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Pragmatic Teaching and Japanese EFL Learners’ Use of Greeting Routines
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| Title: | Pragmatic Teaching and Japanese EFL Learners’ Use of Greeting Routines |
| Other Titles: | 語用論的指導と日本人EFL学習者の挨拶ルーティンの使用 |
| Authors: | ZEFF, BERT BRICKLIN Browse this author |
| Issue Date: | 22-Mar-2018 |
| Publisher: | Hokkaido University |
| Abstract: | College-level English as a foreign language (EFL) students in Japan typically have six years of English language instruction in the form of rote memorization, grammar practice, and exposure to limited patterns of expression (Ishihara & Cohen, 2010). This language instruction often depends on textbooks to introduce vocabulary, grammatical forms, and communication strategies. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been investigated as a way to enhance the EFL classroom approach to address aspects of theories of second language acquisition, such as the Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1981), Learner Strategies (Tarone & Yule, 1989), and the role of formal instruction (Ellis, 1995). CLT was developed as a way to address certain aspects of communicative competence that have plagued EFL classrooms. These problems are seen in EFL classrooms in Japan as the inability to communicate competently in English. Recent trends in language instruction in Japan have been to use CLT to enhance the classroom experience in High School. Indeed, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has identified language-use situations and functions that are necessary for good communication abilities (MEXT, 2011). Unfortunately, studies looking at CLT show no evidence of improvements (Humphries, Burns, & Tanaka, 2015). This dissertation reports the findings of a study on the effectiveness of pragmatic instruction in helping Japanese students competently greet and respond to greetings in American English. Methods in the instruction and assessment of language functions and language-use situations are also investigated in this research. It is hypothesized in this dissertation that proper instructions in pragmatic rules supported by comprehensive assessment that frame CLT methodology will greatly enhance the learning experience and produce the improvements sought after in the EFL classroom. In the main study, a pilot study, and various quasi-experiments, students were placed in situations where the greeting speech act should occur; their participation was recorded in an applied production oral performance. All the students in the main study were given a computer-based pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest that included a variety of questions designed to evaluate general greeting practices as well as the use of various expressions and their appropriateness in different contexts. The students were also asked to demonstrate some awareness of the differences and importance of practicing greetings in questionnaire responses that followed the study. The treatment groups were given either implicit pragmatic instruction in the form of structured input based and awareness-raising tasks or explicit pragmatic instruction along with structured input based and awareness-raising tasks (Ellis, 2003). The data collected served to better understand the role that pragmatic instruction and assessment can play in the EFL classroom in Japan. To this end, phenomena were identified that can affect the use of certain greeting practices and within assessment procedures, one of which is a micro-greeting (Zeff, 2017). A reallife scenario assessment strategy, in the form of an applied production test, was developed to help understand communicative competence in American greetings, and tasks for teaching the greeting speech act were advanced. A communicatively competent person should be able to greet someone in an appropriate manner in the target language. Without this skill, it is difficult to appear competent. The dissertation includes data findings and an analytical discussion that explore this idea of language acquisition and how pragmatic instruction and speech act theory fits into core L2 education goals (Norris & Ortega, 2000). |
| Conffering University: | 北海道大学 |
| Degree Report Number: | 甲第13188号 |
| Degree Level: | 博士 |
| Degree Discipline: | 国際広報メディア |
| Examination Committee Members: | (主査) 教授 河合 靖, 特任教授 上田 雅信, 神戸大学教授 ティモシー・グリア |
| Degree Affiliation: | 国際広報メディア・観光学院（国際広報メディア専攻） |
| Type: | theses (doctoral) |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2115/70652 |
| Appears in Collections: | 課程博士 (Doctorate by way of Advanced Course) > 国際広報メディア・観光学院(Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies)
学位論文 (Theses) > 博士 （国際広報メディア）
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