Open Lecture
Guest speaker:Prof. Eva Alcón-Soler, Universitat Jaume I (Castelló), Spain
‘Pragmatics in Instructional Contexts’
Tuesday, 5March 2013, 13.00-14.00
Turquoise amphitheatre (Millennium Building), University of Nicosia
Abstract:
An increasing number of interlanguage pragmatics research has focused on the effect of instruction on pragmatic learning (Alcón and Martínez-Flor, 2005; Jeon and Kaya, 2006; Takahashi, 2010; Taguchi, 2011). Following this line of research, first the speaker will address the question of whether instructional contexts provide the theoretical conditions for pragmatic learning, by focusing on 3 aspects: a) the opportunities for developing pragmatic ability in language classrooms; b) whether or not pragmatic ability develops in classroom settings without instruction; c) and the effect of various instructional approaches on pragmatic development. Then, results will be reported from three studies conducted by the LAELA research group on the role of pragmatic intervention in learners’ developing of pragmatic learning. Insights from these studies illustrate the extent to which pragmatic learning is constrained by the nature of intervention, the nature of interaction and learners’ individual variables. Finally, the speaker will refer to future research that may contribute to understand how various forms of pedagogical intervention facilitate pragmatic learning.