of contact and types on instruction: Some effects on the second language proficiency of adult learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 8(2), 181–199.

Taguchi, N.

(2006) Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English. Pragmatics, 16, 513–535.

(2007) Task difficulty in oral speech act production. Applied Linguistics, 28, 113–135.

(2011) Teaching pragmatics: Trends and issues. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 289–310.

(2015) Instructed pragmatics at a glance: Where instructional studies were, are, and should be going. State-of-the-art article. Language Teaching, 48, 1–50.

Takahashi, S.

(2005) Pragmalinguistic awareness: Is it related to motivation and proficiency? Applied Linguistics, 26, 90–120.

(2010) Assessing learnability in second language pragmatics. In A. Trosborg (Ed.), Pragmatics across languages and cultures (Handbooks of pragmatics, Vol. 7, pp. 391–421). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

(2013) Awareness and learning in second language pragmatics. Language, Culture and Communication, 5, 53–76.

Takimoto, M.

(2008) The effect of deductive and inductive instruction on the development of language learners’ pragmatic Competence. The Modern Language Journal, 92(3), 369–386.

Trosborg, A.

(1995) Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints and apologies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Trosborg, A., & Shaw, P.

(2008) Deductive and inductive methods in the teaching of business pragmatics: Not an ‘either/or’! In R. Geluykens & B. Kraft (Eds.), Institutional discourse in cross-cultural contexts (pp. 193–220). Munich: Lincom.

Watts, R.

(2003) Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Winke, P. M.

(2007) The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29(1), 143–144.

Xiao, F.

(2015) Proficiency effect on L2 pragmatic competence. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 5(4), 557–581.

Cited by

Cited by other publications

Fakher Ajabshir, Zahra

2020. The relative efficacy of input enhancement, input flooding, and output-based instructional approaches in the acquisition of L2 request modifiers. Language Teaching Research ► pp. 136216881989665 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 february 2020. 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.