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This study sets out to examine the pragmatic competence of Cantonese adult learners of English possessing different levels of proficiency when performing the speech act of requesting for a formal purpose in writing. Pragmatic judgment - one of the two aspects of pragmatic competence - was examined by studying the most proficient group (i.e., native Cantonese-speaking EFL teachers at university), whereas pragmatic performance - the other aspect of pragmatic competence - was examined by studying the two weaker groups (i.e., university students at two language proficient levels). Both pragmatic judgment and pragmatic performance were examined by investigating the same four dependent variables (i.e., politeness, directness, formality and amount of information). Teacher data, collected through a Pragmatic Judgment Questionnaire completed and returned by sixteen EFL teachers (eight native Cantonese speakers and eight native English speakers) and by means of individual interviews, were analyzed quantitatively for responses to twelve questions and qualitatively for responses to an additional two questions. Student data, consisting of both experimental and authentic letters and e-mails, were analyzed quantitatively. -- Main research findings suggest: *It is possible for very proficient NNSs of English, (i.e., the EFL teachers in this study), to achieve native-like pragmatic judgments in most aspects, except for their views on several pragmatic considerations (i.e., "unnaturally polite" expressions, usefulness of "negative" words, supportive moves not to be used and writing plans preferred). *As the English proficiency of L2 learners improves from Grade E to Grade A/B (as determined by the Hong Kong A-level Examinations in the subject "Use of English"), their pragmatic performance shows improvement. -- For pedagogical reasons, a qualitative analysis was conducted for Questions 1 and 2 in order to generate examples of "unnaturally polite"/ "polite" / "impolite" expressions and to provide examples of inappropriate supportive moves in relation to three writing topics.
The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Individual Differences provides a thorough, in-depth discussion of the theory, research, and pedagogy pertaining to the role individual difference (ID) factors play in second language acquisition (SLA). It goes beyond the traditional repertoire and includes 32 chapters covering a full spectrum of topics on learners’ cognitive, conative, affective, and demographic/sociocultural variation. The volume examines IDs from two perspectives: one is how each ID variable is associated with learning behaviors, processes, and outcomes; the other is how each domain of SLA, such as vocabulary or reading, is affected by clusters of ID variables. The volume also includes a section on the common methods used in ID research, including data elicitation instruments such as surveys, interviews, and psychometric testing, as well as methods of data analysis such as structural equation modeling. The book is a must-read for any second language researcher or applied linguist interested in investigating the effects of IDs on language learning, and for any educator interested in taking account of learners’ individual differences to maximize the effects of second language instruction.
The book Effects and Implications of Pragmatic Competence for Enhancing EFL University Students Written Performance highlights the effects and implications of the Kurd EFL students lack of pragmatic competence on their written performance. It includes with the written performance of the students at the recognition level and the production level, and relies on the results achieved from its instruments: the students test, the students questionnaire, and the lecturers questionnaire. Depending on the results obtained from the tools, the study tries to identify and find out the sources of errors in the written performance of the Kurd EFL university students. The book hypothesizes that the inadequacy of the students written performance could be attributed to the curricula and/or the students dependence on the grammatical aspects of the foreign language neglecting the pragmatic and the socio-cultural dimensions. This gives turn to state that the students written performance is better at the recognition level than the production due to the negative interference of their mother tongue. The book concludes that Kurd EFL learners at the university level face serious difficulties when writing in English. The inappropriateness of their written performance can be attributed to the negative effects of their first language, lack of contact with English native speakers and culture as well as the limited opportunities to have been in English speaking communities. Therefore, for enhancing EFL university students written performance, it is recommended that they should be introduced to the English culture through adding pragmatics and English Culture as two separate subject matters to the curricula, and to arrange summer courses for the students in English speaking countries, UK and US in particular.
The way language is acquired and learnt has for long been an intriguing issue in social science. This question has attracted researchers from a variety of disciplines and people from different theoretical persuasion and predilections. The process of second language acquisition is yet another of area that is worthy of investigation, given to the agglomerate of the issues that this process engenders to second language learners (L2, henceforth). Of interest to the present study is the way this process jointly interacts with a number of factors, most important of which is the learner’s mother tongue. In this regard, a question of considerable interest is whether or not a learner’s first language affects the process of second language acquisition, in such a way that this interference may either help ease or thwart the developmental path of the learning process. Another interesting query concerns the extent of which formal education reduces or helps circumvent this interference. On this view, the present study sets as its research goals the objectives of providing an investigation of the issue of pragmatic transfer from L1 into the Interlanguage of Moroccan learners of English, namely when these learners make requests in English. More specifically, this study will seek to compare the average frequencies of direct and indirect strategies used by both native Moroccan English as a foreign language learners and native speakers of English. Finally, this study will further attempt to explore whether transfer decreases as the study level increases, namely the case of the Moroccan EFL university learners at the first and the third level of university.
Email has become a ubiquitous medium of communication. It is used amongst people from the same speech community, but also between people from different language and cultural backgrounds. When people communicate, they tend to follow rules of speaking in their native language, termed by scholars as pragmatic transfer, which may cause misunderstandings and lead to cross-cultural communication breakdown. This book examines pragmatic transfer by Chinese learners of English at different proficiency levels when writing email requests and refusals. To meet the need for developmental research in L2 pragmatics, it also explores whether pragmatic transfer increases or decreases as language proficiency improves. This book will appeal to researchers and students in interlanguage and intercultural pragmatics, second language acquisition, English as a second/foreign language, and intercultural communication.
The challenges that EFL learners, teachers and teacher educators are facing today have increased considerably with the comparatively new role of English as the lingua franca of the modern world. For both learners and teachers, responding to these new demands involves mastering a broader set of communication skills and a wider range of competencies in English, L2 pragmatic competence being only one of them, albeit an extremely significant one. With this in mind, Politeness through the Prism of Requests, Apologies and Refusals explores various aspects of Serbian EFL learners’ (future EFL teachers’) pragmatic knowledge and metapragmatic awareness, both as elements of their communicative competence and as tools they can use to support their own students’ L2 pragmatic development. In addition to examining the language strategies they resort to in different communicative contexts and the reasoning behind their speech act strategy choice, this book also investigates the use of intonation to express and interpret pragmatic meanings. As one of the first steps towards assembling the complex jigsaw puzzle representing the pragmatic competence of Serbian learners of English, the book will be of considerable interest to researchers investigating aspects of L2 pragmatics in the speech of EFL learners, especially those with Slavic L1 backgrounds. Additionally, in offering an insight into the numerous challenges that future language professionals, including EFL teachers, face in the process of mastering L2 speech acts, the book will also be relevant to university EFL lecturers and teacher trainers.
Written by an international team of experts, this groundbreaking book explores the benefits and challenges of developing pragmatic competence in English as a target language, inside and outside the classroom, and among young and adult learners. The chapters present a range of first language contexts, including China, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico and Norway, to provide international perspectives on how different first languages present varying challenges for developing pragmatic awareness. The book outlines cutting-edge techniques for investigating spoken and written pragmatic competence, and offers practical teaching solutions, both face-to-face and online. It also examines underexplored areas of L2 pragmatics research, such as young learner groups, the effects of textbook materials, study abroad contexts and technology-mediated instruction and assessment. Innovative and comprehensive, this volume is a unique contribution to the field of L2 pragmatics, and will be essential reading for researchers, course developers, language teachers and students.
Requests, a speech act people frequently use to perform everyday social interactions, have attracted particular attenTION IN Politeness theories, pragmatics, and second language acquisition. This book looks at request behaviours in a significant EFL population - Chinese speaking learners of English. It will draw on recent literature, such as politeness theories and cognitive models for interlanguage pragmatics development, as well as placing special emphasis on situational context and formulaic language to provide a more fine-grained investigation. A rnage of request scenarios has been specifically designed for this project, from common service encounters to highly face-threatening situations such as borrowing money and asking a favour of police officer. Our findings on Chinese-style pragmatic behaviours and patterns of pragmatic development will be of value to cross-cultural pragmatics researchers, TESOL professionals, and university students with an interest in this area of study.
Pragmatics Pedagogy in English as an International Language aims to bring to light L2 pragmatics instruction and assessment in relation to English as an International Language (EIL). The chapters in this book deal with a range of pedagogically related topics, including the historical interface between L2 pragmatics and EIL, reconceptualization of pragmatic competence in EIL, intercultural dimension of pragmatics pedagogy in EIL, teacher pragmatic awareness of instruction in the context of EIL, pragmatics of politeness in EIL, pragmatic teaching materials for EIL pedagogy, teachers’ and scholars’ perceptions of pragmatics pedagogy in EIL, assessment and assessment criteria in EIL-aware pragmatics, and methods for research into pragmatics in EIL. This book is different from other books about both EIL pedagogy and pragmatics pedagogy. Exploring the interface between different dimensions of pragmatics pedagogy and EIL, it suggests instructional and assessment tasks for EIL-aware pedagogy and directions for research on EIL-based pragmatics pedagogy. Pragmatics Pedagogy in English as an International Language will be useful for a range of readers who have an interest in the pragmatics instruction and assessment of EIL as well as those whose main area of specialization is EIL but would like to know how EIL, with its rich conceptual and empirical background, can go beyond linguistic instruction to embrace the instruction of pragmatic competence.
This dissertation investigates the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic competence in the classroom setting, and specifically in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. In particular, we examine the effects of instruction on learners pragmatic development of a specific speech act, that of suggestions, with the goal of expanding the range of learning targets addressed in pragmatic interventional studies (Kasper and Rose, 2002). Apart from dealing with instructional effects, we also take into account the need to investigate various types of instruction in order to ascertain their effectiveness (Kasper and Rose, 2002). In this way, we analyse two different treatments (i.e. explicit and implicit) that have been operationalised on the basis of the principles underlying the paradigms of Focus on FormS and Focus on Form (Long, 1991, 1996, 1998; Doughty and Williams, 1998; Long and Robinson, 1998; Doughty, 2001). The aim of comparing both teaching approaches is to determine whether the two treatments are equally effective in developing learners pragmatic competence regarding their production, awareness and confidence when judging the appropriateness of suggestions in different situations. Additionally, we are also concerned with issues related to research methodology and, bearing in mind findings from studies that observed task effects between oral and written production tasks (Houck and Gass, 1996; Sasaki, 1998; Safont, 2001), we have compared our learners performance when making suggestions in two different tasks: an oral production task (i.e. phone messages) and a written production task (i.e. email). The results of the investigation indicate that, in comparison to the control group, both the explicit and implicit groups improved their pragmatic competence regarding their production, awareness and confidence when judging the appropriateness of suggestions in different situations. Moreover, comparing the explicit and implicit groups performanc.