22.2274, Diss: Lang Acq/Pragmatics: Langer: 'The Effects of Pragmatic ...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-22-2274. Mon May 30 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.2274, Diss: Lang Acq/Pragmatics: Langer: 'The Effects of Pragmatic ...'

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1)
Date: 26-May-2011
From: Bradley Langer [bdlanger at gmail.com]
Subject: The Effects of Pragmatic Instruction in the Spanish Language Classroom
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 16:37:54
From: Bradley Langer [bdlanger at gmail.com]
Subject: The Effects of Pragmatic Instruction in the Spanish Language Classroom

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Institution: University of California, Davis 
Program: Department of Spanish 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2011 

Author: Bradley D Langer

Dissertation Title: The Effects of Pragmatic Instruction in the Spanish
Language Classroom 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
                     Pragmatics

Subject Language(s): Spanish (spa)


Dissertation Director(s):
Robert J Blake

Dissertation Abstract:

Teaching L2 pragmatics is often ignored in the traditional language classroom regardless of learner level. This study examines the benefits of explicit instruction of four speech acts for beginning, intermediate, and advanced L2 learners of Spanish. The participants took a pre-test and post-test to measure the pragmatic gains over the course of an academic quarter, while the experimental groups from each level received specific lessons in pragmatic use of Spanish and the control group received no extra treatment during their courses. The treatment consisted of four online lessons demonstrating common uses of requests, invitations, refusals and apologies in Spanish. The results show that the students improved with the treatment much more than the control group with regards to pragmatic competence. Furthermore, the intermediate level showed the most improvement, suggesting that this is the optimal level for pragmatic development because learners at this level are the most receptive to the acquisition of speech acts. This investigation shows that the explicit teaching of requests, invitations, refusals, and apologies is effective and should be addressed in the Spanish language classroom at all levels, especially at the intermediate level. 







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