Magister en Innovación de la Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y Evaluación del Inglés.

Módulo: Competencias Lingüísticas y Culturales en Lengua Inglesa.

Prof.: Angie Evelyn Quintanilla Espinoza

Final task:
Research Paper Analysis

Candidate: Nicoll Castillo Torres.

Professor: Angie Evelyn Quintanilla Espinoza

Module: Competencias Lingüísticas y Culturales en Lengua Inglesa.

Magister en Innovación de la Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y Evaluación del Inglés.
Módulo: Competencias Lingüísticas y Culturales en Lengua Inglesa.
Prof.: Angie Evelyn Quintanilla Espinoza

Research Paper Analysis

Title of the article: The role of pragmatic competence in English language teaching.

Author: Nadezhda Pirogova

Article link: ISSN: 2304-033 https://doi.org/10.17162/au.v12i3.1138

This action research is based on the development of pragmatic competences in English

Language Teaching, which is to say, how students understand and use the language in
specific contexts, therefore, it focuses on the development of this competence by
incorporating linguistic and cultural knowledge. The main objective is to improve
students' pragmatic competence in English. This qualitative research has an
experimental design. The participants are twenty master students who study English at
the Russian University, they have elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate English
Language proficiency level. Research results indicate that explicit focus on pragmatics in
the classroom leads to improvements in pragmatic development.

There are key concepts in this action research that must be described to grasp the
essence of this research. The first concept is Pragmatic competence, which is described
as “the ability to understand the intentions of your interlocutors and proper use of
language.”, therefore, the students, in this case understood as the language users, are
the ones who need to develop, not only grammatical, but also discourse, strategic and
pragmatic competences (Canale & Swain, 1980), in order to be efficient and competent
when communicating. Another concept is “Culture”, which is seen as the elements that
the language user brings to the communicative context, such as, personalities, values,
social identities, and beliefs. This term collides with the “pragmatic norms” which are the
standard ways of using language in certain contexts, since some of these norms can be
alike those in learners' cultures and be directly translated from their L1 (first language)
into English, other norms can be different.
Magister en Innovación de la Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y Evaluación del Inglés.
Módulo: Competencias Lingüísticas y Culturales en Lengua Inglesa.
Prof.: Angie Evelyn Quintanilla Espinoza

The subjects involved in this study was a group of twenty master students who study
English at the Russian University, their age ranges among 20 to 22 years old, they were
all enrolled in General English course and had classes twice a week for one month. This
group was a mixed-ability one where students had elementary (7 participants), pre-
intermediate (8 participants), and intermediate (5 participants) levels of English. The
study had an experimental design and primarily aimed at boosting students' pragmatic
competence within their English language curriculum. The research was planned as a
context based. In each lesson pragmatics was a major focus.

Concerning the measurements of this research; the main instruments applied were
testing (standardized placement test at the beginning of the course and ready-made
progress test in the middle of it), detailed lesson planning (with 3 stages: activation,
presentation and production), observation and guidance of students by the teacher in the
classroom, and assistance in the course of their self-study, assessment (by the teacher
and peers to make it more reliable) including evaluation rubric for the presentations, data
collection, and analysis of pragmatic mistakes. Elements of statistical analysis were used
to compare the correlation of vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatic errors among
students with different English language levels.

Regarding the results of this study, it can be said that teachers should pay special
attention to the development of pragmalinguistic competence of students at the early
stage of language learning and further develop their socio-pragmatic knowledge. On the
other hand, pragmatic assessment in class can be challenging since peer assessment
and self-assessment are as important as teacher-led assessment. Nevertheless, in either
method, it is important to consider that pragmatic principles are variable and subjective
and can seldom be considered strict norms. Finally, the research results indicate that
explicit focus on pragmatics in the classroom leads to improvements in pragmatic
development.
Magister en Innovación de la Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y Evaluación del Inglés.
Módulo: Competencias Lingüísticas y Culturales en Lengua Inglesa.
Prof.: Angie Evelyn Quintanilla Espinoza

To teach pragmatics in an English as a Foreign Language context, is always a challenge

for teachers and one of the pedagogical implications is that this study has provides
valuable information to do not leave this topic behind in our classrooms, for instance the
fact that students with elementary level of proficiency should be taught pragmatics
explicitly or considering that peer assessment, self-assessment and teacher-led
assessment are crucial during the teaching of pragmatics, give room to see pragmatics
competences as an approachable task.

This study was conducted ethically, since the validation process involved collecting and
analyzing data to evaluate the accuracy of the applied instruments; informed consent
was carried orally; content validity was assessed through testing and use of rubrics for
oral tasks. I believe that more research should be done in this area but in different
context to evaluate the point in which variables converge, in order to find the most
appropriate way to teach pragmatics, however I would only add the information regarding
how long the classes were, the amount of female or male participants and the cultural
background they had with the aim of discarding other variables that could negatively
affect the acquisition of pragmatics competences.