© 1991 by Oxford University Press
Articles |
Developing pragmatic awareness: closing the conversation
Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Indiana University, conducts research in second language acquisition, discourse analysis of cross-cultural communication, and the integration of pragmatics in the ESL/EFL curriculum. She is actively involved in teacher preparation (TESL/ Applied Linguistics) and has taught ESL for twelve years.
Associate Professor of Linguistics at Indiana University, publishes in the areas of World English, second language acquisition, and discourse analysis of cross-cultural communication. She has taught ESL and EFL in Poland and Nepal, and has been involved in teacher preparation for nineteen years.
Associate Instructor of ESL at the Center for English Language Training, has an MA degree in Linguistics from Indiana University. She has taught ESL and literacy for four years.
Assistant Editor at ERIC Clearinghouse for Reading and Communication Skills, has an MA degree in Linguistics from Indiana University. She has taught ESL for three years.
Associate Instructor of ESL at the Center for English Language Training, is a PhD student in Linguistics at Indiana University, where he specializes in second language acquisition. He has taught EFL in Egypt for two years and ESL for two years.
Many commercially available English-language materials do not provide natural, or even pragmatically appropriate, conversational models for learners. This paper argues for increasing the role of pragmastics in English-language instruction. Classroom teachers can integrate pragmatics into the language curriculum by drawing on natural conversations, students' observations, and incomplete dialogues in textbooks. The paper provides guide-lines for pragmatically-centred lessons, as well as examples of specific activities, using closings in American English to illustrate these examples.