L2 pragmatic awareness: Evidence from the ESL classroom

This paper reports on the results of a pragmatics awareness activity in an ESL classroom held before learners received formal instruction in pragmatics. Five intact ESL classes consisting of 43 students from 18 language backgrounds participated in this activity. During the activity, learners worked in pairs to identify pragmatic infelicities in video-taped scenarios and performed short role plays to repair the infelicities they had identified. The student role plays were also video-taped. The purpose of the role plays was to determine the types of pragmatic infelicities that are readily noticed by high intermediate learners and that are most easily remedied by them. The role plays showed that learners recognized and supplied missing speech acts and semantic formulas, although the form and content of the repairs differed from target-like norms in some respects. That is, learners may easily supply a missing apology for arriving late or explanations for making requests or for not having completed a class assignment, but the specific content or form may be less culturally or linguistically transparent. Thus, the results of the activity suggest areas where learners might benefit from instruction.