Jerry Talandis Jr., Kimiko Koseki, Donna Fujimoto

This is a three-part workshop covering both practice and reseearch in the area of Pragmatics.
Part 1. This general introduction to Pragmatics will begin with a useful and usable lay person’s definition of pragmatics. This will be followed by activities that have been successfully used with university students enabling them to understand the concepts. In order for teachers to focus on what type of pragmatics to teach, “Three Golden Rules” of conversational strategies for students will be explained. After the introduction of the concepts of pragmatics, it is important to provide constant review and practice. Ideas for embedding pragmatic principles into an EFL curriculum will be shared. The presenter will also speak about how pragmatics is treated in conversation textbooks and will recommend useful resources.
Part 2. Teaching pragmatics is also important at the high school level. The tendency in many schools is to focus on grammatical accuracy, yet pragmatic failures may be much more problematic. Teachers and students should be made aware of the importance of pragmatics in communication because it is, in fact, possible to offend others without even knowing it! In this session the presenter will share lessons and materials based on speech acts, such as compliments, refusals, apologies and requests. Actual student performances and pragmatic problems will be shared. There will also be a focus on pragmatic challenges for Japanese students and a treatment of some sensitive areas in the teaching of pragmatics.
Part 3. There are many ways to do research on Pragmatics, but perhaps the most effective methodological framework is Converastion Analysis (CA). This is a rigorous and highly detailed analysis of people’s interaction, both in and out of the classroom. This session will begin with a general introduction to CA and then explain the difference between CA, discourse analysis, and other methodologies. Converation Analysis has uncovered many interactional practices that are important for both students and teachers to be aware of. Many examples of interactional exchanges which lead to pragmatic failure (or success) will be given.