ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role that two sources of authentic language data, conversation analysis and electronic corpora, play in the teaching of L2 pragmatics. It investigates how naturally occurring language data can be useful and instructive for the teaching of L2 pragmatics. The chapter shows how insights from this approach could be applied to instruction on pragmatics. Conversation analysis (CA) is a systematic approach to performing detailed analysis of both the verbal and nonverbal behavior of people engaged in social interaction. CA has demonstrated how what may appear as just ordinary, interactive talk is actually achieved through the application of methodical and complex practices on the part of the participants. In recent years, experts have recommended the use of CA in the study of L2 pragmatics, since they would say that pragmatic meanings emerge from participant's efforts at interpreting each others interactive contributions to a conversation.
