Pragmatics and Second Language Acquisition
Fastest Growing Area of Research in Linguistics
Pursue research projects to understand the pragmatic performance and perceptions of language learners from different backgrounds.
Abstract
Pragmatics is one of the fastest growing areas of research in linguistics. The faculty's expertise includes interlanguage pragmatics, Neo-Gricean pragmatics, speech acts, and interactionism.
Developing pragmatic competence is a crucial aspect of language learning that directly decides the communication success of language learners. Research has indicated that properly conducted L2 pragmatic instruction assists learners’ acquisition of pragmatic features and is more effective than simple exposure to the target language (Rose, 2005; Cheng & Liang, 2015). Social factors and the speakers’ and addressees’ perceptions of pragmatic performance need to be investigated and included in pragmatics instructions for beginners (Cheng, 2011; Cheng, 2017). Scholars in the ETAMU Applied Linguistics lab are dedicated to pursuing research projects that can help to understand the pragmatic performance and perceptions of language learners from different backgrounds and enhance the quality of L2 pragmatics instruction.