ABSTRACT
Research in interlanguage pragmatics has shown that learning how to formulate speech acts (e.g., requests, apologies) may not develop automatically as second language proficiency expands. While there exist resources for teaching pragmatics, many language courses continue to emphasize grammar and vocabulary over learning how to communicate appropriately. Pragmatics instruction offers meaningful contexts to learners to help them acquire problematic linguistic items. This chapter presents pedagogical activities for Spanish directives designed for use in beginning courses, which feature practice with verbal morphology and indirect object pronouns. The objective is to demonstrate the value of teaching pragmatics to aid the acquisition of grammatical items as well as facilitating awareness about Spanish pragmatics. The chapter also includes a review of research on speech acts and pragmatics, acquisition of second language pragmatics, and models of pragmatics instruction.
