ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the various interpretative frames that young language learners draw on and the evaluative stances they adopt to make sense of pragmatic practices in their first and second languages. The three group discussions presented originated from a project investigating young Norwegian EFL learners’ appraisals of self- and peer-produced requests as well as their metapragmatic awareness. They illustrate 3rd-, 5th-, and 7th-grade learners’ evaluative language use and co-construction of meaning when discussing and explicitly or implicitly comparing Norwegian (L1) and English (L2) pragmatic practices. The discussions reveal diverse opinions and a variety of interpretative frames, including lived experiences, the learners’ own feelings and perceived feelings of others, unarticulated L1 cultural assumptions, stereotypes about L1 and L2 speakers, and historical and cultural knowledge, all of which provide relevant insights into young learners’ developing metapragmatic awareness. In concert with their highly positive evaluations of L2 pragmatic practices, albeit often based on stereotypical views, the diversity of perspectives offers considerable potential for guided classroom discussions and for future research aiming to explore learners’ evaluations of pragmatic practices and the ways in which these are mediated by cultural assumptions.
