Learner gains from pragmatics instruction across contexts

Abstract This study reports findings from a mixed-effects analysis on item- and person-levels for five intact classes of learners following a semester-long pragmatics instruction. Data represent multiple-choice responses on an instrument assessing pragmatic awareness from learners at three levels of formal Japanese education (lower- to post-secondary). Instructional interventions differed in the degree of explicitness for both pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics. Ten speech acts represented pragmalinguistic forms (apologies, complaints, compliments, farewells, greetings, introductions, invitations, offers, requests, and suggestions), with the number of speech acts taught operationalized as part of the explicitness. Twelve relationship status categories represented the sociopragmatic feature (acquaintances, best friends, boss/employee, coworkers, customer/service person, family, friends, girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, professional relationship, neighbors, and strangers). Item-level results reveal a significant effect regarding learner accuracy on items measuring sociopragmatic content relative to pragmalinguistic content. Person-level results reveal that increased explicitness accounted for differences between intervention groups. However, the highest-performing group did not receive the most explicit instruction. The discussion includes an argument for greater use of video-based content in pragmatic instruction and assessment practices and the value of mixed-effects models when analyzing longitudinal classroom research across multiple sites.