The Effect of Task-based Instruction and Corrective Feedback on Pragmatic Competence Development: The Study of Intermediate Learners of Persian

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Departments of English Language and Literature and Linguistics, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University. Tehran. Iran

2 PhD Candidate of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran. Iran

Abstract

Developing pragmatic competence as a component of communicative competence has been emphasized by many L2 scholars. This competence enables L2 learners to use their linguistic resources to produce contextually appropriate utterances. Learning a second language is not limited to developing the linguistic competence; understanding L2 functions, speech acts, pragmatic routines, politeness system, etc. is a necessary aspect of second language learning.
Research has shown that even advanced L2 learners may have difficulty with the pragmatic aspects of the second language they are learning. Given its importance, many scholars believe that knowledge of L2 pragmatic system can be developed through instruction. Consequently, teaching L2 pragmatics has become a focus in many studies. Since the pragmatic system forms part of the learners’ interlanguage, this area is referred to as Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP). ILP is rooted in both second language acquisition and pragmatics. A key issue in ILP is to determine the most effective method or mode of instruction for teaching L2 pragmatics.
Throughout the literature, some researchers have compared explicit with implicit methods. Others have focused on inductive and deductive modes of instruction. Recently, however, a few studies have examined the effect of task-based instruction (TBI) on L2 learners’ pragmatic competence, observing that TBI can be helpful in developing many aspects of L2 learners’ pragmatic competence. Additionally, studies on corrective feedback (CF) have focused on developing pragmatic competence by providing different types of CF. However, there is still no definite answer to the question “what is the best method to teach ILP?”. Furthermore, most studies on the development of pragmatic competence and ILP have focused on English as the target language. This means that the effectiveness of instruction and different ways of teaching on the development of pragmatic competence has not been widely investigated in other languages.
Given the lack of comprehensive studies on the effect of TBI and CF on Persian language learners’ pragmatic competence, this study aimed to examine the potential impact of TBI and CF on intermediate Persian learners’ production of the speech acts of request, refusal, and apology.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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