Pedagogical Linguistics - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2022

The question of how to teach toward social, cultural and linguistic L2 pragmatic competence has raised serious challenges (Kasper, 1997). This is more the case for spoken rather than written discourse. As can be expected, the underlying pragmatic implications of spontaneous face-to-face communication naturally constrains the interactional scope and its potential pedagogical application. To address this issue, this naturalistic study explores two key potential contributors to the development of oral pragmatic competence: meta-pragmatic classroom conversational discourse and the course framework supporting that kind of relatively spontaneous interaction. An English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course provided fluency practice protocols, instruction in pragmatic categories, analysis of conversational data and “live” in-class intervention, focusing on meaning and alternate expressions and forms. Those interventions were designed to enhance learners’ ability to self-assess, monitor and expand their interactional repertoires. Part of a larger research project examining principles of pragmatics applied in EAP instruction, this study focuses on data from spontaneous classroom interactions situated within the integrated instructional framework of the course. Results present a range of strategies employed by the instructor consistent with current theoretical models of factors or pedagogical interventions that facilitate development of pragmatic competence.

In this paper, I attempt a bridge between linguistics, in particular text pragmatics, and school reading of literary texts. I propose a linguistic model of these peculiarities of the reading of literary texts, especially poetry, that have been called ‘aesthetic reading’, arguing that a linguistically founded basis is what is lacking for school engagement with (not only literary) texts. In the last years there has been extensive research on the linguistics-literature interface; however, what is surprisingly still missing, is a consistent linguistic model of literary reading. In this paper, I propose such a model and show that ‘aesthetic reading’ involves a distinct reading strategy that can be captured in terms of text-world-models and the differentiation between coherence and text sense displaying. Consciously reading poetry amounts, linguistically seen, to a close reading (i) especially focusing marked expressions, i.e., deviations from phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and textpragmatic routines, (ii) maintaining of unsolved ambiguities and thus (iii) generating an array of ‘authorized inferences’ that can be productively used for a principled plurality of interpretations. I specify this proposal and illustrate it with two cases of marked pronominal reference, arguing that my proposal has some important implications that make it particularly suitable for school context.

There is a longstanding stigma attached to the use of poetry in English Language Teaching (ELT). Poetry is considered difficult and peripheral to ELT curricula and L2 teacher education. Until recently, there was little scholarly interest in studying the effectiveness of poetry in second language teaching. This article aims to advance the research on the use of poetry in ELT. Using a systematic literature review approach covering the years 2008–2020, the present study investigates whether poetry remains underused and undervalued. It is structured around the questions: Is poetry a difficult subject to teach to ESL/EFL learners and learn by L2 students? What value is there to teaching poetry in ELT? Of the 199 peer reviewed journal articles retrieved, 43 met the inclusion criteria for this study and were examined in-depth. Two themes emerged from the analysis: the perception of poetry and using poetry as a research tool in ELT. The majority of evidence was qualitative research, which included 19 case studies; whereas, the most used quantitative research designs were Random Control Trials. We attest to the need for more rigorous scholarship on the part of researchers. Results show that poetry is a valuable tool for ESL/EFL students and teachers, and not difficult for L2 learners. This study concludes with a call for including poetry in teaching practices.

This study’s objective is to present an overview of experimental applications of Concept-Based Instruction (CBI) for Second Language Acquisition. CBI aims to describe complex grammatical notions in a thorough manner in order to facilitate their acquisition. Even though CBI is still considered as a recent domain in language teaching, the growing body of research makes it timely to present a systematic review, which is currently lacking. In the present paper, we will first describe the theoretical background upon which CBI is grounded. Then, we will carry out an analysis of 29 CBI studies in which a classroom experiment was performed, with the objective of considering the strengths and limits of this teaching method.