Comprehension of conversational implicatures in L2 English

Abstract

This study investigated the development of the ability to interpret conversational implicatures in English as an L2. The study followed a cross-sectional design and used a methodologically innovative audio-visual interpretation task with an oral production component. By orally reporting their interpretations, participants demonstrated comprehension of conversational implicatures viewed in a video, rather than employing a predetermined response approach used in earlier studies, which neither explore nor reveal how L2 learners understand implicatures. Fifty participants, forty-five learners at three proficiency levels and five native speakers of English, took part in the study. The results indicated that the comprehension of conversational implicatures showed a significant improvement as L2 proficiency increased. Learner responses were additionally coded based on stages of implicature calculation, which demonstrated that not only learners’ correct interpretations but also their incorrect responses provide insights into their interlanguage development. Such a finding further illustrates the superiority of a free response approach over a predetermined one since the former approach can better shed light on L2 learners’ true pragmatic competence in conversational implicatures.

How Qualitative Inquiry Can Enlighten Instructional Pragmatics: An Example from a Case of Teaching Implicatures

“…Put in another way, it was the qualitative inquiry that helped to reveal the processes that led to the outcomes, which survey research is often poor at identifying (Maxwell, 2004). From a broader viewpoint, such an approach should be set as a standard in both descriptive and instructional studies on implicatures given the fact that a considerable number of variables are influential in the processes of deciphering indirectness in a language (Garcia, 2004;Köylü, 2018;Malmir & Derakhshan, 2020;Nigar, 2019;Perez, 2017;Taguchi, 2002Taguchi, , 2017Taguchi, , 2011Taguchi et al, 2016). Stated in practical terms, research on implied meanings should utilize qualitative methods to reveal why participants choose particular modes of interpretation in quantitative instruments (Nigar, 2019).…”

“…This scarcity is particularly worth noting in light of the fact that the few pertinent studies demonstrate a considerable number of variables operant on the processes of deciphering indirectness in any language. Pragmatic comprehension correlates with language proficiency level (Köylü, 2018;Nigar, 2019;Taguchi, 2002), pragmalinguistic knowledge, temporal/spatial features and sociopragmatic norms (Taguchi, 2011). In such a variety of determining factors, several bottom-up/top-down processing strategies for cognition (Malmir & Derakhshan, 2020) can facilitate the decoding of utterances, and various non-linguistic/linguistic assets are utilizable for the interpretation of implied meanings (Taguchi et al, 2016).…”

“…Within the study of pragmatics itself, the focus has been on speech acts (requests, refusals, apologies, compliments and so forth) and to a lesser extent on the other areas (Bardovi-Harlig & Shin, 2014;Hadiati, 2019;Rodgers, 2017) including implicatures, despite the fact that they have proved troublesome for learners even in L2 settings (Alsmari, 2020;Bouton, 1994;Nigar, 2019;Taguchi, 2011). When we limit the scope to the relatively few studies on implicature comprehension, we see that those with a qualitative focus on the processes that lead to the resulting interpretations (Köylü, 2018;Malmir & Derakhshan, 2020;Taguchi et al, 2016) are not in the majority. The even greater scarcity is related to studies that aim to teach comprehending implicatures, such as those of Abdelhafez (2016), Bouton (1994) and Derakhshan and Eslami (2020), in that they are not designed to qualitatively investigate the extent to which the post-treatment performance changes can be attributed to the instructional procedures themselves.…”

Second Language Learners’ Competence of and Beliefs About Pragmatic Comprehension: Insights From the Chinese EFL Context

“…Learners' individual characteristics, such as proficiency and cognitive processing abilities (Holtgraves, 2007;Taguchi, 2007Taguchi, , 2008a) also affect implicature comprehension. General proficiency has proved a strong indicator of implicature comprehension accuracy across studies (Cook and Liddicoat, 2002;Taguchi, 2011;Roever, 2013;Köylü, 2018). Moreover, cognitive variables, such as working memory and lexical access skills, were found to constrain or support implicature comprehension (Taguchi, 2008b).…”

Testing Conversational Implicature in the TOEIC Examination. Investigando la Implicatura Conversacional en el Examen de TOEIC

“…Further developed by Sperber and Wilson (1995) in their Relevance Theory, it can be argued that conversational implicature may often lead to communicative breakdown among interlocutors who share the same L1. Hence, understanding implicit meanings might entail an extra degree of effort on the part of L2 language learners, who can find it particularly demanding independently of their linguistic proficiency (Bouton,1994a;Taguchi, Li & Liu, 2013;Köylü 2018). As a result, it should be tackled in L2 classes so that learners are prepared to engage successfully in realistic communication.…”