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HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CONTRASTS. A PRACTICAL APPROACH
Pragmalinguistic competence can definitely be taught. Learners must and
can acquire the routine formulae that are needed for performing various speech
acts (e.g., I’m sorry, I apologise, I’m afraid, questions with modals for indirect
requests etc.) even at the beginning stage, and they must also be told which is
the favoured form among several available forms and what supportive moves
typically accompany a given speech act (e.g., the number and kind of support¬
ive moves to an apology) (Thomas 1983).
Learners must also be sensitised to sociopragmatic differences, e.g., in judg¬
ing the severity of an offence. On the whole, however, sociopragmatic competence
is more difficult to acquire since students may feel that following pragmatic
norms different from those in L1 will threaten their sense of individual or cul¬
tural identity. They may feel that they are being asked to adopt a different
system of values, perhaps even to take on a new personality (Thomas 1983).
Teaching sociopragmatic competence is difficult because frontal teaching
does not provide sufficient input. The range of speech acts and politeness for¬
mulae occurring in classroom conversation is rather narrow, discourse for¬
mulae for opening and closing a conversation are short and simple, there are
fewer discourse markers than in conversations outside the classroom, and
organisation and control of the discourse belongs to the teacher. The basic
pattern of classroom conversation is elicitation — reply — feedback, which is
different from natural communication (Kasper 1997).
10.10.5 How can pragmatic competence be taught?
It is important to conduct classes in L2, since this may provide opportunities
for real communication. It is also important to devise tasks for practising
pragmatic issues in communicative situations. Roleplay exercises and drama
acting may be useful in this respect (Kasper 1997).
Explicit teaching and consciousness-raising are also useful, sometimes in¬
dispensable. Teaching contrasts in pragmatic behaviour is sometimes only
possible by calling attention to them, by sensitising learners to cross-cultural
differences and by teaching them to notice the information needed for devel¬
oping their pragmatic competence. E.g., learners may need to be told about
the function of compliments in British and American culture, the linguistic
formulae used in complimenting and the compliment responses generally
expected. They may be set the task of observing pragmatic features in oral or
written L2 communication (Thomas 1983).
It should also be pointed out that coursebooks usually teach the norms of
the culturally dominant classes. However, there is a diversity of pragmatic
values in British and American society, and pragmatic norms may also change
(Thomas 1983).
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