ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 discusses how instructors and researchers can forge partnerships to increase instructional awareness regarding the acquisition of linguistic mitigation. In the chapter, several recommendations are made since it parts from the premise that instruction and research should partner to create learning environments that address the teaching of linguistic mitigation and pragmatics, in general. The chapter touches upon how digital communication can initially support instruction while at the same time contribute to ways of investigating attenuation, starting from symbolic emoticons to written emails and other online communications. The chapter also calls on publishers to assist in explicitly dealing with instruction related to pragmatic competence and mitigation. In recommending that researchers use naturally occurring speech to provide instruction, assess acquisition, and create measures that are appropriate in language-learning contexts, the chapter delves into several tasks, short-term formative assessments, that can prove beneficial for instruction and research.
