Pragmatics

The Learning of Pragmatics from Nonnative Language Teachers, 2019

I conducted a survey to collect information on the experiences of native and nonnative language teachers as they teach their learners about the pragmatics of the target language, whether it be more a second-language experience (where the language is spoken extensively in the learners’ immediate community) or more a foreign-language experience (where the language is not spoken extensively in the learners’ immediate community). For the purposes of the questionnaire, pragmatics is viewed as dealing with intended meanings, assumptions, and actions in both oral language and written language (especially as used in texting and emailing).

I published a book with Multilingual Matters on the topic in May 2018, Learning pragmatics from native and nonnative language teachers. On my "Presentations" page I have posted a PowerPoint I presented at a conference in Konin, Poland, on this topic, and I shared the basic results of the survey.

Dancing with Words: Strategies for Learning Pragmatics in Spanish

This research project built on the previous development of a Japanese pragmatics website, in the creation of a self-access website for learning Spanish pragmatics. Dancing with Words: Strategies for Learning Pragmatics in Spanish http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/sp_pragmatics/home.html was developed over the course of eleven months and launched in August 2006. It consists of an introductory module and eight additional modules—(1) Compliments, (2) Gratitude & Leave Taking, (3) Requests, (4) Apologies, (5) Invitations, (6) Service Encounters, (7) Advice, Suggestions, Disagreements, Complaints, and Reprimands, and (8) Considerations for Pragmatic Performance. Content was based on empirical research in Spanish pragmatics, and includes unscripted video interchanges between natives of various regional varieties of Spanish, utilizing scaffolding to address the learners’ varying levels of language/pragmatic ability. Speech acts are dealt with sequentially: first as a core, then in interaction, and then as a naturally occurring sequence. The website features a framework of strategies for how to learn Spanish pragmatics, how to perform this knowledge, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of its use; and a comprehensive synthesis of Spanish pragmatics material. Once the site was constructed, a UMN grant facilitated a qualitative pilot study to investigate the use of the website by ten undergraduates. Andrew Cohen (PI of the project) and Julie Sykes (formerly a doctoral student in Hispanic linguistics at the U of Minn. and constructor of the website; now a professor in the Spanish Department at the U of New Mexico - <jsykes@unm.edu>) have presented about the website at national and international conferences and are in the process of publishing the results of the pilot study. Overall, the Spanish website has received a great deal of attention from language educators as well as parties interested in replicating the model in other languages (e.g., in Portuguese, in English, and in Chinese), and continues to serve as an accessible and usable resource for learning Spanish pragmatics.

Cohen, A. D. (2016). The design and construction of websites to promote L2 pragmatics. In K. Bardovi-Harlig & C. Félix-Brasdefer (eds.), Pragmatics and language learning (pp. 341-356), Volume 14. National Foreign Language Resource Center, University of Hawai’i, Manoa.

Sykes, J. M. & Cohen, A. D. (2009). Learner perception and strategies for pragmatic acquisition: A glimpse into online learning materials. In C. R. Dreyer (Ed.), Language and linguistics: Emerging trends (pp. 99-135). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Sykes, J. M. & Cohen, A. D. (2008). Observed learner behavior, reported use, and evaluation of a website for learning Spanish pragmatics. In M. Bowles, R. Foote, & S. Perpiñán (Eds.), Second language acquisition and research: Focus on form and function. Selected proceedings of the 2007 Second Language Research Forum (pp. 144-157). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.