Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera

Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching

Language & Pragmatics

Language & Pragmatics

Erwin Santana Ortega

 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics
Observation:

The courses of EFL taught in the institution where I work have the purpose to

prepare our students for teaching English in elementary schools once they have

graduated. There are many problems regarding EFL learning by students in this rural

school, however I will concentrate my efforts in doing a project in the field of pragmatics.

Yule (1996) states the following about this branch of language:

“Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a

speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). It has, consecuently,

more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what

the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves” (p. 1)

It has been noticed in the classroom that for the course English B1 students are

usually not encouraged to speak about a topic related to the field of education, although it

is their major. They need to be aware of the qualities of a good teacher and be able to

express thoughts regarding their teaching philosophy. Hopefully, by speaking about what

good teachers do and by contrasting those ideas with their own teaching, they can reflect

and improve it.

As a result of this project, I intend to understand my students’ reasons for studying

a bachelorette degree in education. Why do they think that education it is a profession

that suits my students? What is the best they have to teach elementary school children?

How important is it for them to learn and teach English?

 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics
Hypothesise:

First, students will be shown different responses to the question: What are the

qualities of a good teacher? Such responses were gathered from students all around the

globe and they represent what some students from different countries (including Mexico)

think about good teachers. This information was retrieved from the webpage

https://www.unicef.org/teachers/teacher/teacher.htm. From this activity, my students

will be exposed to responses related to the question they will be asked to respond at the

end of the experiment. They will meet responses such as: I like a teacher who helps me

think and get answers for myself or the teacher is to the students what the rain is to the

field. I want them to interiorize different ways to respond before they actually draw their

own conclusions (spoken).

Next, a video containing different responses to the same question above will be

displayed, so that students understand the different possibilities for starting an answer:

a) I think that a good teacher…

b) Good teachers are…

c) My favorite teacher is…

d) A good teacher should be able to…

Finally, students will be asked to answer the next direct question: What are the

qualities of a good teacher? The attention will be paid to the origin of the answers: why do
 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics
students say that and not the other? why are those ideas relevant to them in the field of

education? How do they manage to emphasize something they wish to convey? No

specific attention will be paid to syntax for this research. O’Keeffe, Clancy & Adolphs

(2011) mentioned that:

“Hymes (1974) refers to two different types of competence: the first, grammatical

competence, relates to the ability to create and understand grammatically correct

sentences; and the second, communicative competence, is associated with the

ability to produce and understand sentences that are appropriate and acceptable

in a particular situation” (p. 2)

 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics
Experiment:

“Lessons in language classrooms on, for instance, how to carry out speech acts

in the L2, tend to be popular, where learners can more easily bring in personal

experience and make connections with the real world of conversational interactions”

(LoCastro, 2012, p. 236). What this author mentions is exactly what my goal was. After

listening and reading some examples of what other students think are qualities of good

teachers, my students can add some of their own experience and construct their own

way to explain good qualities of teachers in the circumstances they observe real life.

It took one 60-minute period to explain the materials that had been prepared

for this activity and one more to elicit from my students their own responses. The

samples were a good help to start making their own thoughts, even though some

sentences my students built were ill constructed. However most of them were

understandable; and only a few participants did not show desire to answer the

question. I had difficulties making few of my students give a spoken answer to the main

question.

After reading the answers, I realized that my students understand more than they

can communicate when it comes to qualities of good teachers. I thought they would be

better at writing their own thoughts, but I assume they need more practice with activities

similar to this one in order to develop communicative competence.

 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics
Findings:

The intervention did not show as good evidence as expected. During the planning I

thought that one hour for teaching and other for having my students responding to the

question was sufficient, but in the end I think more practice would have been more

productive. Typically the lessons I teach do not require my students to elicit large amounts

of words. Now I see the importance of making students try harder. For future assignments

audio will be recorded to show proof of the results. Written evidence was gathered

because it was clearer to be presented in the findings (see appendix A). However I know

that spoken evidence is important to observe the impact of my intervention.

O’Keeffe, Clancy & Adolphs (2011) address the following. The teaching of

pragmatics in the language classroom is important for two reasons: (1) it has been

demonstrated that there is a need for it; and (2) quite simply, it has proven to be

effective (p. 138). In my experience I can say that it was not as effective as it was

pretended, but not because the idea of the authors is wrong, but rather because more

attention needs to be put on practicing before gathering the final evidence.

 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics

Appendix A: Samples of the responses (written).

Instructions: Answer the following question taking into account your own experience as

teacher in training.

What are the qualities of a good teacher?

Student 1: Responsibility, like kids, and good person.

Student 2: The qualitys to be a good teacher are: listen a students, make funy class, try

to everyday make a smiley and positive actitud, and explain the class with a dynamic form

ever a creative form. Don’t forget you are the example because you personality is part

to teach.

Student 3: I think that good teachers love to teach students, because is very important

work. She have to teach with love and make students like learn. Teacher smile all days.
 Maestría en Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Linguistic Description for Foreign Language Teaching
Language & Pragmatics

References

LoCastro, V. (2012). Pragmatics for Language Educators: A Sociolinguistic Perspective

(ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series). New York and London: Routledge.

O’Keeffe, A., B. Clancy & S. Adolphs (2011). Introducing Pragmatics in Use. Abingdon,

Oxford: Routledge.

Yule, G. and H. G. Widdowson (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.