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 an utterance with respect to a specific speech event. However, Bachman (1990) was the first applied linguist to mention the pragmatic component explicitly. The author distinguished between organisational and pragmatic competence. On the one hand, organisational competence refers to those abilities involved in the production and identification of grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, and also in understanding their meaning and in ordering them to form texts. These abilities are subdivided into grammatical and textual competences. On the other hand, in Bachman's (1990) model, pragmatic competence is understood as dealing with the relationship between utterances and the acts performed through these utterances, as well as with the features of the context that promote appropriate language use. The relationship between utterances and acts concerns the illocutionary force, whereas the context has to do with those sociolinguistic conventions involved in using the language. In the same vein, Celce-Murcia et al. (1995) refer to pragmatic competence as actional competence, which comprises knowledge of language functions and knowledge of speech act sets, that is to say, emphasis is paid to the pragmalinguistic aspects of language. In addition, the authors include the sociocultural component as part of their construct of communicative competence. According to them, sociocultural competence refers to knowledge about appropriate use within particular social and cultural contexts of communication. More recently, the models developed by Alcón (2000) and Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor (2006) also highlight the pragmatic competence as one of its main components.

The common idea underlying the above-mentioned models refers to the fact that communicative competence is not only achieved by improving learners' grammatical knowledge, but it also concerns the development of discourse and pragmatic competences, among others. From this point of view, pragmatic instruction has been based on routines and strategies associated to particular speech acts such as requests, refusals, apologies or complaints. However, in our opinion, when pragmatics is the focus of attention in FL classrooms, the pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic components suggested by Leech (1983) and Thomas (1983) are not viewed in interaction. In other words, the relationship between routines and forms of particular speech acts are not considered together with the contextual factors of particular situations. This point of view presents new challenges for pragmatics in FL contexts and is also pointed out by Kasper and Roever (2005: 318), for whom becoming pragmatically competent is understood as being '... the process of establishing sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic competence and the increasing ability to understand and produce sociopragmatic meanings with pragmalinguistic conventions'.

The importance of the role played by pragmatics in the communicative competence framework has led to increased attention paid to the field of ILP, where the main objective is to examine the developmental stages that learners go through when acquiring the pragmatic system of the target language. The two theoretical perspectives in which such a field of research has been framed are addressed in the next section.

Theoretical Perspectives Within ILP Research

Similarly to the way in which the debate in the field of second language acquisition is represented by cognitivists and socioculturalists, ILP research has been framed within two views of understanding pragmatic learning, i.e. as either a cognitive or a socially oriented activity. Following a cognitive theoretical approach, the development of pragmatic competence has been considered as an individual mental process, and, although researchers have paid attention to context, data have been collected under experimental or quasiexperimental conditions by means of written and oral discourse completion and discourse evaluation tasks. In particular, the noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1993, 1995, 2001), Bialystok's two-dimensional model of L2 proficiency development (1993) and, more recently, the interactive hypothesis (Long, 1996) have been operationalised in ILP research from a cognitive perspective. Schmidt's (1993, 1995, 2001) noticing hypothesis and his distinction between noticing and understanding have been used as a theoretical construct of the role of awareness in pragmatic learning (see Alcón & Safont, 2008, for a review of pragmatic awareness in language learning). In addition, Schmidt's (1993) consciousness-raising approach, which involves paying conscious attention to relevant forms, their pragmalinguistic functions and the sociopragmatic constraints these particular forms involve, and Sharwood Smith's (1981, 1991) suggestion of input enhancement techniques have motivated cognitive-based research exploring the effects of instruction on the development of learners' pragmatic competence. Up till now, studies on the teachability of pragmatics have been set within a cognitive perspective and have examined a wide range of discourse, pragmatic and sociolinguistic issues (House & Kasper, 1981; Lyster, 1994; Wildner-Bassett, 1994), speech acts (Martínez-Flor & Alcón, 2007 on suggestions; Olshtain & Cohen, 1990 on apologies; Rose & Ng Kwai-Fun, 2001 on compliments and compliment responses; Martínez-Flor, 2007a; Safont, 2005, 2007; Salazar, 2007; Takahashi, 2001; and Usó-Juan, 2007 on requests), pragmatic fluency (House, 1996) and discourse competence (Alcón, 1997). Although the range of learner characteristics in studies on the effectiveness of instruction is rather narrow (English and Japanese are mainly learners' first language and the university context is the research setting), research findings on the teachability of pragmatics suggest that instruction is both necessary and effective (Jeon & Kaya, 2006; Olshtain & Cohen, 1990; Rose, 2005; Safont, 2005; Wildner-Bassett, 1984, 1986; see also the collection of papers in Rose & Kasper, 2001), and that explicit and deductive instruction is more effective for pragmatic learning than implicit and inductive teaching (Alcón, 2005; House, 1996; Rose & Ng Kwai-Fun, 2001; Takahashi, 2001).

In addition, while much research has been conducted on the teachability of pragmatics with the aim of testing Schmidt's (1993, 1995, 2001) noticing hypothesis, and has provided evidence that high levels of attention-drawing activities are more helpful for pragmatic learning than exposure to positive evidence, Bialystok's (1993) model and Long's (1996) interaction hypothesis have also motivated ILP research from a cognitive perspective. For instance, the studies by Hassall (1997) and Koike (1989) support Bialystok's claim that pragmatic representation is already accomplished for adult second-language learners, and thus the key issue is the development of control over attention in selecting pragmatic knowledge appropriately. Within the framework of Long's (1996) interactive hypothesis, in an attempt to operationalise focus on form versus focus on forms in pragmatics, Kasper (2001a) suggests the need to draw a distinction between language in use versus metalinguistic knowledge, and pragmatics versus metapragmatics.

The study of pragmatic learning from socially oriented perspectives views social interaction as being crucial. Sociocultural and language socialisation work on the development of pragmatic learning has been gaining ground in the last decade. Both theories place great importance on the social and cultural context of learning and they focus on the process of language acquisition by examining language use between experts and novices over time. In other words, they are inherently developmental and thus adequate frameworks for conducting studies with a focus on developmental issues in pragmatics. Examples of research motivated by sociocultural theory are, for instance, those conducted by Hall (1998) and Ohta (2001) showing, respectively, that opportunities for participation affect the development of interactional competence and that pragmatic knowledge may emerge from assisted performance, in both teacher and peer interaction.

In contrast to the interest of sociocultural theory in exploring the mediating role of language in the process of language learning, language socialisation focuses on the integration of culture and language (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986). Studies conducted within the setting of language socialisation theory have demonstrated that the theory provides an appropriate framework for teaching and researching pragmatics. For instance, Kanagy (1999) illustrates how American children learning Japanese in an immersion programme were learning the routines of greetings, taking attendance and making personal introductions at the same time as they were learning about Japanese values and behaviours. The integration of the acquisition of language and culture is also evident in Duff's (1995, 1996) investigations of language learning at the secondary school level in Hungary after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In these studies, one can observe how different models of discourse socialisation evolve and may be either in conflict or in harmony with existing cultural practices. However, although the emphasis on integrating culture and language makes the approach suitable for developmental research on pragmatics in second language or immersion contexts, it may present problems when dealing with research in FL contexts.

Finally, following a conversation analysis (CA) approach, research has provided information about how learners' interactional competencies are both resources and objects of learning. For instance, Kasper (2004) examines a dyadic conversation for learning conducted between a learner of German as a FL at beginner level and a native speaker of German, pointing out that the metalingual exchanges stood out for their acquisitional potential. In a similar vein, another example can be found in Young and Miller's (2004) study, focusing on tracking a student's changing participation in revision talk, and revealing how the student takes over tasks which were initially performed by the teacher. In these studies, CA provides a method of observing classroom talk, but, as reported by Kasper (2006), the benefits of CA to explain pragmatic learning are less evident. However, the question is how different theories may be used as a framework to examine different issues that intervene in the process learners go through when acquiring the pragmatic competence of the target language. Those issues are examined in the following section, with particular emphasis on their development in FL contexts.