This study examines learners’ metapragmatic awareness when following a TSLT approach. 25 Spanish-Catalan B2 EFL learners (aged 13) were tested through a DCT and a pragmatic awareness test. Findings show signs of L2 acquisition in the DCT, but such changes do not correlate with the students’ perception of pragmatic appropriateness.
Learning a language in a foreign language context (FL) is not always an easy task, due to constraints such as limited opportunities for interaction (Alcón, Martínez-Flor & Safont 2005), limited contact hours (Muñoz 2008), and large classes (Rose 1999). Learning L2 pragmatics in such context is even harder, since pragmatics is still not a main issue in classroom syllabi (González-Lloret 2019). However, research in L2 pragmatics in the last two decades has extensively shown that teaching pragmatics is beneficial for the acquisition of the L2 (e.g. Taguchi, 2015). Recent studies (see Taguchi & Kim 2018) are moving towards the use of methods such as Task-supported Language Teaching (TSLT) in order to enhance pragmatic learning and awareness. This study thus aims to contribute to this line of research. The present study analyses changes in learners’ metapragmatic awareness when following a TSLT approach. The participants were 25 Spanish-Catalan EFL learners aged 13 with a B2 proficiency level. Four sessions of three hours each were carried out throughout one semester; they targeted the speech acts of giving advice, requesting, suggesting, giving opinion, and agreeing and disagreeing. A discourse completion task (DCT) and a pragmatic awareness test were administered to check L2 pragmatic learning before and after the intervention. The findings show that the students changed their responses from pre to post-test in the DCT by incorporating the pragmatic expressions provided during the intervention, which is interpreted as a sign of acquisition of the L2. Regarding the pragmatic awareness test, differences were also identified from pre to post-test; however, in this case, the findings suggest that the students’ perception of politeness is associated with formality in relation to linguistic features (e.g. “could”), rather than to pragmatic appropriateness. These results will be discussed in the light of previous studies in the field.
