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This paper brings together the research and developments of instructed pragmatics over the past three decades by reporting the synthesis findings of instructional intervention studies in interlanguage pragmatics. Two questions have guided this investigation: (1) is instruction effective in learning pragmatics?; and (2) what methods are most effective in learning pragmatics? Exhaustive electronic bibliographical searches yielded a body of 58 instructional intervention studies for the review. Findings across these studies are compared and explored for common patterns and inconsistencies that emerge among them. The paper concludes with implications for future research based on the survey of the existing practice.

The controversy about using inappropriate language in children's literature is constantly debated and repeatedly attracts the attention of the public. In Slovenia, this happened when the novel Na zeleno vejo by Andrej Predin was assigned as the text for the Cankar competition, a Slovenian language competition. Several reading mentors and other readers, specifically adults, were bothered by its use of profanity and vulgar phrases. However, no literature is immune from the use of profanity and cursing, not even children's literature. As seen in various picture books and short illustrated stories, there are instances of adults, children, and even animals using profanity. Through the analysis, synthesis, and comparative method of mostly modern literary Slovenian texts, suitable for the first six years of Slovenia's nine-year primary school, it was found that profanity and expletives are stylistically and semantically diverse, and their pragmatic nature must be considered. It was established that, in most cases, profanity and insults are justifiably placed in Slovenian literary works for children. Most often, they appear as a motif; less often, they are used as the central theme (or motif) in the text. A significant role is played by the reading mentor, who must alert the readers to the function of profanity in the text. (DIPF/Orig.)

This study investigated the effects of intercultural competence and amount of social contact in the development of pragmatic knowledge. All these variables were time-varying variables and measured twice over a 3-month study abroad. Participants were 109 American college students studying Chinese in a semester study-abroad program in Beijing. Using Kelley & Meyers's (1995) instrument, intercultural competence-defined as one's potential to succeed in intercultural adjustment-was measured by 4 factors: emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. A survey was used to assess the amount of time spent on a variety of social activities in Chinese. Pragmatic knowledge was measured with a spoken task, which assessed participants' ability to produce speech acts (k = 24). Latent Growth Curve Modeling showed that cross-cultural adaptability and social contact, when combined, explained 26% of pragmatic gains. Cross-cultural adaptability had no significant direct effect to speech acts gains: It had indirect effects through social contact. (Verlag).

This study investigates the validity of assessing L2 pragmatics in interaction using mixed methods, focusing on the evaluation inference. Open role-plays that are meaningful and relevant to the stakeholders in an English for Academic Purposes context were developed for classroom assessment. For meaningful score interpretations and accurate evaluations of interaction-involved pragmatic performances, interaction-sensitive data-driven rating criteria were developed, based on the qualitative analyses of examinees' role-play performances. The conversation analysis performed on the data revealed various pragmatic and interactional features indicative of differing levels of pragmatic competence in interaction. The FACETS analysis indicated that the role-plays stably differentiated between the varying degrees of the 102 examinees' pragmatic abilities. The raters showed internal consistency despite their differing degrees of severity. Stable fit statistics and distinct difficulties were reported within each of the interaction-sensitive rating criteria.The findings served as backing for the evaluation inference in the validity argument. Finally, implications of the findings in operationalizing interaction-involved language performances and developing rating criteria are discussed. (Verlag).

Despite different epistemologies and assumptions, all theories in second language (L2) acquisition emphasize the centrality of context in understanding L2 acquisition. Under the assumption that language emerges from use in context, the cognitivist approach focuses on distributions and properties of input to infer both learning objects and process of acquisition. The interactionist approach views context more narrowly by analyzing how a particular linguistic item is attended and processed during a task-based interaction, and how it becomes intake as learning outcomes. For socially-oriented theories such as the sociocultural theory and language socialization, learning is fundamentally situated in context. Through mediated participation in learning as social practice, learners come to appropriate linguistic knowledge. Context is also fundamental in the complex, dynamic systems theory, which views learning as a non-linear, adaptive process emerging through an interaction of resources and individuals within a given context. All of these theories give the central power to context to describe and explain L2 learning. Context serves as the site where acquisition is examined. Context also helps explain the process and outcomes of acquisition.

This paper is a revised version of a plenary prompted by the upsurge of interest in the role of pragmatics in teaching, learning, and assessment, and has as its purpose to take a fresh look at recent developments in the assessment of target-language (TL) pragmatics in spoken language. The first issue considered is the question of whether to attempt to assess pragmatics as it unfolds naturally in interactions, and if so, how to do it. Next, micro-level and macro-level factors in the assessment of TL pragmatics are considered. Third, a close look is given to the specific elements of TL pragmatics to assess. Fourth, there is attention to the matter of which instruments are most appropriate for collecting the desired data in the given context. Fifth, issues relating to data analysis are discussed. Finally, matters pertaining to the assessment of classroom instruction are looked at. Recommendations are given as to potentially viable directions for dealing with these issues both in terms of research studies and for assessment of classroom instruction. (Verlag).

The present study examines an area of SLA that has to date received little attention: the development of L2 humor. Both creation and comprehension of humor in an L2 can be challenging for learners, even those with advanced proficiency (e.g., Bell, 2005; Shardakova, 2010). At the same time, learners at all proficiency levels have been shown to use L2 humor and research suggests that with increased proficiency and exposure to the language, learners can develop their L2 humor abilities (Bell, 2005; Davies, 2003, 2005; Shardakova, 2010). Previous research, however, has not examined the processes by which L2 learners develop their humor skills. Using a language socialization framework, the present article analyzes a case study of one study abroad student who developed his ability to be funny in Spanish conversations with age peers during one semester in Spain. Factors that may have been associated with a reduction in failed humor over time included developing friendships, eliminating deadpan humor, and revoicing the words, expressions, and ways of speaking in the L2 to which the learner was exposed during study abroad.

The pairing of telecollaboration and focused instruction can lead to measurable gains in second language learners' pragmatic competence. This article examines speech act production in telecollaborative exchange, focusing on the requesting behavior of American learners of German for professional purposes as they interacted with German-speaking professionals in Germany via synchronous Web conferences. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative methods, the study investigated the effect of interaction with expert speakers and the implementation of focused instruction on learners' pragmatic development. Whereas quantitative analysis showed no change between experimental conditions, qualitative analysis of 4 learners' request production over the course of 4 online discussions revealed idiosyncratic developmental pathways and the emergence of a common strategy for managing participation in oral synchronous computer-mediated communication. The findings provide new insight regarding the nature of second language request production and confirm the utility of pragmatics instruction in telecollaboration. At the same time, the study calls for more refined analytical tools when investigating language development in extended telecollaborative discourse. (Verlag).

In the article the authors explore the role that the linguistic landscape, in the sense of all the written language in the public space, can have in second language acquisition (SLA). The linguistic landscape has symbolic and informative functions and it is multimodal, because it combines visual and printed texts, and multilingual, because it uses several languages. In the paper the authors look at its potential use as a source of input in SLA, in general, and in the acquisition of pragmatic competence, in particular. They also inquire into the role of the linguistic landscape in the acquisition of multimodal literacy skills and multicompetence. They conclude that the linguistic landscape is a learning context and can also be used for raising awareness in SLA. (Verlag, adapt.).

This study investigates the effect of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic routines used in academic discussion, specifically expressions of agreement, disagreement, and clarification. Thirty-seven learners, including an experimental group of 26 students and a control group of 11 students, participated in the study. Five intact classes received instruction across four 50-minute lessons. Input consisted of authentic language samples extracted from the MICASE corpus; instruction included noticing and production activities. Evaluation in the form of a pretest/posttest was administered through a computer-delivered oral-production test, which allowed for free production in a researcher-controlled context. The task included 30 items, including 10 agreement, 10 disagreement, and 10 clarification scenarios. Two-tailed paired-sample t-tests revealed that production of both speech acts and targeted expressions increased significantly in the experimental condition, whereas the control group did not show significant change. The results show that instruction has a significant positive effect on the use of expressions as measured by oral production in conversation simulations. The authors attribute this positive outcome to two components, instruction and means of evaluation. (Verlag, adapt.).