Providing Pragmatics Training for L2 Teachers: A Sociocultural Perspective on Development of a Chinese Graduate Teaching Assistant

ABSTRACT This study represents a continued effort to explore focused training in pragmatics for L2 Chinese teachers. From a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, the study observed a Chinese graduate teaching assistant (GTA) who served as the teacher of record at a U.S. university and documented her development of pragmatic knowledge and application during a 6‐week online course on pragmatics. The training provided the Chinese GTA with instruction that engaged her with concepts across different areas related to pragmatics in a focused manner. Additionally, she had the opportunity to participate in an online languaging task using a shared OneDrive file. The coding and analysis of the languaging data show that the Chinese GTA developed an improved conceptual understanding of pragmatics and increased her readiness and ability to apply these concepts in her teaching over time. Lastly, the value of examining L2 teachers' pragmatic development from a sociocultural perspective and the benefits of incorporating languaging into pragmatics training for L2 teachers are discussed.