A holistic approach to pragmatic development of discussion starters in L2 online forums

Abstract This article examines pragmatic development in L2 online forum discussions. The data was gathered from learners’ text-based discussions of weekly reading materials in a fully online course of L2 English at a Japanese university. Information solicitation acts in thread-opening posts emerged as a trackable pragmatic feature. An examination of 38 thread-opening posts revealed that as a general trend, students who started discussions tended first to solicit knowledge, and later to solicit opinions instead. Investigations into several discussion starters who created a thread multiple times showed more opportunities for increasing linguistic repertoire for opinion solicitation. Some discussion starters showed routinization of solicitation strategies, and they tried new strategies, such as soliciting both opinions and knowledge in one post, but ended up never using such a strategy consistently. Some strategies were also found in a forum-specific element such as the subject line. The current study emphasizes the significance of the use of different epistemological stances of speech-act and interactional approaches to L2 pragmatics based on a holistic view to aim at changing and improving instructional design.