Development of Speed and Accuracy in Pragmatic Comprehension in English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This study examined development of pragmatic comprehension ability across time. Twenty native speakers and 92 Japanese college students of English completed a computerized listening task measuring ability to comprehend two types of implied meaning in dialogues: indirect refusals (k = 24) and indirect opinions (k = 24). The participants' comprehension was analyzed for accuracy (scores on the listening task) and comprehension speed (average time taken to answer each item correctly). L2 learners' accuracy and comprehension speed improved significantly over a 7-week period. However, the magnitude of effect was lower for comprehension speed than for accuracy. This study also examined the relationships among general L2 proficiency (measured on the ITP TOEFL), speed of lexical judgment (measured on a word recognition task), and pragmatic comprehension ability. There was a significant relationship between proficiency and accuracy (r = 0.39), as well as between lexical access speed and comprehension speed (r = 0.40). However, L2 proficiency bore no relationship to comprehension speed, and lexical access speed had no relationship with accuracy. Moreover, accuracy and comprehension speed were not related to each other. These findings suggest that development of pragmatic knowledge and processing capacity of using the knowledge may not coincide perfectly in L2 development. BACKGROUND

Relationship between Cultural Intelligence and Pragmatic Comprehension

“…The types of individual difference variables investigated in the studies consist of cognitive processing ability (e.g. Taguchi, 2007;Taguchi, 2008), target language contact (e.g. Taguchi, 2008), language proficiency level (e.g.…”

“…Taguchi, 2008), language proficiency level (e.g. Taguchi, 2007;Taguchi, 2011), study-abroad experience (e.g. Taguchi, 2008;Taguchi, 2011), attitude toward target language culture (e.g.…”

“…In one study, Taguchi (2007) explored the effect of time, general language proficiency, and cognitive processing skills on the development of accuracy and speed of pragmatic comprehension. Participants in the study were 92 Japanese learners of English in an intensive English program in a university in Japan.…”

“…The questionnaire consisted of 20 items with four subscales: meta-cognitive cultural intelligence (items 1-4), cognitive cultural intelligence (items 5-10), motivational cultural intelligence (items [11][12][13][14][15], and behavioral cultural intelligence (items [16][17][18][19][20]. The items on the questionnaire were based on a 7-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree with values 1 to 7 assigned to them respectively (Rafieyan et al, 2013b).…”

“…To assess language learners' pragmatic comprehension ability, a pragmatic listening comprehension test, developed by Taguchi (2007Taguchi ( , 2008Taguchi ( , 2011…”