The Language Teacher
05 - 2003

What is the Relevance of Pragmalinguistic Failure to Language Teaching?

Brent Poole

Osaka Jogakuin Junior College



Pragmalinguistic failure is defined as "a misunderstanding of the intended illocutionary, or pragmatic, force of an utterance" (Homes & Brown, 1987, p.526). Illocutionary force refers to what impact a verbal or written message has on the listener or reader. The illocutionary force is what the speaker wants the statement to convey to the listener. For example, "It's cold in here" is (in semantic terms), a statement about the physical condition of the speaker, but in illocutionary terms may be a request to the listener to close the window or turn on the heater (Richards, Platt, & Platt, 1999). Here is an example of pragmalinguistic failure:

Although B construed the comment as a compliment, it becomes apparent that A meant it as a declaration of concern. The basis for the misinterpretation in this context lies in a perceptual differentiation of appropriate topics for compliments. Hence, in some cultures rapid weight loss may be a cause for concern, whereas in others it may be cause for celebration.

Regardless of the teaching context, our primary responsibility is to improve second language communicative competence. This not only involves focusing on form but also addressing pragmatic concerns. Put another way, even if students can produce grammatically correct sentences, it does not guarantee that they can order food appropriately at a restaurant. Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei (1997) looked at pragmatic competence in academic counseling sessions and found that pragmatic errors were more severe than grammatical errors. For example, the non-native group tended to use less mitigation in their suggestions and rejections, which resulted in their being perceived as too direct or even rude.

When addressing pragmalinguistic failure, one should take into consideration the cultural gap between the L1 and L2. For instance, different strategies would need to be employed in teaching complimenting behavior to Indonesians. As Wolfson (1981) reported, compliments are only used by Indonesians who have been exposed to Western customs. Another example related to complimenting behavior is from Nelson, Bakary, and Batal (1989). They found that Egyptians tend to compliment each other on natural attributes although this is an infrequent topic for complimenting in North America. An Egyptian may give a compliment such as: "Your skin is beautiful." However, within a North American context, this may be misconstrued as sexual harassment. As in the first example, the basis for misinterpretation in this context lies in the perceptual differentiation of appropriate topics for compliments. Hence, in some cultures it may be appropriate to compliment someone on their natural attributes, but in others it could lead to a lawsuit.

Pragmalinguistic failure can lend itself to miscommunication and it can serve to perpetuate the status quo within the parameters of social stratification. Gumperz (1982a, 1982b) illustrates this point in his research with "gatekeepers" (people who have responsibility over job interviews, loan applications, promotions and licenses) who were found to misconstrue information about the L2 speaker's abilities and attitudes. One ramification was that minority groups were not allowed the same degree of access to opportunities and resources that would offer upward mobility as compared to the majority. This form of institutional discrimination that often occurs without intended bigotry can be thwarted by properly preparing L2 learners pragmalinguistically.

House and Kasper (1987) argue that corresponding effects (i.e., strong similarities) can be found in some languages such as Danish and German and these similarities make it possible to transfer certain strategies into English without formal instruction. However, students tend to compartmentalize their knowledge and fail to carry over what they already know to a new task. This tendency to compartmentalize knowledge should be taken into consideration, when planning to teach strategies to avoid pragmalinguistic failure.

Another notion that needs to be examined is that there are some linguistic and cultural universals vis-a-vis pragmatic knowledge (Kasper, 1997a). For example, learners know that they need to indicate to their interlocutor that they are paying attention through back channeling and appropriate non-verbal cues (see the article by Fujimoto in this issue) or that there is an organizational structure in turn taking. Kasper (1997a) reviewed 10 studies that indicated that pragmatic competence can be taught and comparison of control and experiment groups illustrate the effectiveness of instruction. When implicit vs. explicit instruction was taken into consideration, it was found that students' pragmatic ability improved regardless of the methodology employed. However, the group that was taught by explicit instruction performed better than any other group. An eclectic approach and the use of suggestopedia were both effective in improving students' pragmatic ability, but students taught by the eclectic approach outperformed the suggestopedia group. The review of the 10 studies also indicated that the students' level of second language proficiency does not seem to hinder the teaching of pragmatic competence.

In Japan learners rarely have the opportunity to use the L2 outside of the classroom, which limits their out-of-classroom observation opportunities. However, authentic materials can be brought into the classroom (Bardovi-Harlig, Hartford, Mahan-Taylor, Morgan, & Reynolds, 1991; Kasper 1997b). EFL/ESL textbooks are not considered sources of authentic material because there appears to be a wide discrepancy between the way native speakers use the language and what is represented in the texts. For example, Bardovi-Harlig et al. (1991) found that when examining conversational closings in 20 textbooks few of them represented naturalistic use, implying that even the native speakers who contribute to textbook development may lack explicit knowledge of pragmatics. The course of action for instruction should follow a two-pronged approach. First, awareness raising provides opportunities for students to increase their knowledge base vis-a-vis pramalinguistics. For example, students could be taught under what circumstances it is appropriate to compliment someone, what topics are appropriate, and what syntactic formulas are most commonly used. Second, students could be given a task such as studying a film outside of class in conjunction with its screenplay and taking notes on the pragmalinguistic features that were explained in class. Students could then report back to class and compare their notes with others. This approach would provide opportunities for students to focus on applicable features in the film context and at the same time enable them to "make connections between linguistic forms, pragmatic functions, their occurrence in different social contexts, and their cultural meanings" (Kasper, 1997a, p. 10).

The relevance of pragmalinguistic failure to language teaching is that it is an important component in the development of communicative competence. It is important to examine the L1/L2 relationship in regards to corresponding effects and also determine the types and degrees of difference between two respective cultures. Furthermore, learners need to be made explicitly aware of what they already know in order to consistently and correctly apply their knowledge. This should involve the use of authentic materials to raise awareness and to provide opportunities for practice.

References

Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Dörnyei, Z. (1997, March). Pragmatic awareness and instructed L2 learning: An empirical investigation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), Orlando, FL, USA.
Bardovi-Harlig, K., Hartford, B. A. S., Mahan-Taylor, R., Morgan, M. J., & Reynolds, D. W. (1991). Developing pragmatic awareness: Closing the conversation. ELT Journal, 45, 4-15.
Gumperz, J. (1982a). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, J. (1982b). Language and social identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Homes, J., & Brown, D. (1987). Teachers and students learning about compliments. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 523-543.
House, J., & Kasper, G. (1987). Interlanguage pragmatics: Requesting in a foreign language. In W. Lorscher & R. Schelze (Eds.), Perspectives on language in performance: Festschrift for Werner Hullen. Tubingen, Germany: Narr.
Kasper, G. (1997a). Can pragmatic competence be taught? Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center, NFLRC Net Work #6, The University of Hawaii.
Kasper, G. (1997b). The role of pragmatics in language teacher education. In K. Bardovi-Harlig & B. S. Hartford (Eds.), Beyond methods: Components of language teacher education (pp.113-136). New York: McGraw Hill.
Nelson G., Bakary W., & Batal, M. (1996). Egyptian and American compliments: Focus on second language learners. In S. Gass & J. Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Richards, J., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1999). Dictionary of language and applied linguistics. London: Longman.
Wolfson, N. (1981). Compliments in cross-cultural perspectives. TESOL Quarterly, 15(2), 117-124.

Brent Poole is an instructor at Kansai Gaidai University and at Osaka Jogakuin Junior College. His research interests are pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis.


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