ELT Journal Advance Access published online on July 27, 2009
ELT Journal, doi:10.1093/elt/ccp056
© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Pragmatics, awareness raising, and the Cooperative Principle
Neil Murray is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Senior Consultant English Language Proficiency at the University of South Australia. He has degrees in TESOL and Applied Linguistics from the universities of Cambridge and Temple and a PhD from London University. He has published articles and books on academic listening and writing and is currently interested in pragmatics, intercultural competence, and the development of academic writing skills
Email: neil.murray{at}unisa.edu.au
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Abstract |
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In recent years, pedagogical pragmatics has sought to improve the effectiveness with which learners express and interpret meaning, through awareness-raising activities that draw on authentic materials and break away from simplistic explanations of form–function correspondences. By and large, these efforts have been informed by an inductive approach through which, over time, learners can infer general principles governing appropriate language use from an understanding of particular speech acts based on observation, description, and classroom discussion. This paper argues that learners can simultaneously benefit from a deductive approach which develops an appreciation of those general principles that background the performance and interpretation of speech acts. It is suggested that Grice's Cooperative Principle provides a useful means through which to implement such an approach and help ensure that learners use language in a socially appropriate way.