Pragmatics in Foreign Language Contexts

EVA ALCÓN SOLER and ALICIA MARTÍNEZ-FLOR

The study of pragmatics deals with areas such as deixis, conversational implicature, presupposition and conversational structure. However, the study of second language pragmatics, also referred to as interlanguage pragmatics (ILP), focuses mainly on the investigation of speech acts, conversational structure and conversational implicature. These research topics have been addressed by comparative and acquisitional studies. While comparative studies are close to research on cross-cultural pragmatics, those conducted from an acquisitional perspective address developmental issues that affect learners' acquisition of pragmatics. In addition, interlanguage pragmatic research has traditionally divided linguistic knowledge from social knowledge. Leech (1983) and Thomas (1983) account for this fact by dividing pragmatics into two components: pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics. The former refers to the linguistic resources for conveying communicative acts and interpersonal meanings, whereas the latter refers to the social perceptions underlying participants' interpretation and performance of communicative acts. Hence, while dealing with pragmatics attention is paid to consider knowledge of the means to weaken or strengthen the force of an utterance (i.e. pragmalinguistic knowledge) and knowledge of the particular means that are likely to be most successful for a given situation (i.e. sociopragmatic knowledge).

In the field of language learning there has also been a tendency to consider Leech's (1983) and Thomas's (1983) division of pragmatics into pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics, but one has to accept that this has resulted in an unbalanced focus on the pragmalinguistic component. To date, most of the studies in the field of ILP present a partial view of learners' use of the target language, as either the sociopragmatic component is not taken into account or, when it is considered, general descriptions of the situational context are provided. From this perspective, most research studies have analysed routines and pragmalinguistic realisations (see Kasper & Rose, 2002; Rose & Kasper, 2001). Several studies exist that concentrate on request realisations (Blum-Kulka, 1991; Hassall, 1997; Li, 2000; Rose, 2000, among others), refusals (Félix-Brasdefer, 2004), compliments (Rose & Ng Kwai-fun, 2001) and apologies (Trosborg, 1995). In addition, although pragmatics has become a focus of attention in language teaching (see Bardovi-Harlig & Mahan-Taylor, 2003, among others), current proposals for pragmatic instruction are also based on routines and strategies associated to particular speech acts, such as requests (Alcón & Codina, 2002; Cook & Liddicoat, 2002; Mach & Ridder, 2003; Martínez-Flor & Usó-Juan, 2006), refusals (Kondo, 2003), complaints (Reynolds, 2003) or suggestions (Martínez-Flor & Usó-Juan, 2006).

In spite of the unbalanced focus on the pragmalinguistic component in investigating pragmatic learning, Alcón (2008) claims that when dealing with pragmatics the relationship between routines and forms of particular speech acts and the contextual factors of particular situations need to be considered. In other words, the author claims that the pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic components suggested by Leech (1983) and Thomas (1983) should be viewed in interaction, which in turn involves considering politeness as a pragmatic phenomenon. From this point of view, the performance of face-threatening acts (Brown & Levinson, 1987), the universal principle of avoiding friction in conversation (Leech, 1983) and Fraser's (1990) view of politeness as a social norm are key issues to understand why participants use particular linguistic devices, which are triggered by contextual factors. Among the contextual factors, type of interaction is one which may be reflected in language use. For instance, while in transactional discourse, such as doctor nurse interaction during an emergency, participants focus on task performance and do not need to make use of politeness strategies, in interactional discourse language also has an interpersonal function.

Bearing in mind the above theoretical insights, this chapter reviews research in the field of ILP conducted from an acquisitional perspective. First, we will define the concept of pragmatic competence, taking into account the construct of communicative competence and whether the pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic components are considered. We will then examine the two theoretical perspectives of understanding pragmatics learning (i.e. cognitive and socially oriented views). After that, three main issues addressed in ILP research, that is to say, learners' production and perception of speech acts, factors influencing pragmatic learning and the teachability of pragmatics, will be presented. Finally, we will take a critical look at some methodological issues related to investigating pragmatic learning in foreign language (FL) classrooms.

Pragmatics Within the Construct of Communicative Competence

Different scholars in the field of applied linguistics have attempted to describe the construct of communicative competence by identifying its various components, one of them being the pragmatic component. In Canale and Swain's (1980) and Canale's (1983) model, the sociolinguistic component implicitly includes pragmatics, as it refers to rules of discourse and rules of use. While in the case of rules of discourse the authors refer to cohesion and coherence, the rules of use can be seen to fit into pragmatics, that is to say, they relate to the appropriateness of...