ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a summary of the rapid development of Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) literature over the past few decades. ILP, a branch of second language acquisition (SLA), examines second language (L2) learners' knowledge, use and development in performing sociocultural functions. L2 learners need linguistic forms and skills to perform everyday social functions in the target language. The chapter describes changes in the theoretical construct of pragmatic competence and illustrates the shift in the conceptualisation of pragmatic abilities from an individual- to an interaction-oriented view. It explains how cross-linguistic studies dominated the field in the 1980s and 1990s, and how the research focus in the 1990s shifted to the instruction and assessment of pragmatic competence. The concept of pragmatic competence originated in Dell Hymes' theoretical model of communicative competence. The contribution of interactional competence to ILP is evident in the recent use of conversational analysis (CA) to study action, meaning and context.
