Motivation, amount of interaction, length of residence and ESL learners’ pragmatic competence

This study examined how motivation for learning English, the amount of contact with English, and  length  of  residence  in  the  target language area affects Korean graduate students’ English pragmatic skills. The study attempted to account for differential pragmatic development among 50  graduate-level  Korean  students  in  relation  to  individual  factors  mentioned  above.  The  data were collected using three types of elicitation instruments: a written background questionnaire, a  discourse  completion  test,  and  the  mini-Attitude/Motivation  Test  Battery.  Descriptive  and inferential statistics (correlation coefficients, and multiple regressions) were used to analyze the data.  The  findings  of  the  study  revealed  that  (a)  the  level  of  motivation  had  a  positive  and moderate relationship with the ESL learners’ L2 pragmatic competence; and (b) the amount of L2 contact and length of residence had only a weak and insignificant impact on the participants’ pragmatic competence.