ABSTRACT
There may be a misconception among some curriculum writers,teachers, and language learners alike that learners will somehow “pick up” the native-like ability to use language according to context as long
as they are immersed in the L2 environment. This false impression may be
why pragmatics has had such a low profile in the L2 curriculum. However, if
no formal instruction is provided, learners may take an extended period of
time – typically over 10 years – to acquire native-like pragmatic ability, even
in a second-language setting where learners are exposed to the target lan-
guage on a daily basis.1 Pragmatic language use is difficult to learn for many
reasons, such as differing cultural norms of appropriateness; regional, gener-
ational, ethnic, and individual variation; grammatical and lexical complexity;
and subtleties of nuances and non-verbal behavior. As we have seen earlier
in Chapter 8, existing language textbooks often pay short shrift to pragmatics-
related concerns, if they are addressed at all. In the practical world of
teaching, textbook materials often dictate the course curriculum, and for
these reasons, there is a genuine need for research-based pragmatics instruc-
tion that more accurately reflects how language is actually used in context.
