Fostering learners’ (meta)pragmatic awareness through film analysis

Abstract

Film-based dialogues have been praised in the current work on pragmatics as a potentially useful source that can enhance learners’ (meta)pragmatic awareness of the pragmatic phenomena in actual communicative events. Following this view, this paper first outlines the concept of (meta)pragmatic awareness and explains, drawing on McConachy and Spencer-Oatey (2020), the different theoretical perspectives examining the role that awareness plays in developing learners’ pragmatic ability. Then, it surveys studies that have reported benefits of bringing audiovisual input through films into the classroom. Finally, the analysis of two film-dialogues is presented to illustrate how it may foster learners’ awareness of communication as a context-dependent act. Along the way, it also highlights selected research-based techniques that can engage learners in critical film analysis.