Pragmatic Development During Study Abroad: An Analysis of Spanish Teenagers’ Request Strategies in English Emails

Abstract

Previous research has shown that adolescent second language learners benefit from pragmatic instruction during study abroad (Alcón-Soler, 2015). As a follow-up investigation, the present study looked at late adolescent study-abroad learners, and it examined both the immediate effect of pragmatic instruction and the pragmatic trajectories that adolescent learners follow once they move from the instructional context to real email communication. Email requests in English produced by 60 (30 treatment and 30 control) Spanish teenagers studying in England were analyzed with regard to the impact of instruction on the frequency of indirect request strategies and internal modifiers. In addition, the pragmatic trajectories of two learners—one high producer and one low producer of request modifiers—were analyzed qualitatively on four separate occasions during the study-abroad experience. The findings show the positive effects of instruction on learners’ use of indirect request strategies and request modifiers. However, there is no homogeneous pattern of change during participants’ study-abroad experiences. Closer examinations of the pragmatic trajectories of two learners show that learners’ perceptions of request imposition or their desire to be accepted in the community in which they find themselves may explain pragmatic changes.

Development of discourse-pragmatic markers in a multilingual classroom: A mixed method research approach

“…The centrality of context-related factors to shed light on developmental patterns, namely teachers' approach to teaching DPMs and the influence of the sociolinguistic context, also supports previous research findings in other learning contexts (Alcón-Soler, 2017;Sánchez-Hernández, 2017;Taguchi, 2011bTaguchi, , 2012, which point out that there is an interaction of factors contributing to shape pragmatic developmental trajectories.…”

“…In an immersion setting, Taguchi (2011bTaguchi ( , 2012 reported quantitative gains in the participants' ability to produce speech acts in English over time, although the qualitative analyses revealed that learners' experiences in the learning context may influence pragmatic change at the individual level. In a study-abroad context, Alcón-Soler (2017) and Sánchez-Hernández (2017) are also examples of how the combination of research methods may reveal patterns of change and the reasons behind individual variation. On the one hand, Alcón-Soler (2017) analysed the effect of instruction of email requests and the reasons behind the patterns of change observed, reporting that, although the frequency of request mitigators increased after the instructional treatment, learners' perception of the study-abroad experience interacted with instructional effects and influenced request production over time.…”

“…In a study-abroad context, Alcón-Soler (2017) and Sánchez-Hernández (2017) are also examples of how the combination of research methods may reveal patterns of change and the reasons behind individual variation. On the one hand, Alcón-Soler (2017) analysed the effect of instruction of email requests and the reasons behind the patterns of change observed, reporting that, although the frequency of request mitigators increased after the instructional treatment, learners' perception of the study-abroad experience interacted with instructional effects and influenced request production over time. On the other hand, Sánchez-Hernández (2017) examined the effect of acculturation and background culture on the development of recognition and production of pragmatic routines during study-abroad programmes.…”

“…Second, this study explained changes in pragmatic development with qualitative data to supplement quantitative findings, tracing common trends in the data gathered. However, we have not considered cases of particular learners as previous studies have done in other learning contexts (Alcón-Soler, 2017;Taguchi, 2011bTaguchi, , 2012. Future research should consider individual trajectories compared to group development in order to consider whether individual differences may have an impact on pragmatic development in multilingual classrooms.…”

Exploring the role of strategy instruction on learners’ ability to write authentic email requests to faculty

“…Findings from this review show that many studies have been conducted to identify the instructional effects on L2 requests over the past decades although the bulk of research concentrated on oral L2 requests. In contrast, only very few studies assessed the teachability of L2 email requests (Alcón-Soler, 2015, 2017; Chen, 2015; Ford, 2006; Nguyen, 2018; Nguyen et al, 2015, 2019). Ford (2006) was among the first to assess the instructional effects on composing requestive emails.…”