Abstract:

The purpose of this presentation is to share new trends and experiences of practical ways to enhance the teaching of Pragmatics and Speech Acts in a Second Language (SL) context. The presentation will highlight the teaching of pragmatics through the use of cross-cultural activities. In addition, participants will explore the ways in which web-based resources can be used for integrating not just foreign language but also international skills.

Thesis:
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics, which received a great deal of attention in the last three decades as a key part of communicative competence in real-life situations; it is concerned with the use of language in context. The main goal of language learning and teaching should be the development of learner’s communicative competence. According to the interactive perspective, learning a language is a function of social and meaningful interactions.

Objectives:
This presentation focuses on the importance of going beyond the development of cross-cultural skills and focuses instead on the introduction of pragmatic skills and speech acts into FL training. Some of the consequences of pragmatic errors may cause miscommunication between native and nonnative speakers, which may threaten the speaker’s face.

Description:
This presentation will expand and enhance understanding of the relationship between foreign language proficiency and pragmatic competence and the impact of explicit metapragmatic instruction of speech acts emphasizing negotiation skills in the foreign language classroom.

Keywords:

Pragmatics, speech acts, foreign language proficiency, metapragmatics, negotiation skills.