مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Developing Pragmatic Competence through Teaching Requests in English Classrooms

Abstract :

This study investigates the effect of pedagogical intervention in pragmatics on Turkish learners of English. More specifically, the study examines how pragmatics-based instruction on the speech act of request in English influences Turkish learners of request strategy use in English. Additionally, it explores students’ overall perceptions on their pragmatics-based classes. The study embraces a single group quasi-experimental design with multiple data sources: a discourse completion test (DCT), a survey, students’ reflective papers, and the researcher’s field notes. The analysis of request realizations in the pre-test and post-test DCTs indicates that there was not a statistically significant difference between the overall number of request strategies in pre-test and post-test. However, Turkish learners of English had more variety in their use of request strategies and decrease in directness after the treatment. They also expressed mainly positive perceptions with regard to activities and materials in the instructional plan. Finally, the study discusses the future directions and pedagogical implications with regard to instructional pragmatics teaching in L2 context.