Studies on the incidence of socio-pragmatic competence in the teaching of mother tongues are very scarce. The aims of this qualitative study are two folded: First, we want to describe the teachers’ use of socio-pragmatics in the subject of Spanish as a mother tongue. In addition, we want to determine the degree of use of socio-pragmatics u in this specific subject. a mixed method was applied. The results were obtained by means of aclassroom’sssemi structuredsIt was assumed that there would be a sociopragmatic approach in the teaching of mother languages but it was found to be different in each class and it depended on the teachers’ academic training and on the teaching materials, which do not always met the requirements of the subject’s curriculum. The present study assumes that there is a big difference between what appears in the curricular plan and what happens inside the classroom. Sociopragmatic aspects are not sufficiently reflected in the pedagogical practice due to two main reasons: on the one hand, internal and external factors that affect teaching negatively; and, on the other, the fact that teachers are not sufficiently acquainted with socio-pragmatic views. The results show that in all classes the teaching of socio-pragmatic aspects works although mostly intuitively. The degree of employment of socio-pragmatics is different depending on the knowledge that the teacher has about socio-pragmatic competence. Finally, yet importantly, it was found that various internal and external factors affect mother tongue teachers. These factors have a big impact on the properly development of the subject and, specifically, on the teaching of socio-pragmatic competence.

Taking a social constructionist perspective, this dissertation explores politeness-as-practice (Eelen, 2001) of L2 English speakers in intercultural communication encounters. The study is situated within the English as an International Language (EIL) paradigm which suggests that pragmatic norms in interaction between EIL speakers are dynamic and flexible, and therefore, instead of measuring EIL speakers' success in interaction against a "native-speaker" norm, the research should focus on how speakers themselves define and (co-)construct pragmatic norms and successful interaction (e.g., House, 2003a; McKay, 2009). The view of politeness taken in this study is based on postmodern approaches to politeness, which submit that politeness is dynamic and that the politeness meanings of particular strategies, utterances, and linguistic forms are assigned to them by participants within an interaction. Data were collected through background questionnaires, written questionnaires in the form of critical incidents, and semi-structured informal interviews. The data were analyzed qualitatively, relying primarily on discourse analysis complemented by the theories of "third place", facework, and politeness. The results of this study offer insights into the nature of pragmatic competence in EIL, the processes of the development of such competence, and challenges that L2 English speakers face in this process. Specifically, this study investigates how L2 speakers of English conceptualize politeness, the hybrid and dynamic nature of their pragmatic competence in general and politeness-in-practice in particular, and the interrelationship between politeness and other factors that determine the speakers' pragmatic choices in situations that have potential for misunderstanding, conflict, and face loss. This dissertation contributes to the theory and research in the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), EIL, Intercultural Communication, Interlanguage Pragmatics and Politeness by providing insights into the pragmatic competence and politeness of L2 English speakers. This work deepens the body of scholarship in these fields in that it provides the speakers' own perspectives on the processes of their pragmatic competence development and their concepts of politeness. It is also hoped that insights provided by this study will benefit English language teachers who aim to develop intercultural communicative competence in their classrooms.

本研究主要探討台灣學生英語的拒絕語言行為(refusal speech act)與美國學生之異同，並探討社會地位高低及啟始行為(initiating acts)兩個變數對語言行為之影響。此外在拒絕時,所使用的句法修飾(syntactic mitigation)及詞彙修飾(lexical mitigation)之類型與頻率,其所用的句型是否與美國學生不同, 以進一步探究學習者母語對其中介語(interlanguage)是否有負面移轉作用。 本研究採用質性及量化研究方法，研究對象為40位以中文為母語的大學學生, 40位英語為母語的美國大學學生,及40位學習英語為外語的大學學生, 各組男女各半。研究工具為言談填充測驗(Discourse Completion Test), 包含12個不同情境(4個請求, 4個建議, 4個邀請),藉此問卷收集受試者語言行為之表現。 本研究的主要發現如下：間接拒絕策略是最常被三組學生使用的拒絕行為。其次,社會地位高低及啟始行為(initiating acts)兩個變數下對三組學生語言行為有不同影響, 而以後者影響尤鉅。除此之外, 台灣學生的英語中介語的語用能力,不僅反映在句法修飾及詞彙修飾兩方面, 同時在直接拒絕行為也與美國大學學生有顯著差異。本文進一步發現學習者母語對拒絕行為之影響, 拒絕之語序及直接與間接拒絕策略的負面移轉作用。本論文並提出教學上之應用建議，讓學生英語學習更有成效。 / Refusals can be regarded as a pragmatic universal, but refusal performance varies with cultures and is constrained by factors like status and initiating acts. However, the relative weight of these factors placed on each type of refusal strategy varies from culture to culture, or even within the same speech community due to intra-lingual variations (Blum-Kulka, 1987). In order to find out the complexity of cross-cultural differences in the realization of this face-threatening act, we investigated refusal speech acts performed by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, EFL learners and native speakers of American English with the variation of social status and initiating acts. In addition, we compared EFL learners and Americans on linguistic structures including common directive forms, syntactic and lexical refusal mitigation as well as types of errors in the interlanguage of refusals. We also observed evidence of negative pragmatic transfer in EFL learners’ performance in three main categories of refusal strategies and refusal sequences, and tried to explain the causes of the transfer. Three groups of subjects participated in this study: 40 native speakers of American English (NE), 40 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese (NC), 40 Chinese EFL low-intermediate proficiency learners. They were asked to react by writing in the format of discourse completion task (DCT), which consisted of scripted dialogues with the manipulation of the interlocutors’ social status and initiating acts. The results were coded based on the taxonomy developed by Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz (1990), and were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results showed that indirect refusals were the most frequently used main strategy type in the three groups examined. The effect of social status and initiating acts affected the three groups’ performance to a different degree; initiating acts seemed to be a more decisive force in influencing groups’ refusal behaviors. In terms of refusal mitigation, we have found that significantly more syntactic mitigation like interrogatives, conditionals, conditional clause, etc. were employed by Americans to soften the force of refusals. However, similar to the findings in Chen (2006), EFL learners mainly limited their use of modality in their refusals on types of deontic and epistemic modalities whereas Americans were more flexible in using different kinds with the variation of context. Generally, EFL learners’ refusal performance exhibited deviations from native speakers’ norms. Therefore pedagogical implications were suggested which included that teachers should build up EFL learners’ linguistic knowledge, teacher-fronted talk can be supplemented by additional activities that broaden the range of speech acts and provide a broader opportunities for learners. Also, instructors should provide contextual information regarding the similarities and/or differences between L1 and the target language under the influence of social status. Types of initiating act should be included in EFL teaching so that students’ awareness of these social constraints could be activated and they can integrate such information to facilitate their interlanguage system.

This study investigates the refusal realizations of native speakers of American English (AE), Turkish (TUR) and Turkish learners of English with advanced level of proficiency (TRE). It aims to uncover the refusal strategies of young AE, TUR and TRE in conversations between equals and also to uncover if the learners display pragmatic transfer in their refusal strategies. In addition to this, the extent to which the social variables of level of closeness and refusal eliciting acts affect the refusal productions of each group is pursued. The thesis also aimed to provide an explanation for the rapport management orientations of the three examined groups when refusing equal-status interlocutors. To this end, the data are collected from three different groups using a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), which is developed out of the situations in a TV Serial. The analysis of data is done manually and each refusal is coded. CLAN CHILDES is utilized in order to see the typical combinations of refusal semantic formulae used by three groups. Later, PASW is used to run descriptive statistics and calculate the frequency and percentages of refusal strategies/semantic formulae. The results of the study show that refusals and rapport management orientations while refusing status equal interlocutors are culture and situation specific and they differ both cross-culturally and intra-culturally. Research findings also reveal that TRE often produce pragmatically appropriate refusals because refusal strategies they use correspond to those of AE. However, there are some cases in which the evidence of pragmatic transfer are observed with respect to the frequency of certain semantic formula usages.

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.

Office hour interactions at universities are one type of communicative activity in which international instructors and their Turkish EFL students are involved as a form of academic or institutional discourse (Drew & Heritage, 1992). In such real world communication, both parties employ several linguistic strategies and attend to various interactional goals to address the academic concerns at hand (Chiang, 2011; Chiang & Mi, 2008; Limberg, 2007; 2010; Reindhart, 2010; Skyrme, 2010). Embracing a discourse analytic approach, this study investigated the primary functions and topics of office hour interactions; discourse organization of office hour interactions with regard to the features of participants’ contributions (e.g. turn-taking and turn length, verbosity or dominance, etc.); suggestion-response episodes; and successful and problematic aspects in office hour interactions. The study utilized the theoretical framework of relational work. Thirty-eight office hour interactions constituted the primary data source. The participants included 3 international instructors and their 34 Turkish EFL students. Post-interaction questionnaires and classroom observations served as secondary data sources in the study. The data analysis demonstrated that office hour interactions have various purposes and topics mostly related to the course content offered by the instructors, their expertise, and their experiences. Additionally, both parties co-constructed the discourse segments of equal and unequal contribution in which they achieved interactional and transactional goals using distinctive linguistic and discourse strategies. The co-constructed suggestion-response episodes included both instructor-initiated suggestions and students’ self-suggestory acts. The use of modals and semi-modals, imperatives, and interrogatives played a key role in instructor-initiated suggestions, whereas the students mostly relied on interrogatives. However, each party made their choices relying on the interactional goals they wished to accomplish through the use of suggestion forms. Finally, both the international instructors and their Turkish EFL students attended to different types of relational work that contributed to the successful and problematic aspects of office hour interactions, and that were mostly connected to suggestions.

(in English): This thesis focuses on pragmatic competence of Czech students of Japanese, specifically on the speech act of refusal. The aim is to find out how students differ in comparison to native speakers of Japanese. Another aim is to compare Japanese students based on the length of their stay in Japan, their Japanese proficiency, and the textbook used at the beginner level. The theoretical part describes pragmatic competence, politeness theory, the speech act of refusal and its specifics in Japanese. The practical part focuses at the analysis of refusals from the Discourse Completion Task (DCT) using semantic formulas. Usage of these formulas by native speakers and student are then compared. Found differences from the native speakers are further examined among students according to Japanese proficiency, length of their stay in Japan and textbook used at the begginer level. Finally, the results are summarized.

This essay investigates nine upper secondary English teachers’ awareness, beliefs and practices when dealing with pragmatics in the EFL classroom in relation to the intercultural dimensions of the subject. The study was conducted using a phenomenological approach where nine semi-structured interviews with upper secondary English teachers were conducted. The results showed that the teachers displayed a high level of awareness of pragmatics, especially when provided with propositions of pragmatic input based on formulations from the syllabi. In addition, the results showed that teachers incorporate pragmatics in their teaching as a way of enabling metacognitive conversations about language in order for the students to understand why certain phrases or words are deemed more appropriate than others. Consequently, the question of why speakers communicate the way that they do not only seems to be of interest to scholars but for teachers and students as well. In relation to the teachers’ perception of the intercultural dimensions of the English subject, all the participating teachers perceived it to be an important part of the subject, while also shedding light on current issues relating to monocultural teaching groups, filter bubbles and the rise of difficult conversations. The results also showed that using the students’ first languages was an important tool for teachers to understand and scaffold students in their learning of English. One conclusion drawn based on the results was that incorporating pragmatics in the EFL classroom not only seems to benefit language development, but it may also act as a facilitator when developing an understanding of other people.

The purpose of this paper was to review research within the field of digital games and language learning to explore whether gaming can facilitate communicative competence and foster motivation for language learning. To answer my questions I conducted a research synthesis, compiling a variety of research over the last decade to answer my questions as effectively as possible. Results showed that digital games do in fact facilitate language development and induce motivation. Research also showed that different games provide different opportunities and activities, resulting in some games fostering language competence more than others. For instance, World of Warcraft provided social situations where conversations were erratic, spontaneous, contextual and driven by small events in the game, while The Sims focused more on strategic and creative activities. Additionally, research suggested that digital games motivated learners to develop their L2 language in hope of achieving more goals together within a variety games and game types.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching should not only aim at providing learners with the linguistic resources to communicate in English, but also develop learners’ pragmatic competence in order for them to be able to use language efficiently and appropriately for different purposes. The present study examines what pragmatic input learners receive from two Swedish EFL textbook series regarding the speech act of request. The analysis was conducted by identifying all instances of requests and all metapragmatic information about the specific speech act. In addition, the present study also focused on finding exercises that provide learners with the opportunity to practice making requests. The findings show that the two examined EFL textbook series differ in terms of which directness levels are most frequently used, and both series lack explicit information about requests that may increase students' understanding of this speech act. Moreover, request exercises are few and practicing requests is rarely the main learning objective. Consequently, teachers will need to use supplemental material and exercises in order for learners to develop their pragmatic competence in the case of requests. / Engelskundervisning bör inte bara syfta till att ge elever de språkliga resurser som krävs för att kommunicera på engelska, utan även utveckla elevernas pragmatiska kompetens så att de lär sig att använda språket effektivt och lämpligt för olika ändamål. Det som undersöks i den här studien är i vilken utsträckning språkhandlingen uppmaning förekommer och lärs ut i två olika läromedel i engelska för högstadiet. Analysen utfördes genom att identifiera alla exempel av uppmaningar och all metapragmatisk information om den specifika språkhandlingen. Utöver detta fokuserade den här studien även på att hitta övningsuppgifter som ger eleverna möjlighet att öva på språkhandlingen uppmaning. Resultaten visar att de två läromedlen skiljer sig åt vad gäller fördelningen av direkta och indirekta uppmaningar. Dessutom saknar båda läromedlen explicit information som kan öka elevers förståelse för denna språkhandling. Övningsuppgifterna är få och fokuserar inte på att utveckla elevers förmåga att formulera uppmaningar i första hand. Följaktligen behöver lärare använda kompletterande material och övningsuppgifter för att elever ska kunna utveckla sin pragmatiska kompetens vid uppmaningar.