Learning Pragmatics from Native and Nonnative Language Teachers (Second Language Acquisition): 123 - Softcover

Andrew D. Cohen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783099917 ISBN 13: 9781783099917

Publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2018

Synopsis

This book deals with intercultural pragmatics and how both nonnative teachers (NNTs) and native teachers (NTs) may enhance their classroom instruction regarding target language (TL) pragmatics. It focuses primarily on the experiences of instructors as they teach their learners about the pragmatics of the TL, both in second and foreign language learning settings. It makes clear that there are aspects of teaching pragmatics where it may help to be an NT and other areas where it may help to be an NNT and proposes creative ideas that both sets of teachers may draw on to compensate for gaps in their knowledge. Further themes in the book include ideas for motivating students who want to learn about pragmatics, the role of technology in teaching and learning pragmatics, the role of learning strategies, the assessment of pragmatics and ways to research pragmatics. The book will be of interest to teachers, teacher educators and students interested in researching and improving the teaching of pragmatics.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew D. Cohen is Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, USA. He has published extensively in the areas of pragmatics, language assessment, and language learner strategies, and frequently presents his research at international conferences. He was the recipient of the 2006 Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award from the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). He is also a hyperpolyglot, currently learning his 13th language, Mandarin.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Learning Pragmatics from Native and Nonnative Language Teachers

By Andrew D. Cohen

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2018 Andrew D. Cohen
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78309-991-7

Contents

Acknowledgments, vii, 
Acronyms, ix, 
Foreword Rachel L. Shively, xi, 
1 An Introduction to Pragmatics for Learners and Teachers, 1, 
2 The Development of Pragmatic Ability with Lauren Wyner, 26, 
3 The Handling of Pragmatics by Native and Nonnative Teachers, 57, 
4 What Native and Nonnative Teachers Know About Pragmatics and What They Report Doing, 81, 
5 Basic Issues in the Teaching of Pragmatics with Lauren Wyner, 101, 
6 Ideas for Teaching Pragmatics and for Motivating Learners, 125, 
7 The Role of Technology in Teaching and Learning Pragmatics, 154, 
8 The Learning of Pragmatics, 181, 
9 The Assessment of Pragmatics, 211, 
10 Researching Pragmatics, 241, 
11 Conclusions, 264, 
References, 270, 
Author Index, 287, 
Subject Index, 292, 

CHAPTER 1

An Introduction to Pragmatics for Learners and Teachers

1.1 The Aim and Scope of the Book

This book deals with intercultural pragmatics and focuses on how both nonnative teachers (NNTs) and their native teacher colleagues (NTs) may be able to enhance their classroom instruction regarding target-language (TL) pragmatics. The immediate audience for the book is teachers and teacher educators. The intention is to provide ideas for how they can make pragmatics as accessible as possible to learners. The ultimate goal is to improve the teaching of pragmatics for the sake of learners, who stand to benefit from insights as to how to be pragmatically appropriate in their TL of choice.

At the outset, it needs to be stated that just as it is problematic to define what native speaker means (see Davies, 2003), there can undoubtedly be considerable differences among so-called NTs, just as there can be differences among so-called NNTs. Here are some of the sources of such differences among NTs:

• NTs can have varying degrees of contact with the first language (L1) that they teach. Whereas some may never leave the L1 community, others may find themselves living in another community where their use of the L1 is affected by the use of one or more other languages.

• While still living within the L1 community, the NTs may have differential use of their L1 for numerous reasons.

• The number of years that the NTs have been teaching their L1 would expectedly have an impact on their facility with the language in the various skill areas.

• NTs may also be fluent speakers of other languages and may actually be exposed to several languages from birth.

• Some NTs are more natural teachers than others.

• Some NTs are more knowledgeable about pragmatics in their L1 than are others.

Likewise, there can also be differences among NNTs:

• NNTs can have differing exposure to the TL, not just by virtue of time spent living in a community where it is spoken as the dominant language, but also as a result of their own personal contact with that language in the community. The fact that it is available in the community does not necessarily mean that the NNTs develop nativelike ability in the pragmatics of that language.

• Teachers differ with respect to how proficient they actually become in the TL. For example, some become better at certain skill areas in the TL than do others. This may be a function of how many other languages they have studied, their language aptitude and language strategy repertoire, their knowledge of linguistics and their ability to make practical use of this knowledge.

• Teachers may differ not only with respect their knowledge base regarding pragmatics in the TL, but also with respect to their ability to perform this knowledge in a pragmatically appropriate way in a given situation.

• Just as with NTs, some NNTs may be more natural teachers than others.

Therefore, given the myriad of differences among so-called NTs and likewise among NNTs, when these labels are used in the book, the intended reference will be to the average representative of the NT or NNT group, knowing full well that there is variation within each group.

The position taken in this volume is that pragmatics deserves to be taught in a TL class and ideally even from day one in the beginning-level language class. For example, greetings are introduced right away in language class, but how they are used differs dramatically from language community to language community. Since greetings are so external, they are highly discernible, but still may possess some subtle features. Since they function as an important social lubricant, instruction in their appropriate use can be extremely valuable. For instance, bonjour in French does not have the same distribution as buenos días in Spanish. In addition, the use of buenos días varies according to the specific speech community. In other language communities, greetings do not necessarily involve time of day, but rather how the other person is doing or even whether or not they have eaten.

The stance that pragmatics needs to be explicitly taught from the early stages of language instruction calls for taking a close look at the potential role of any instructors in bringing this about, which means that there are challenges for both NTs and NNTs. Furthermore, the concerns of teachers – especially NNTs – regarding instruction about pragmatics are not necessarily addressed in teacher development programs. It would appear that teachers may not have easy access to practical suggestions as to what to do about their own gaps in knowledge when it comes to pragmatics. This book is intended to provide numerous suggestions for closing the gap.

The book will focus primarily on the experiences of instructors as they teach their learners about the pragmatics of the TL, whether it be more a second-language (L2) experience since the language is spoken extensively in the learners' immediate community, or more a foreign-language (FL) experience in that the language is not spoken extensively in the learners' immediate community. All the while, there is the realization that this traditional dichotomy is giving way to a more hybrid reality in an increasingly globalized world. Therefore, it is fair to say that there is less of a dichotomy between L2 and FL, and more of a continuum. Not only would this be the case as it applies to globalized English (section 1.2.4), but also as it applies to other languages that have an international presence, such as Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese, to name just a few. Language users are drawing on the internet, and especially on social media, in new and engaging ways. The consequence is that traditional means of interpreting pragmatic intention across languages may not work as well as they used to. It is no longer possible to make assumptions as to how FL pragmatics are disadvantaged by virtue of the distance from the TL speech community, nor to assume that users of the TL as an L2 are automatically likely to use pragmatics that are more in step with the TL speech community.

It will be made clear in the book that there are aspects of teaching pragmatics where it may help to be an NT and other areas where it may help to be an NNT. The book will speak to both of these areas where teachers may be looking for creative means to compensate for their gaps in knowledge about TL pragmatics. The book will consider the issue of the teacher's language background, teaching experience and current teaching context, since these factors can help to explain their strengths and weaknesses in teaching pragmatics. The book will return frequently to the realization that it is simplistic to view NTs and NNTs as homogeneous groups, since, as outlined above, teachers may differ greatly in terms of their knowledge of the TL and of other languages that they speak, their teaching experience and the context in which they are teaching the TL. The book will also look at the many ways that NTs and NNTs can provide relevant and informed information on the pragmatics of the TL. For example, attention is paid to the potential role of digital media and other means to provide models for pragmatic behavior.

What makes this a unique topic for a book is that volumes have started to appear that go beyond a review of the research literature to suggestions for pedagogy. But, unlike other books that do not really acknowledge potential similarities and differences between native-speaker (NS) and nonnative speakers (NNS) status in the teaching of pragmatics, this book deals directly with the issue, starting with an acknowledgement that NNTs may have both advantages and challenges when assuming the role of instructor regarding L2/FL pragmatics. NTs may also have advantages and challenges. The book will also explore the extent to which there are similarities and differences between these two groups of teachers.

It needs to be pointed out that the focus in this book is not on L1 pragmatics, which has been written about in other books. It is possible, for example, to find studies that have looked at the acquisition of pragmatics in young children in their L1 and how they deal with metaphor, irony and implicature (Zufferey, 2015). This volume is also not focused on pragmatic theory. Other books deal rigorously with the theoretical underpinnings and principles of pragmatic meanings across languages, such as LoCastro (2012). The goal of this volume is to take a close look at issues regarding the teaching and learning of TL pragmatics, and the research associated with the two. The intention is to ensure that this volume provides material of interest to all teacher educators and researchers, as well as to both NTs and NNTs, regardless of the norms that they use to determine what constitutes appropriate pragmatic behavior for a given context.

Let it be noted here that norms for sociocultural behavior vary. Therefore, when norms are mentioned in this book, what will be implied are the more idealized norms for how to expect people to behave in the given situation in the given context. What is problematic here is that since variation pervades whatever pragmatic behavior is found in any speech community (see, for example, Felix-Brasdefer & Koike, 2012), so-called norms are unlikely to be universal within any given group. Rather, they are an ideal about what ought to be said, written or performed nonverbally, rather than an accurate yardstick for what people will inevitably do in a given situation. So any mention of norms in this book is actually referring to idealized norms, even if this is not stated explicitly.

The book is intended to appeal to NT readers who welcome the opportunity to look more closely at an area of instruction where they have perhaps overly relied on their intuitions rather than on empirical evidence from research and other sources. It should also appeal to those NNTs who may from time to time experience the discomfort of feeling that they are not expert enough in the pragmatics of the TL, despite having expert proficiency in numerous aspects of the language. While there are likely to be areas in which NNTs feel very comfortable teaching by virtue of having had to figure out how to learn it themselves and then teaching it, there may be other areas of pragmatics where they may feel less comfortable as the instructor.

So whose pragmatics is this book interested in focusing on? One approach is just to look for commonalities in the pragmatics of language communities around the world. But is this realistic, given that pragmatic aspects of language and nonverbal behavior are often dependent upon specific contexts that defy one-size-fits-all interpretations? This is definitely true of humor. Therefore, the approach adopted in this volume is that of providing examples of pragmatics as played out in a number of different languages and cultures. My sense is that while there are clearly universals in pragmatic behavior, the differences far outweigh the commonalities. For this reason, learners need to be open to learning about language- and culture-specific pragmatic behaviors, especially those that could lead to pragmatic failure if they are not attended to.

1.2 Definitions and Topics

This section will provide definitions and descriptions for major concepts discussed in this volume, beginning with the very notion of pragmatic ability.

1.2.1 Pragmatic ability and speech acts

Pragmatic ability is the ability to deal with meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader) and to interpret people's intended meanings, their assumptions, their purposes or goals, and the kinds of actions (e.g. making a request) that they are performing when they speak or write (Yule, 1996: 3–4). Pragmatics includes politeness/ impoliteness, speech acts, conversational management and interactional competence, humor, sarcasm, teasing, cursing, discourse markers, conversational implicature and deixis (see Cohen, 2017). (More will be said about efforts to define 'pragmatic ability' in Chapter 2, Section 2.1.1.)

One may ask why there a need to explicitly teach language learners about pragmatics, since it might be assumed that learners just pick up pragmatics by osmosis. The reality is that they often do not. Rather, research and practice have demonstrated that learners do benefit from being aware of the situationally-appropriate utterances in a given TL situation, namely, what can be said, to whom, where, when and how. There is a powerful influence working against the appropriate use of the TL – namely, how we do it in our native or dominant language. It is not enough just to know a host of vocabulary words and how to inflect the verb for even complex tenses like the pluperfect. Rather, it is crucial to know when and how to use this vocabulary and these verb forms, among a host of other language-related issues.

The following are areas of pragmatics worthy of attention in the TL classroom:

• How to be polite and also impolite.

• How to make requests, how to apologize, how to compliment and respond to compliments, how to complain, how to criticize people (for their behavior and appearance), how to perform greetings and leave takings, and how to express gratitude.

• How to perceive humor, sarcasm and teasing, and how to tease, be humorous and be sarcastic.

• How to express emotions through the TL, such as in cursing.

• How to manage conversations (e.g. how to get and keep the floor, take turns and give appropriate listener responses).

An Introduction to Pragmatics for Learners and Teachers 5 • In both conversations and in written messaging, how to recognize and make use of discourse markers such as 'well', 'you know', 'so', 'I think', 'on the one/other hand', 'frankly' and 'as a matter of fact'.

• How to detect the implied meaning in conversations (conversational implicature), drawing on context and on knowledge of how conversation works.

• How to interpret words and phrases such as 'there', 'this/that', 'his/ her' and 'you' from context (referred to as deixis).

One of the mainstay features of pragmatics is the speech act. A speech act refers to oral or written language that performs a function in communication.

We perform speech acts when we offer a greeting, express our gratitude, make a request, issue a complaint, extend an invitation, give compliments, or refuse a request or invitation. In reality, most speech acts perform more than one function. The performance of common speech acts usually involves choosing from a set of possible strategies, some of which may involve the use of what could be viewed as other distinct speech acts, and for this reason the term speech act set was introduced some years ago (Olshtain & Cohen, 1983). For example, in complaining, you could include a threat, which constitutes a speech act distinct from complaining (e.g. 'OK, then. If you won't turn your music down, I'll call the police!'), or in apologizing, you could also add criticism (e.g. 'Sorry I bumped into you, lady, but look where you're standing!').

The realization of a given speech act in a given context, then, involves the use of a minimum of one strategy from the speech act set to the selection of numerous strategies from that set. In the case of an apology, for example, the strategy of expressing an apology could be performed just through the strategy of expressing an apology ('I'm sorry', 'excuse me' or 'I apologize'), or offering repair ('Here, let me pick these up') or could involve a combination of them, such as expressing apology, acknowledging responsibility and offering repair. In fact, there is a set of at least five semantic formulas that seem to apply to apologizing in a variety of different languages (Cohen, 2014b):

(1) Expression of an apology: a word, expression, or sentence containing a verb such as 'sorry', 'excuse', 'forgive' or 'apologize.' In American English, 'I apologize ...' is found more in writing than it is in oral language. An expression of an apology can be intensified – in American English, usually by adding intensifiers such as 'really', 'terribly', 'awfully', 'so', 'very' or some combination of them – for example, 'I'm really very sorry.'

(2) Acknowledgment of responsibility: the degree of recognition of fault. This strategy includes a continuum: accepting the blame: 'It's my fault'; expressing self-deficiency: 'I was confused/I didn't see/You are right'; lack of intent: 'I didn't mean to'; implicit expression of responsibility: 'I was sure I had given you the right directions'; not accepting 6 Learning Pragmatics from Native and Nonnative Language Teachers the blame/denying responsibility: 'It wasn't my fault'; or even blaming the listener: 'It's your own fault.'

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1783099917
• ISBN 13: 9781783099917
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312