Issues in Teaching Pragmatics, Prosody, and Non-Verbal Communication

Pragmatics, prosody, and non-verbal communication (NVC) are important components of face-to-face interaction that are often overlooked in L2 teaching programs. After setting working definitions, this paper reviews politeness theories and research in these fields, discussing their implications for teaching. It is posited that learners whose L1 and native culture are more similar to the target language and culture are more likely to experience subtle pragmalinguistic difficulties in the target language (TL), while learners whose L1 and native cultures differ greatly from the target language and culture are more likely to experience difficulties in mastering TL sociopragmatic norms. The relative merits of knowledge- and practice-oriented methods for teaching pragmatics and NVC are discussed, and further research is called for to enable language teachers to put fully interactive L2 pragmatic competence within reach of L2 learners.