No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Research has shown that being multilingual is a valuable asset for learning pragmatics.By adopting a multilingual turn perspective, this study investigates patterns of pragmatic development in the multilingual classroom setting of the Valencian Community in Spain, where English, Catalan and Spanish coexist. Participants were 313 learners of English and 15 teachers. Each learner wrote three argumentative essays over one academic year in three languages: English, Catalan and Spanish. A mixed method approach was followed to examine learning trajectories of two types of discourse-pragmatic markers: textual and interpersonal markers. Quantitative results revealed significant gains in the production of textual discourse-pragmatic markers in English, while interpersonal discourse-pragmatic markers followed an irregular pattern.Findings also revealed variations in discourse-pragmatic marker learning trajectories in English, Catalan and Spanish: learning trajectories in the minority language (Catalan) and the L3 (English) were more fluctuating and the patterns interacted with each other, which contrasted with the linear development found in the majority language (Spanish).Qualitative findings are discussed to illustrate how factors such as learners' pragmatic awareness, teachers' practices and the sociolinguistic context of the study may interact in the process of pragmatic learning in the multilingual classroom.2

Pragmatic gains in the study abroad context: Learners' experiences and recognition of pragmatic routines The present study investigates second language (L2) learners' pragmatic development during study abroad (SA) programs by focusing on the recognition of pragmatic routines, and how sociocultural adaptation and intensity of interaction influence pragmatic gains. It is a longitudinal investigation that employed a mixed-method approach. Thirty-one Brazilian students in their first semester of study in a US university completed a pretest and posttest version of a sociocultural adaptation questionnaire, a language contact survey, and a routine recognition test. Quantitative data were complemented with qualitative information from semi-structured interviews with 2 of the participants, who provided details about the nature of their adaptation experiences and the patterns of interaction they held during the sojourn. Findings revealed that the recognition of pragmatic routines significantly increased during a semester abroad, and that this development was influenced by both sociocultural adaptation and intensity of interaction, interaction being the main predictor of pragmatic gains. Results from this study emphasize the importance of SA programs for the acquisition of pragmatic routines, and suggest that learners' willingness to acculturate in the SA environment, and exposure to recurrent situations outside of the classroom are determinant aspects for routine recognition. Keywords: L2 pragmatic development; interlanguage pragmatics; pragmatic routines; sociocultural adaptation; intensity of interaction; pragmatic awareness 2. Theoretical background 2.1 Pragmatic development in the study abroad context In the recent years, the field of Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) has seen a proliferation of longitudinal studies addressing the development of pragmatic competence over a period of time studying abroad (see Xiao, 2015a, for a review of longitudinal ILP studies). As different scholars have argued (e.g. Taguchi, 2015), developmental studies are particularly necessary in the ILP field. Given the non-linear and variable nature of L2 pragmatic development, the analysis of the processes rather than the outcomes of SA provides a more comprehensive understanding of the SA experience. Nowadays, there is substantial evidence of the benefits of participation in SA programs for the development of L2 pragmatic ability (Barron, 2003;