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Abstract

To enhance the visibility of pragmatics in second language (L2) teacher education, this study observed the development of a Spanish-speaking graduate teaching assistant (GTA) regarding his pragmatic knowledge and reflections on potential application during a 12-week pragmatics seminar at a US public university. The Spanish GTA taught the language as the teacher of record while participating in the training. From a sociocultural perspective, the training provided the GTA with exposure to and explanations of academic concepts across three modules: pragmatics, cross-cultural pragmatics, and instructional pragmatics. The participant also had the opportunity to engage in two languaging tasks, either privately (via written reflection reports) or inter-psychologically (through dialogic verbalized reflections). The results suggest that the Spanish GTA developed an improved conceptual understanding of pragmatics, enhanced awareness of cross-cultural pragmatics, and increased readiness to apply these concepts in teaching over time. The participant perceived his engagement in the two languaging tasks as a rewarding experience, as indicated by his verbalized reflections. Lastly, suggestions for modifying the languaging tasks and effectively incorporating them into pragmatics training were discussed.

Keywords

second language pragmatics pragmatics instruction teacher education sociocultural perspective languaging Spanish graduate teaching assistant

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The incorporation of languaging tasks into pragmatics training for L2 teachers: The case of a Spanish graduate teaching assistant

Abstract

Keywords

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