ABSTRACT
The acquisition of pragmatics probably fi gures only minimally in many learners’ minds when they contemplate L2 learning. And yet pragmatics, the use of language in social contexts, is an important component of communicative competence that has begun to receive a considerable amount of attention in ISLA (Bardovi-Harlig, 2013). The acquisition of L2 pragmatics is considered to be one of the most diffi cult and latest acquired aspects of L2 learning (Bardovi-Harlig & Vellenga, 2012). As a result, it could be argued that it is important to help learners acquire L2 pragmatics in instructed contexts; however, attention to pragmatics often does not occur in the classroom. In addition, while it is possible for learners to receive considerable amounts of grammatical, lexical, and phonological input, especially in communicative classes, input regarding pragmatics is much more constrained in the classroom because the contextualized nature of pragmatics depends on the social situation, and yet L2 learners, especially foreign language learners, often fi nd themselves in only one social context in which the L2 is used, i.e., the L2 classroom. Thus, there is little opportunity for learners to observe or to use language in different social contexts. As a result it can be even more crucial for teachers to intentionally highlight L2 pragmatic usage.
