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The predominant perspective in L2 language education holds that teachers should primarily employ the target language. Various influences, including historical colonial strategies for English learning and teaching have shaped this view, associating native English speakers as the perfect standard. As a result, augmented exposure to the target language, both within and beyond the classroom, has been considered extremely crucial. However, in the past two decades, there have been substantial shifts in monolingual approaches, proposing translanguaging pedagogy, which involves integrating languages other than the primary target language into classroom instruction. This particularly involves recognizing and leveraging learners' linguistic repertoire (, encompassing their mother tongue and any heritage or community languages. The inclusion of multiple languages in language classrooms, whether incidental or deliberate, can serve various educational purposes, such as providing clarifications, explanations, discipline, as well as fostering inclusion and social equity. Additionally, the translanguaging approach aligns EFL learners' language knowledge with their educational purposes while acknowledging their identity. Therefore, adding translanguaging into EFL teaching programs can be auspicious. Pedagogical translanguaging has recently received attention among ELT scholars, and a sizable body of research has already been conducted to examine its possible advantages in teaching/learning L2 skills. The present paper attempts to take into view pedagogical translanguaging as fruitful tool in teaching L2 pragmatics.

In this academic note, we aim to outline the foundations of a major L2 pragmatic project that we have been engaged in over the past few years. We believe the readers may find our system and its typology relevant to their own research studies. Central categorical parts of the project; that is to say, speech acts and interaction, are introduced in detail. More illustrations are followed using typical Persian examples on how refusal, as a popular category of speech acts in L2 (cross-cultural) pragmatics, can be analysed in our system, keeping in mind the target audience of the present contribution.

This study investigates learner engagement in pedagogic task performance by triangulating multiple sources of data to gain insight into the cognitive and affective processes that take place on a range of tasks and how they engage learners of different target languages. The study provides a detailed analysis of 4 learners' second language (L2) performance (2 first language [L1] Japanese learners of English; 2 L1 Japanese learners of Chinese). All learners completed an identical set of 12 communication tasks in 3 discourse genres (instruction, narrative, and opinion) in a learner-generated (LGC) and teacher-generated content (TGC) condition. The performances were followed by immediate stimulated video recalls and questionnaires on perceived levels of anxiety and motivation during each task. Triangulation of these data sources revealed that both the English and Chinese learners were more socially and emotionally engaged in LGC tasks than in TGC tasks and that this engagement was associated with more fluent and accurate, but less complex, speech. The difference between the Chinese and English learners was in their self-reported preferences and levels of anxiety and motivation while performing the tasks in the respective conditions. Based on the learners' background profiles, this difference in subjective response to the tasks is attributed to previous experience with formal L2 instruction. (Verlag).

While motivation plays an important role in language learning, few attempts have been made to explore its significance in second language (L2) pragmatics learning. The current study investigated whether and how language learning motivation affects L2 pragmatics production. A total of 60 adult Chinese learners of English participated in this study. Data were elicited from a motivation questionnaire and a discourse completion task (DCT). The results revealed that L2 learners with high motivation performed better in making complaints in the target language than learners with low motivation. Moreover, learners’ levels of pragmatic production correlated positively with their overall L2 motivation, as well as with four motivational subscales, namely, attitudes towards learning English, ideal L2 self, intended learning efforts, and attitudes towards the L2 community. Regression analysis showed that learners’ attitude towards learning English best predicted their production of the speech act of complaints. The findings of this study support the role motivational dispositions play in learners’ L2 pragmatic production. The study provides insight into the interaction of L2 motivation and pragmatics learning.

While Greek EFL learners’ pragmatic competence has been frequently investigated, few studies have focused on Greek EFL teachers’ pragmatic knowledge. Complementing these earlier studies based on semi-structured interviews, we employed an extended online questionnaire and discourse completion tasks (DCTs) to explore the pragmatic competence of 72 Greek EFL teachers. Pragmatic comprehension was evaluated using scenarios that required participants to assess speech acts, while their ability to produce pragmatically appropriate responses was also assessed. Likert-scale items explored teachers’ perceptions about L2 instruction and their own abilities in this regard. Findings suggest that Greek EFL teachers possess an above average level of pragmatic competence, which nevertheless has not led to them systematically integrating L2 pragmatics instruction in their classrooms. Additional qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews suggest that teachers’ lack of integration of explicit pragmatics instruction is not due to their not recognizing its importance, but rather to feeling inadequately prepared to implement this, which in turn points to the lack of emphasis on L2 pragmatics in teacher education programs. We catalog the most significant challenges in incorporating L2 pragmatics instruction in Greek EFL classrooms in terms of teacher and learner factors, as well as the Greek EFL context itself.

As one of the productive approaches to L2 pragmatic development, study abroad (SA) has drawn the attention of numerous researchers during the past few decades. Different factors, specifically those related to L2 learners, implicate the impact of SA on pragmatic development. The present systematic review aims to identify the roles of individual differences, including personal as well as social and cognitive variables, on the pragmatic development of L2 learners who were involved in SA programs. To this end, 39 studies from peer-reviewed journals and books published from 2000 to 2022 were scrutinized. The results revealed that a substantial amount of research has been conducted on the intersection of L2 pragmatic competence and SA. However, more studies are required to investigate the impact of learner variables on different aspects of L2 pragmatics in the SA context. The results also indicated the extent to which learner variables were analyzed in these studies and how each variable impacted the effectiveness of SA programs. In addition to the effects of learner variables, the methodological features of the studies, including the context of the studies, designs of the studies, data sources, and characteristics of the involved participants, were explored and reported. The findings contribute to the fields of L2 pragmatic acquisition and study abroad by highlighting the gaps in the literature and identifying key learner variables that can have drastic influences on learners’ outcomes.

This study investigates the relative effectiveness of online dynamic assessment (DA) compared to the teacher’s explicit feedback in the acquisition of requests in an online learning environment. Thirty-four intermediate-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were randomly assigned to three groups: expert peer DA (PDA), teacher DA (TDA), and teacher’s explicit feedback (TEF). Following the metapragmatic instruction, the participants were provided with 15 discourse completion tests (three treatment sessions, five items for each session) to complete. Discourse completion tests depicted request scenarios and required the participants to write what they would say in those situations. The participants worked independently, and when the DA groups created poorly constructed requests, they were given online pre-established mediational hints. These hints were arranged from the most implicit to the most explicit, and were provided by either an expert peer (for the PDA group) or the teacher (for the TDA group). The TEF group, on the other hand, received the teacher’s explicit feedback on any pragmatic deviations. The analysis of the pretest and post-test scores by series of t-tests and an ANCOVA showed that the best performance belonged to the PDA group, followed by TDA and TEF groups. The findings underscore the pedagogical value of DA and the superiority of expert peers’ mediation over teacher mediation in the development of L2 pragmatic competence.

The present study explores the development of pragmatic marker (PM) use by children and adult L2 English learners in two learning contexts: study abroad (SA) and at home (AH). The study involved a group of 35 Catalan/Spanish girls (aged 11 to 13) learning English AH (n = 16) and abroad in Ireland (n = 19), and a group of 16 adult students aged 19–31 learning English in the UK and Ireland (n = 10) and at their home university in Barcelona (n = 6). To test their pragmatic development, the use of PMs was prompted through pre-test and post-test semi-structured interviews. The results indicated an effect of both age and context on PM development. Children in the SA context increased their use of some PMs, whereas their peers who remained at home did not show any development. Regarding the adults, both SA and AH participants increased their use of specific PMs. These findings shed some light on a topic that has not received scholarly attention in the field of L2 pragmatics: the development of PM use by children. Additionally, they contribute to the very small body of longitudinal studies on the development of PM use during SA.

Whilst study abroad (SA) periods hold much promise for foreign language development, increasing research suggests sojourners’ experiences are unique, and language development does not always follow a linear trajectory. For some learners, SA has little impact on their language performance despite the affordances of L2 immersion (the Survivors). Other learners maximise the potential of SA, and this has a positive impact on their language development (the Thrivers). This paper examines the selected cases of four Japanese learners of English and their request language performance during a 10-month SA in the UK. Changes in pragmatic knowledge (based on appropriateness ratings) were documented at three equidistant time points. Language contact profile data also provided quantitative insights into the learners’ extracurricular language use and qualitative personal reflections. The selected cases illustrate two learners surviving the SA experience, showing minimal change in their request performance. The other two learners thrived during SA, showing accelerated performance in terms of lexical variation at the production level. This paper reports on the case histories of these learners to better understand these unique experiences and pragmatic discrepancies. Suggestions for how learners might be more pragmatically successful during SA are also offered.

This qualitative classroom study investigated the development of pragmatic competence in academic discussions through content analysis of student reflective writing. The aims of the study were: to understand the greatest challenges that students faced during the learning process, the causes of those challenges, and the most successful strategies that students employed to overcome the challenges. In addition, the analysis investigated other significant themes in the reflective writing that related to the students’ experiences in developing their pragmatic competence in discussions. Five advanced English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students at a Sino-US institution in China participated over the course of a semester. Results showed that common challenges included: hesitation resulting in missed opportunities to speak, lack of clarity when speaking, inability to repair communication breakdowns, and difficulty with listening comprehension. Self-reflection allowed the learners to understand the various reasons for the challenges they faced and to develop appropriate pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic strategies for coping with them. It also enabled the instructor to make suggestions suited to learners’ specific needs. In addition to revealing specific challenges, causes, and strategies that students employed, themes that emerged through content analysis included the impact of students’ emotional lives on their learning and performance, as well as the value of authentic communication in the development of pragmatic competence for academic discussions. This exploratory classroom investigation provides suggestions for teaching pragmatic competence in academic discussions and for additional classroom explorations that empower learners to develop autonomy.