Exploring the aftereffects of study abroad on interlanguage pragmatic development
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Shoichi Matsumura
Shoichi Matsumura 
Abstract
The study investigates changes over time in the pragmatic competence of 15 university-level Japanese students after they returned from an eight-month study abroad in Canada. Specifically, the focus is on these students' pragmatic use of English when offering advice to individuals from three different levels of social status (i.e., higher, equal, and lower status). Results of the quantitative analysis indicate that their pragmatic use of English gradually diverges from that of native English speakers after their return, as evidenced by their frequent use of the opting-out strategy. Qualitative examination by means of a retrospective group interview reveals, however, that the divergence was not due to the loss of pragmatic competence they had developed during their study abroad. Rather, it showed that the students became more competent at choosing an advice strategy in a context-sensitive manner. Findings suggest that direct exposure to English after return to the L1 community contributes to the maintenance of pragmatic competence, and more importantly, that students may develop pragmatic competence even after their study abroad by fully utilizing opportunities to reflect on target sociocultural norms.
About the author
Shoichi Matsumura is an Associate Professor in the Department of Intercultural Communication at Ryukoku University, Japan. His current research interests include issues of interlanguage pragmatic development, relationships between various cognitive styles and performance on language assessments, EFL teacher training, and quantitative research methodology in educational psychology.
© Walter de Gruyter
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- Exploring the aftereffects of study abroad on interlanguage pragmatic development
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Articles in the same Issue
- Acquisitional pragmatics: Focus on foreign language learners
- “Ah no honestly we're okay:” Learning to upgrade in a study abroad context
- Exploring the aftereffects of study abroad on interlanguage pragmatic development
- Finding the right words in the study abroad context: The development of German learners' use of external modifiers in English
- The acquisition of French apologetic behavior in a study abroad context
- Pragmatic development in the Spanish as a FL classroom: A cross-sectional study of learner requests
- From “Sorry very much” to “I'm ever so sorry”: Acquisitional patterns in L2 apologies by Catalan learners of English
- Contributors to this issue
