Temple Distinguished Lecture Series, November 12th

Second Language Pragmatics: Learning, Teaching and Testing

Professor:

     Dr. Carsten Roever (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Schedule:

     Saturday, November 12, 14:00 - 21:00

     Sunday, November 13, 10:00 - 17:00

This seminar will provide an overview of research on development of second language (L2) pragmatics, and more in-depth coverage of teaching and testing of L2 pragmatics.

Second language pragmatic development has been investigated from a variety of theoretical and content perspective, describing learning of speech acts, implicature, routine formulae, extended discourse, and other areas such as humor, address terms, or specific interactional practices. Some developmental trajectories have been identified, and the influence of individual difference factors has been investigated. Participants will acquire a broad understanding of research findings, approaches and issues in L2 pragmatic development research.

Less research has occurred on teaching of L2 pragmatics, most of which has focused on effects-of-instruction studies comparing implicit and explicit approaches to L2 pragmatics teaching. While more explicit teaching approaches tend to show stronger effect than implicit ones, the latter are not ineffectual and under certain conditions can be superior. Systematic teaching of L2 pragmatics as part of a coherent curriculum is still in its infancy but the possibility of such curricular integration will be explored in this seminar together with a range of teaching approaches.

Testing of learners’ L2 pragmatic ability has developed strongly in the last two decades and a variety of testing instruments exist for assessing learners’ ability. Providing adequate coverage of a complex construct like L2 pragmatics has been challenging, however, and the context sensitivity of pragmatic performance has led to tension between the need for broad construct coverage and practicality. Assessment instruments for L2 pragmatics will be critically examined in the seminar.

Students taking this seminar for credit should read Chapter 5 and 8 of Second Language Pragmatics before the seminar. A PDF copy of the reading will be provided to those registered credit students from the Office before the seminar.

Required Reading:

• Taguchi, N., & Roever, C. (in press). Second Language Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.