Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates differences in L1 and L2 Grade 12 learners' interpretation of an English literary text. In particular, the research focuses on pragmatic features of the text, or features which require knowledge of the cultural and situational context in order to be understood. It is hypothesised from the outset that L1 learners will be more adept at interpreting the pragmatic features of the text since L2 learners may lack the necessary linguistic and cultural knowledge needed to derive meaning from an English literary text. The research takes the form of a qualitative study in which data was derived from ten participants in the form of a standardised test and semi-structured interviews. The test was based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and aimed to determine learners' textual and pragmatic competence through a series of questions. Semi-structured interviews then followed in order to investigate the students' own reasons for shortcomings in the test. In addition, the research draws on theories put forth by Brown and Levinson (1978) and Sperber and Wilson (2005) regarding “pragmatic competence”, Hymes‟ (1972) notion of "communicative competence‟, as well as research into how narratives are embedded into cultural mores, customs and norms. These concepts and ideas were incorporated into the research so far as they could assist in articulating the reasons for shortcomings in the literacy test. The two methods of data collection and subsequent analysis generated significant information which was then correlated. First, the L1 learners outperformed their L2 peers in the literary test, both in terms of understanding the literary elements and in terms of understanding the cultural and contextual elements of the text. Second, the semi-structured interviews revealed two contrasting methods of language socialisation pertaining to the learners: while the L1 learners acquired English through direct methods and were found to engage more with English literary texts in the home, the L2 learners generally revealed that English was not practised outside of the classroom and engagement with English or English texts was not explicitly encouraged in the home. The study reveals that inadequate exposure to a language not only affects text-comprehension on a grammatical level, but prevents the learner from engaging with and understanding critical pragmatic elements of the literary text such as idioms, metaphors and other cultural references.

Ce travail s’inscrit dans la lignée des recherches portant sur la professionnalité des enseignants. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à l’activité langagière des débutants. L’hypothèse centrale est qu’il est possible d’identifier, au sein du discours des enseignants en interaction avec leurs élèves, des indices de leur développement professionnel. Le cadre théorique croise les apports de la didactique professionnelle avec ceux de la pragmatique du langage et de la théorie interactionniste linguistique. Replacé dans un contexte didactique, nous envisageons le langage comme premier instrument stratégique pour enseigner et nous nous situons dans une approche instrumentée de l’activité enseignante. Nous avons mené une enquête ergonomique auprès de trois néo-titulaires, à partir de vidéos réalisées au cours de séances de mathématiques et d’entretiens d’auto-confrontation. Les interactions langagières entre les enseignantes et leurs élèves ont été analysées quantitativement et qualitativement, en relation avec l’identification de fonctions pédago-didactiques. Les résultats caractérisent des savoir-agir-langagiers-professionnels, révélateurs de la professionnalité et du développement professionnel de chacune des enseignantes enquêtées. / This work takes place within a line of research regarding teachers’ professionalism. We are looking particularly at the language activity of beginners. The central hypothesis is that it is possible to identify, within teachers’ conversations as they interact with pupils, clues regarding their professional development. The theoretical framework links the contributions made by professional didactics with those of language pragmatic and interactional linguistic theory. Set within a didactical context, we consider language as the first strategical tool to teach and we are placed within an approach orchestrated by teacher activity. We lead an ergonomic investigation alongside three newly qualified teachers, from videos shot during mathematics lessons and from self- confrontation interviews. Language interactions between teachers and their students have been analysed qualitatively and quantitatively, in relation with the identification of pedago-didactic functions. Results highlight professional language know-hows, revealing of the professionalism and the professional development of each of the teachers investigated.

The focus of dissertation belongs to the field of learning Czech as a foreign language and deals with the acquisition of pragmatic competence of non-native speakers. Whereas this is a broad area, the work concentrates on speech act request. The aim is to describe how two students of Czech acquired the speech act during a one-year intensive course. The theoretical background is given in Chapter I. The term Interlanguage Pragmatics is introduced to Czech readers. The Chapter further maps what the pragmatic research of non- native speakers generally deals with and what questions it asks. Attention is paid to possible methods for collecting data for research of pragmatic competence, what kinds of errors non- native speakers usually make, what environment is suitable for the acquisition of pragmatic competence or how individual differences among students affects pragmatic competence. In the second chapter attention is paid to speech act request. We present an overview of major longitudinal studies. On the bass of this longitudinal research it was found that students of English go through five stages of development when acquiring request. The stages are presented here in detail. In the research part of the dissertation the investigation of how two non-native speakers (a student from Taiwan and a student...