Raising the pragmatic awareness of language learners

The development of pragmatic and sociolinguistic rules of language use is important for language learners. It is necessary to understand and create language that is appropriate to the situations in which one is functioning, because failure to do so may cause users to miss key points that are being communicated or to have their messages misunderstood. Worse yet is the possibility of a total communication breakdown and the stereotypical labelling of second language users as people who are insensitive, rude, or inept (Thomas 1983). In this paper I will discuss different approaches to teaching pragmatics, and, based on my teaching experiences, I will provide some strategies that can be used to raise the pragmatic awareness of English language learners (ELLs).