Pragmatics in the classroom

What is Pragmatics?

Pragmatics studies how language is used by real people in real contexts, in spoken discourse and written contexts, and is highly influenced by cultural and social contexts. When considering pragmatics in American educational settings, we must consider the structures and context of Western culture in shaping how we use the different varieties of English between speakers, in the classroom, and in American society for different purposes.

Speech act theory describes how language is used to accomplish things or acts, involving:

Locutionary Acts- when the sounds and words are made in a statement and it’s basic, surface meaning

Illocutionary Acts- the intended underlying meaning of one’s statement or the conventional force that one intends in their statement

Perlocutionary Acts- the effect of the statement on the hearer

The following link an animated video of Steven Pinker's discussion on “Language as a Window into Human Nature”, providing a brief introduction to the complexities of real language use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU&feature=relmfu

The cooperative principle of speech states that speakers and listeners must cooperate to both contribute to conversation by using purposeful speech as well as listening with purpose of conversation in mind. In this conversational relationship, there are guidelines for speech, known as conversational maxims, including rules such as “Make your contributions as informative as required.” and “Do not say what you believe to be false.”. These guidelines are not hard and fast and are often not all followed, such as when people change how they speak to consider others' feelings (politeness) or use little “white lies” to spare feelings.

In conversation, there is a pattern of conversation, starting with an opening dialogue, body of the conversation, and then closing words. Discourse markers are words used by a speaker to connect a phrase or sentence to the previous or following words and help a listener to understand the speech in relation to the relationship between themselves and the speaker. Some discourse markers include words such as so, however, then, say, look, and, but, etc.

Style of talking varies greatly across social settings, when considering informal and formal speech. We can see style shifts from more to less formal depending on context and purpose of conversations. Also, in different social groups, there are changes in how people speak to distinguish certain social identities. Code switching is when people switch between or mix dialects or languages within one sentence or conversation, which is often seen in conversations among bilingual speakers.

In written discourse, genres are types of texts that tend to occur or are connected with certain contexts or occasions for certain purposes, such as nonfiction texts, persuasive essay, and personal stories. Registers are the varieties of the language that must be used in certain texts, such as “Business English.” Among different cultural groups and languages, there may be different conventions for genres, such as the argumentative essay- in the English essay, the format is to state the point and provide supporting facts, whereas in other cultures there may be a more indirect or ‘subtle relevation’ or circular reasoning to support the thesis.

Cohesion refers to the words in texts that help to connect sentences together, joining them into one ‘cohesive’ text. These features include reference items, conjunctions, ellipsis or substitution, or lexical cohesion through repetition, synonyms, or collocations.

Text structures and features also vary depending on genre, and Western culture has set structures for narratives that describe personal experiences, explain how things are, or try to persuade how things should be. In texts, we can also examine the perspective of the speaker/writer, actions of the actors and who is acted upon, word choice, and poetic structures and techniques.

in the classroom

Tips for Applying Pragmatics:

Use explicit teaching and meaningful practice to give ELLs multiple opportunities to hear models of language use

         and use
         language in different contexts. Teachers can
         learn about their student’s native language
         use in certain contexts as a a reference point
         for where students are coming from, and
         how student may be able to transfer or
         compare their native language use to
         English. Teachers can ‘the classroom as a
         culture in itself’ to consider student
         perspective when coming to an American
         educational setting, especially for newcomer
         ELLs.

ESOL teachers should offer as many push-in teaching opportunities as possible, to encourage student discussion and learning in the context of the classroom and/or real-life situations. Students need to be immersed as much as possible in the language, routines, and culture of the classroom, especially in the first days and weeks of joining a new school.
Kagan Structures: These student activity formats/structures help to promote student engagement through cooperative learning and discussion. These structures can especially help ELL students as they offer rich opportunities for students to engage in discussions and analysis with classmates. Here are some great classroom Kagan structure cards that can be used across all grade levels:

Sentences Frames: Sentence frames are simple sentences that have words missing where students will fill in the words to complete the sentence, in order to communicate their idea (i.e. I like ____. I need ____.). Sentence frames are helpful for explain thinking in mathematics, such as telling ‘how they know’ (The ___ is ___.-> The pencil is 5 cubes. The crayon is 3 cubes.) and can be used to help teach the pragmatics of English language, like how to greet others, request basic needs, or communicate feelings.

Reading and writing partnerships: Student partnerships are an essential piece of a strong reading and writing program. Students are paired with readers/writers like themselves, but also ELLs newer to English can be put in groups of 3 with stronger English speakers/writers, as language models and guides.

“What does it look like? What does it sound like?”: Use these types of questions to guide discussion about classroom rules and routines at the beginning of the school year, charting out the rules of partner sharing, reading time, snack time, etc. In this process, you are assessing what students know about these routines, having students share what they know about the pragmatic language for each activity, and providing models/anchor charts which help to teach the expected or appropriate language.

Politeness has many different forms in different cultures, and can significantly impact what is considered appropriate communication in different situations. As situations or discourse arises that employs politeness, teach ELLs the meaning, purpose, and appropriate language of politeness in the situation, comparing it with their use of politeness in their cultural background.

Discourse markers are important to model and, when appropriate, teach for ELLs learning English, to help them negotiate meaning, especially in higher level academic discourse where discourse markers (i.e. however, then, and therefore) may serve many functions which may not be clear to an ELL student.

Conjunction words can be analyzed and explicitly taught to help ELLs understand how information is presented in texts and how it all ties together. The three main conjunction categories include elaboration words (in other words, that is, for example, etc.), extension words (and, also, but, on the other hand, etc.), and enhancement words (next, finally, soon, meanwhile, etc.).