This study investigates the role of proficiency in the acquisition of conventional expressions as a pragmalinguistic resource in second-language (L2) Chinese. One hundred and four undergraduates, including 57 learners of Chinese as a foreign language at 3 levels of university instruction and 47 native speakers completed an aural-oral discourse…

This article describes how to develop teaching materials for pragmatics based on authentic language by using a spoken corpus. The authors show how to use the corpus in conjunction with textbooks to identify pragmatic routines for speech acts and how to extract appropriate language samples and adapt them for classroom use. They demonstrate how to…

This study compares the effect of using corpus-based materials and activities for the instruction of pragmatic routines under two conditions: implementing direct corpus searches by learners during classroom instruction and working with teacher-developed corpus-based materials. The outcome is compared to a repeated-test control group. Pragmatic…

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…

This paper reports on the results of a pragmatics awareness activity in an ESL classroom held before learners received formal instruction in pragmatics. Five intact ESL classes consisting of 43 students from 18 language backgrounds participated in this activity. During the activity, learners worked in pairs to identify pragmatic infelicities in…

Investigates the nature of input available to learners in the institutional setting of the academic advising session. Results indicate that evidence for the realization of speech acts, positive evidence from peers and status unequals, the effect of stereotypes, and limitations of a learner's pragmatic and grammatical competence are influential…

Advanced adult nonnative speakers of English were taped in advising sessions to analyze two speech acts, suggestions, and rejections according to their frequency, form, and success. They were compared with native speakers. Results are explained by the availability of positive and negative feedback. (30 references) (Author/LB)

Examines status in institutional discourse and identifies congruence as a factor in the success of native and nonnative speakers. Nonnative speakers suffered from a lack of context-specific pragmatic competence involving the use of status preserving strategies and appropriate content for noncongruent speech acts. (21 references) (JL)