Ariadna Sanchez

The current era of globalization and emergence of English as an international language (EIL) has brought about new opportunities for L2 pragmatic learning and teaching. The common view of pragmatic learning as an approximation to native-likeness is changing towards conceiving pragmatic ability as a tool to interact with people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the majority of whom are non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. While such reality is widely acknowledged, few attempts have been made to teach pragmatic competence in EIL.

The present study investigates second language (L2) learners' pragmatic development during study abroad (SA) programs by focusing on the recognition of pragmatic routines, and how sociocultural adaptation and intensity of interaction influence pragmatic gains. It is a longitudinal investigation that employed a mixed-method approach. Thirty-one Brazilian students in their first semester of study in a US university completed a pretest and posttest version of a sociocultural adaptation questionnaire, a language contact survey, and a routine recognition test.

The present study explores the role of three individual variables, namely proficiency, cultural background, and attitude towards the target-language (TL) culture, on learners’ recognition and production of pragmatic routines. Eighty-seven international students in their first semester of study in a US university completed a vocabulary knowledge scale (VKS) and a written discourse-completion task (DCT) that measured their knowledge of pragmatic routines. Additionally, they answered a series of open-ended questions to determine their attitude towards the TL culture.