Learning how to learn pragmatics: Application of self-directed strategies to pragmatics learning in L2 Chinese and Japanese
Issue: Vol 4 No. 1 (2019) Special Issue: Second language pragmatics
Journal: East Asian Pragmatics
Subject Areas:
DOI: 10.1558/eap.38207
Abstract:
Learning strategies are self-generated actions taken to make learning more efficient,productive, and transferable to new settings (Oxford, 1990, 2011). We can teach students how to use learning strategies efficiently, helping them gain autonomy and control of their own learning process. This study applied strategy instruction to pragmatics learning in a second language (L2). Adapting Oxford's (2011) taxonomy, we taught L2 learners various cognitive and metacognitive strategies, including how to pay attention to select pragmatic features, and how to monitor and evaluate their learning of the features. Four L2 Chinese learners and six L2 Japanese learners in a US university received strategy instruction on targeted pragmatic features (i.e., conversation opening/closing; indirect meaning). The instruction was followed by a two-week period in which students kept a daily journal recording their experiences with the targeted features. Interviews were conducted at the end to gauge students' reflections of the strategy applications. Results showed that students noticed targeted pragmatic features in available resources, but there was imbalance in the degree of noticing and types of strategies used.
Author: Naoko Taguchi, Xiaofei Tang, Joy Maa
References :
Boxer, D., & Pickering, L. (1995). Problems in the presentation of speech acts in ELT materials: The case of complaints. ELT Journal, 49(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/49.1.44
Chamot, A. U. (2005). Language learning strategy instruction: Current issues and research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 25, 112–130. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190505000061
Christensen, M. B. (2011). Bringing culture into the Chinese language classroom through contextualized performance. In M. E. Everson & Y. Xiao (Eds.), Teaching Chinese as a foreign language: Theories and applications (pp. 19–33). Boston, MA: Cheng & Tsui Company.
Cohen, A. D. (1998). Strategies in learning and using a second language. Harlow: Longman.
Cohen, A. D. (2005). Strategies for learning and performing L2 speech acts. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(3), 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2005.2.3.275
Cohen, A. D., & Macaro, E. (2007). Language learner strategies: Thirty years of research and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, A., & Shively, R. (2007). Acquisition of requests and apologies in Spanish and French: Impact of study abroad and strategy-building intervention. The Modern Language Journal, 91(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00540.x
Cunningham, D. J. (2016). Request modification in synchronous computer-mediated communication: The role of focused instruction. The Modern Language Journal, 100(2), 484–507. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12332
Diepenbroek, L., & Derwing, T. (2013). To what extent do popular EFL textbooks incorporate oral fluency and pragmatic development. TESL Canada Journal, 30(7), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v30i7.1149
Ferguson, C. A. (1976). The structure and use of politeness formulas. Language in Society, 5(2), 137–151. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500006989
Gilmore, A. (2004). A comparison of textbook and authentic interactions. ELT Journal, 58(4), 362–374. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/58.4.363
Ishihara, N., & Cohen, A. (2010). Teaching and learning pragmatics: Where language and culture meet. Harlow: Pearson Longman.
Manchon, R. M. (2008). Taking strategies to the foreign language classroom: Where are we now in theory and research? International Review of Applied Linguistics, 46, 221–243.
Maynard, S. (1998). Principles of Japanese discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620973
Miike, Y. (2003). Japanese enryo-sasshi communication and the psychology of amae: Reconsideration and reconceptualization. Keio Communication Review, 25, 93–115.
Nguyen, M. T. T. (2011). Learning to communicate in a globalized world: To what extent do school textbooks facilitate the development of intercultural pragmatic competence? RELC Journal, 42(1), 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688210390265
Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Oxford, R. (2011). Teaching and researching language learning strategies. Harlow: Person Education.
Oxford, R., & Griffiths, C. (2014). Language learning strategy research in the twenty-first century: Insights and innovations. Special issue. System, 43.
Pan, Y., & Kadar, D. Z. (2011). Politeness in historical and contemporary Chinese. London: Bloomsbury.
Plonsky, L. (2011). The effectiveness of second language strategy instruction: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 61(4), 993–1038. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00663.x
Plonsky, L., & Zhuang, J. (2019). A meta-analysis of L2 pragmatics instruction. In N. Taguchi (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of SLA and pragmatics. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351164085-19
Rubin, J. (1975). What the ‘good language learner’ can teach us. TESOL Quarterly, 9(1), 41–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586011
Schmidt, R. (1993). Consciousness, learning and interlanguage pragmatics. In G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 21–42). New York: Oxford University Press.
Spencer-Oatey, H., & Kadar, D. (2016). The bases of (im)politeness evaluations: Culture, the moral order and the East–West debate. East Asian Pragmatics, 1(1), 73–106. https://doi.org/10.1558/eap.v1i1.29084
Taguchi, N. (2012). Context, individual differences, and pragmatic competence. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847696106
Taguchi, N. (2015). Instructed pragmatics at a glance: Where instructional studies were, are, and should be going. Language Teaching, 48(1), 1–50. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444814000263
Taguchi, N. (2018). Pragmatic competence in foreign language education: Cultivating learner autonomy and strategic learning of pragmatics. In I. Walker , D. Chan, M. Nagami, & C. Bourguignon (Eds.), New Perspectives on the Development of Communicative and Related Competence in Foreign Language Education. Berlin: de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501505034-004
Takahashi, S. (2010). The effect of pragmatic instruction on speech act performance. In E. Alcón Soler & A. Martínez-Flor (Eds.), Investigating pragmatics in foreign language learning, teaching and testing (pp. 127–144). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Tateyama, Y. (2019). Pragmatics in a language classroom. In N. Taguchi (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of SLA and pragmatics (pp. 400–412). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351164085-26
Tatsuki, D. (2019). Instructional material development in L2 pragmatics. In N. Taguchi (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of SLA and pragmatics (pp. 322–337). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351164085-21
Vellenga, H. (2004). Learning pragmatics from ESL and EFL textbooks: How likely? TESOL-EJ, 8(2), 25–38.
Zhang, D. (2014). More than ‘Hello’ and ‘Bye-bye’: Opening and closing the online chats in Mandarin Chinese. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27(6), 528–544. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2013.776966