Researching and teaching speech acts with young L2 learners

Abstract

The title of the book clearly embraces the main topics which are developed throughout the volume. In the first place, the authors introduce relevant and updated research related to pragmatics, particularly speech acts, together with pedagogical activities to enhance pragmatic development in the classroom. Secondly, they show the connection between the above-mentioned topics with a specific group of students, that of young second language learners (YLLs). In this sense, the book is unique in that it exclusively focuses on this specific population, adding to the scant research carried out with young learners (Schauer, 2019).

The eight chapters which make up this volume are grouped around three parts. Part 1 provides the background of terms which will be used throughout the book. In this sense, in Chapter 1 the authors first focus on the definition of pragmatics understood as the interplay between linguistic structures, context and speakers’ and hearers’ intentions and then they illustrate the components of pragmatic competence (i.e., pragmalinguistic, sociopragmatic and interactional competence). Chapter 2 is devoted to the discussion the realization of six well-researched speech acts in English: requests, apologies, refusals, greetings, compliments and compliment responses. Once the key concepts for understanding pragmatic research have been explained in the first two chapters, Chapter 3 introduces an updated account of how YLLs produce and perceive speech acts not only in English, but also in diverse L1s such as Catalan, Chinese, German or Spanish. In this vein, an overview of both longitudinal and cross-sectional research on production of speech acts by YLLs is provided, along with the presentation of studies on speech act perception by this particular group of students.