Abstract:

The present paper subscribes to the need of drawing learners’ attention to the pragmatic aspects of a second or foreign language, as empirically evinced in interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) research (cf. Bardovi-Harlig, 2001). The pragmatic aspects of a language refer to the linguistic resources a language provides to its speakers (e.g., speech acts like requests, conversational routines, etc.), and the socio-cultural assumptions underlying the use of these resources in different communicative situations (Leech, 1983). More specifically, this paper describes the findings of a case study on the learning and instruction of conversational routines, i.e., greetings and leave takings, to learners of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) during their study abroad in Spain. The overall aim of this research was to raise learners’ pragmatic awareness as regards these conversational routines in the target language. To this end, a direct or explicit approach to their teaching was adopted along the lines of ILP studies, which have attested the general effectiveness of this approach over an indirect or implicit perspective in second/foreign language (L2) pragmatic learning (Rose, 2005). Additionally, Hymes’ (1972) ethnographic approach was integrated in the instructional treatment designed and implemented in this study, based on the premise that observation is a key constituent of ethnographic research, and observation tasks are especially relevant in L2 pragmatic instruction (see Kasper, 1997). The results of the study show that learners’ ethnographic assignments largely contributed to their improvement in the production and comprehension of greetings and leave takings in SFL. These findings highlight the benefit of using combined methodologies for L2 pragmatic learning and instruction, in particular, Hymes’ ethnographic approach as a pedagogical tool to this end.

Keywords:

Interlanguage pragmatics, Foreign language teaching, ethnography, L2 pragmatics, conversational routines.