Improving the teaching of the pragmatic norms of conversation: a journey of reflective teacher action research

Date
2010
Authors
Denny, HG
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tesolanz
Abstract

Following the recent renewal of interest in the teaching of pragmatics (Kasper & Roever, 2004), the author has conducted a series of action research investigations into the teaching of pragmatic norms using elicited recorded samples of native speaker role-play (Denny, 2008). This article reflects on the journey and reports in detail on the final cycle of this action research journey in which the teaching of the pragmatics of casual conversation to two classes using such samples was investigated. The results indicate that there are noticeable levels of improvement in the ability of participants to use these norms and they see this improvement as having arisen from exposure not only to these semi-authentic recordings in the classroom but also to contact with native speakers outside the classroom together with explicit input from the teacher.

Description
Keywords
Teaching pragmatics , Teaching spoken English , Authentic texts
Source
The Tesolanz Journal, vol.18, pp.40-53
DOI
Publisher's version
Rights statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation) The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version)