Volume 4, Issue 2

1. Introduction Calls for research into the acquisition of pragmatic competence in a second language have been a familiar feature of the interlanguage pragmatic landscape since the 1990s. Indeed, one of the first of these many calls was made as early as 1992 by Kasper in an article focusing on pragmatic transfer. In this article, she writes “… the majority of interlanguage pragmatics studies focus on use, without much attempt to say or even imply anything about development” (1992: 204) (cf. also Kasper & Dahl 1991). This observation was then verbalized rather forcefully in a very influential publication written by Kasper and Schmidt (1996) dedicated exclusively to the acquisition of second language (L2) pragmatic competence and designed “… to profile interlanguage pragmatics as an area of inquiry in second language acquisition research …” (1996: 149). In this seminal publication, they write: Interlanguage pragmatics, the study of the development and use of strategies for linguistic action by nonnative speakers, has a peculiar status in second language research. Unlike other areas of second language study, which are primarily concerned with acquisitional patterns of interlanguage knowledge over time, the great majority of studies in ILP has not been developmental. Rather, focus is given to the ways NNSs' pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge differs from that of native speakers (NSs) and among learners with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. To date, ILP has thus been primarily a study of second language use rather than second language learning. (1996: 150)

Interlanguage studies have found learners' use of internal modifiers to develop in terms of frequency, choice and variety over time spent in the target speech community. Much of this research has, however, concentrated on syntactic and lexical downgrading. Studies focusing on upgrading, i.e., intensifying forms of internal modification, remain in very short supply. This study focuses on the acquisition of upgrading in refusals of offers by 33 Irish learners of German over a period of 10 months spent in a study abroad context. Learner, German NS, and Irish English NS data were elicited using the free discourse completion task specifically designed to investigate discourse sequences. Contrary to previous findings, learners were found to employ upgraders to an extensive degree in refusal sequences prior to the year abroad. However, their use of upgraders in initial refusals was low prior to their sojourn abroad. Over time, upgrading in initial refusals increased in an L2-like movement. This development is explained by a decrease in negative transfer from Irish English in the structuring of offer-refusal exchanges, a change which led to a decrease in ritual reoffers and a consequent increase in the use of upgraders to intensify the force of the initial refusals or of the adjuncts employed therewith. In addition, the linguistic evidence points to a higher level of upgrading in initial refusals realized using formulaic utterances relative to those realized using ad hoc utterances at the end of the year abroad, a finding which underlines the explanatory power of the complexification hypothesis in explaining the acquisition of modification by learners.

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.

This paper examines the pragmatic development of nine German university students in a study abroad context over the period of one academic year. The investigation focuses on learners' ability to soften the illocutionary force of request utterances by employing a range of external modifiers. Data for the present investigation were elicited at three distinct points of the learners' sojourn in the target language environment: shortly after their arrival, in the middle of their stay and shortly before they returned home to Germany. The data were collected with the help of the Multimedia Elicitation Task (MET) which had been specifically designed for the present study. The MET is a computer based instrument that contains 16 request scenarios. The study examines whether learners varied the use of external modifiers according to the status of their interlocutors and/or the imposition of the request. It also investigates whether their choice of modifiers over time seems to have been influenced by exposure to their L2 in the study abroad context by comparing the data of the German learners of English in England to data collected from 13 German learners of English in Germany with no study abroad experience and also to 15 British English native speakers.

Research in interlanguage pragmatics and sociolinguistics has suggested that foreign language learners have difficulties in reaching higher levels of pragmatic and sociolinguistic competence without receiving specific instruction or without spending some time in the target speech community (Dewaele 2002; Warga 2004). The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of a period of immersion in the target language community on the pragmatic development of foreign language learners of French in the area of apologies. The study, thus, adds to the scarce body of literature on pragmatic development in general and on the pragmatics of French as an L2 in particular. The participants in this longitudinal study are seven Austrian learners of French who studied at the Université de Montréal in Quebec for a period of ten months. Base-line data elicited from native speakers (NSs) of Quebecois French and NSs of Austrian German are also analyzed. The methods of data collection include a four-item discourse completion task designed to elicit the speech act of apology and a questionnaire completed before and after the year abroad. The analysis reveals that while some aspects of apologetic behavior approximate the Quebecois French NS norm over time spent in the target language community (e.g., decrease of Justifications), other aspects remain unaffected by the exposure (e.g., frequency of IFIDs) or even shift away from the L2 norm (e.g., increase in the use of two upgraders). Overall, a coexistence of target-like and non-target-like developments was observed in the data. Moreover, many of the features investigated were found to develop in a non-linear—rather than linear—fashion. It is, therefore, suggested that future studies in the field take a more dynamic perspective in order to obtain a fuller understanding of the path of pragmatic development.

This study investigates the development of requests from the beginning of foreign language instruction to advanced levels of proficiency in face-to-face interactions. Data were collected from three learner groups (American learners of Spanish) (45 learners [15 per group: beginning, intermediate, advanced]). Open role plays were used to collect data in four request situations. Data were analyzed for request head acts (direct, conventional indirect, non-conventional indirect), the request perspective, and internal and external modification. Findings indicate that the beginner group produced the largest number of direct requests. They, thus, showed little competence in situational variation. These direct requests were often realized by means of verbless requests, statements of need, imperatives, and requests with an infinitive used as a main verb. In contrast, a strong preference for conventionally indirect requests was observed among intermediate and advanced learners in formal and informal situations, with a decline in direct requests noted to appear with increasing proficiency. Four stages of pragmatic development among learners in a FL context were identified and discussed in light of existing research in pragmatic development. This study also addresses the issue of the primacy of pragmatics over grammar in expressing pragmatic intent, formula research in interlanguage pragmatics, and pragmatic development in the FL classroom.

This paper analyzes the acquisitional stages of L2 apology realizations in response to discourse completion tasks produced in a cross-sectional study by 78 Catalan learners of English at three different proficiency levels. The average number of explicit apologies (IFIDs) used per situation is examined, as are the learners' lexical choice of apology performative verbs, on the one hand, and the degree and type of apology intensification (both lexical and phrasal) they use, on the other. The learner data is compared to analogous British English and Catalan native speaker data. The paper discusses pragmatic transfer, as well as the types of interlanguage behavior of each of the three groups of L2 learners.