Volume 46, Issue 3

A lot of research addressing learners' development of pragmatics has recently been conducted (Kasper and Schmidt 1996; Bardovi-Harlig, 2002; Kasper and Rose 2002). From this same approach, a review of theoretical perspectives on pragmatic learning and how they have been operationalised in interlanguage pragmatic research is presented. Second, by paying attention to studies on learning the speech act of requesting that have been conducted in the EFL classroom, the author addresses the issue of whether cognitive and socially-oriented theories are complementary and, if so, how they can be integrated into classroom research on pragmatics. Taking into account the debate between positivism and relativism in SLA theory construction, here the author suggests relativism as a viable paradigm in research on interlanguage pragmatics. At the same time, language classrooms are presented as settings where cognitive and socially-oriented approaches can merge, and new perspectives on investigating pragmatic learning in foreign language contexts arc discussed.

This paper focuses on the effects of age on second language learning, specifically in foreign language settings. It begins by pointing out that the effects of learners' initial age of learning in foreign language learning settings are partially different from those in naturalistic language learning settings and, furthermore, that studies in the former context have produced conflicting results. In an attempt to clarify these divergent findings, the present paper examines methodological issues as a way of re-analysing the existing evidence from research conducted in foreign language settings. The discussion contends that this kind of methodological clarification may permit robust findings to emerge which are specific to age effects in foreign or instructed language learning settings and go some way towards clarifying the existing picture.

One of the main claims of the research on language learner strategies is that the ultimate aim of the empirical work conducted in this area is to develop knowledge that can be useful in improving language learning and teaching in second and foreign language classrooms. Yet, attempts at making strategy instruction a central component of instructed language learning remain at the level of isolated initiatives rather than being part of mainstream pedagogical recommendations and practices. The central question that this paper addresses is why, despite the growth over the years in scholarly concern with strategies, advances in the field have not made their way into mainstream foreign language pedagogical thinking. In order to answer this question, I first account for the rationale behind strategy instruction as an approach to language teaching. I then review some of the main concerns that were raised up to the end of the 90's regarding the extrapolation of strategy research findings to the language classroom. This takes me to an analysis of some current developments in strategy theory and research with a view to ascertain their pedagogical relevance. My conclusion is that some headway has been made in the conceptualization of strategies and also in the manner in which the purported benefits of strategy instruction have been put to empirical test. It is also my view that future progress is dependent upon grounding theoretical and empirical work in the field more firmly in current developments in second language acquisition research.

In this contribution, I focus on the concept of “appropriateness” in the usage, the learning and the teaching of foreign languages. Using a participant-based emic perspective, I investigate multilinguals' perceptions of appropriateness in their foreign languages. Referring to the existing literature, and using previously unpublished material collected through a web questionnaire (Dewaele and Pavlenko 2001–2003), I will show that multilinguals develop their judgements of appropriateness, a crucial aspect of sociopragmatic and sociocultural competence, as part of their socialisation in a new language/culture. However, their ability to judge appropriateness accurately does not imply that they will always act “appropriately”. Indeed, the presence of conflicting norms in their other languages may contribute to conscious or unconscious divergence from the “appropriate” norm in a particular language. Some implications for foreign language teaching will be considered.

In this article we explore the role that the linguistic landscape, in the sense of all the written language in the public space, can have in second language acquisition (SLA). The linguistic landscape has symbolic and informative functions and it is multimodal, because it combines visual and printed texts, and multilingual, because it uses several languages. In this paper we look at its potential use as a source of input in SLA, in general, and in the acquisition of pragmatic competence, in particular. We also inquire into the role of the linguistic landscape in the acquisition of multimodal literacy skills and multicompetence. We conclude that the linguistic landscape is a learning context and can also be used for raising awareness in SLA.