Does instruction work for learning pragmatics in the EFL context?

• Published in: System (Linköping) 2005-09, Vol.33 (3), p.417-435
• Main Author: Alcon Soler, Eva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: English (Second Language); Foreign language learning; Instructional Effectiveness; Instructional effects; Interlanguage; Pragmatics; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning
• ISSN: 0346-251X; 1879-3282
• DOI: 10.1016/j.system.2005.06.005

This paper is based on a study which attempted to examine the efficacy of instruction at the pragmatic level. Specifically, the main purpose of the study was to investigate to what extent two instructional paradigms – explicit versus implicit instruction – affected learners’ knowledge and ability to use request strategies. One hundred and thirty-two students were randomly assigned to three groups (explicit, implicit and control). The three groups were exposed to excerpts including requests taken from different episodes of the TV series Stargate. However, while the explicit group received instruction by means of direct awareness-raising tasks and written metapragmatic feedback on the use of appropriate requests, the implicit group was provided with typographical enhancement of request strategies and a set of implicit awareness-raising tasks. Results of the study illustrate that learners’ awareness of requests benefit from both explicit and implicit instruction. However, in line with previous research, our study illustrates that, although an improvement in learners’ appropriate use of requests did take place after the instructional period, the explicit group showed an advantage over the implicit one. The empirical study also provides insight into interlanguage pragmatic pedagogy and presents suggestions for future research.