Learning pragmatics through tasks: When interaction plays a role

Abstract This study aims at examining the benefits of teaching L2 pragmatics with the use of tasks. The participants were 50 Catalan/Spanish bilingual students (aged 12–14) from three intact classes who were learners of English as a Foreign Language and with an upper-intermediate level of proficiency. The three groups followed different approaches to teaching pragmatics: G1 was instructed in pragmatics following a task-supported approach; G2 was also instructed in pragmatics but no tasks were used; and G3 was a control group with no instruction on pragmatics and no use of tasks, either. To assess pragmatic learning, role-plays were used both before and after the pedagogical intervention. The pragmatic analysis focused on the speech acts of giving opinion, agreeing/disagreeing, interrupting, and acknowledging the interlocutor. Results showed that the two instructed groups, regardless of the type, were more pragmatically competent in the posttest in one of the pragmatic moves (i.e., interrupting). Additionally, G1 presented statistically significant differences in the posttest when acknowledging the interlocutor. Regarding the control group, no differences were found in any of the moves. These findings suggest that instruction in general, and task-supported instruction in particular, has a positive impact on the development of interlanguage pragmatics in a classroom context.