Pragmatics as a Pedagogical Target

The present study investigated the effects of experimental instruction on the retrieval of involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs). In previous studies of IAMs, participants were either instructed to record only memories (henceforth, the restricted group) or any thoughts (henceforth, the unrestricted group). However, it is unknown whether these two different types of instructions influence the retrieval of IAMs. The most recent study by Vannucci and her colleagues directly addressed this question and demonstrated that the frequency and phenomenological characteristics of IAMs strongly depended on the type of instruction received. The goal of the present study was to replicate these results while addressing some limitations of the Vannucci et al. study and to test three possible mechanisms proposed to explain the effect of instructions on the retrieval of IAMs. Our results accord well with the data presented by Vannucci et al. When participants were instructed to record only IAMs (the restricted group), they reported more memories and rated them as being retrieved in a more goal-oriented fashion. Their memories also were less clear, vivid, detailed and were less frequently accompanied by physiological reactions, compared to memories reported by the participants in the unrestricted group. In addition, the events to which the memories referred were rated as more unusual and personal by the restricted group. These results are consistent with the assumption that retrieval of IAMs depends on the type of instructions used in a study. In addition, our results suggest that one of the main mechanisms underlying the higher frequency of IAMs in the restricted group may be participants’ ability to monitor the stream of consciousness and to extract autobiographical content from this flow. Further implications of the effect of instructions for IAMs research are discussed.

One of the ways in which people express their emotions creatively in a society is through music. Benga music is a genre of Kenyan popular music that has been in existence from 1960s to date. Over the years, Dholuo benga music has seen artistes of 1970s like Ochieng Kabaselleh, Kasongo, Owino Misiani, and many others, giving way to more recent Dholuo benga artistes of the year 2000s like Atomi Sifa, Madanji Perimeter and Otieno Aloka. Dholuo is a Nilotic language spoken along the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. Aspects of language, like metaphorical expressions, usually vary over time due to external and internal influences on a speech community. Variations may also occur depending on different individuals' conceptualizations of emotions. Dholuo benga love songs are characterized by metaphorical expressions of love which are evidence of conceptual metaphors of love as perceived by Dholuo benga artistes over the decades. The aim of this comparative study was to establish similarities and variations in conceptualization of OBJECT OF LOVE AS FOOD by two male Dholuo benga artistes in Kenya, in two different time frames (1970s and 2000s). The study therefore hoped to explain language use in Dholuo benga love songs over time. The study was guided by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The study population comprised a total of ten Dholuo benga love songs. Thirteen metaphoric expressions of love were extracted from lyrics of the ten love songs by Ochieng Kabaselleh and Atomi Sifa. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the love songs with required metaphorical expressions and saturated sampling technique was employed to get the requisite linguistic metaphors of love. The study findings are that there exist similarities and variations in the conceptualization of OBJECT OF LOVE IS FOOD between the 1970s and 2000s male Dholuo benga artistes.

The study of language in use has become a crucial issue in every branch of study, such as medical, politics, economics, etc. In doing the interaction for those purposes people use language. The theme of this research is language in use in medical conversation, the data taken from the midwifery conversation of some textbooks of English language teaching for midwifery. This study tries to reveal the language in use in midwifery conversation. On the basis of this research, the question rises as: What kind of language functions used in midwifery conversation? In order to answer this question the theories of language in used proposed by some experts such as Leech (1974), Cook (1994) and Halliday (1985) used as references in this study. However the formulation of language in use redesigned based on the general guidelines in giving the counseling to the patient found in three ELT textbooks mostly used in Indonesian universities especially for midwifery students, this research also presents the occurrence of macro and micro language functions, moreover this research reveals the language in use both in English and Indonesian, thus it helps the teachers in stressing every point of language in use, so that they can easy to teach the expressions and the grammar which can be used in the conversation both in English and Indonesian.

<p>A part of the study of language use is the study of language used in advertisement. It is of great interest since advertising language has a certain feature, which is persuasive in nature. The writer was interested in conducting a research concerning the language of advertising and analyzed it by using a pragmatic approach. The aim of the study is to find out how persuasive goals of the advertisements are expressed through the language. The analysis focuses on the illocutionary act and the application of cooperative principles in English advertisements. This paper consists of the theoretical background of pragmatics and the pragmatic analysis on English advertisements. The results of the research shows that: (1) the English advertisement persuades customers by providing information in the form of a report which implies an offer of products of goods or services; (2) the advertising texts studied in the discussion contains the kinds of illocutionary act and the cooperative principles; (3) the illocution power in the words of the English advertisement has the kinds of direct illocution and indirect illocution; and (4) the obedience and deviation of the cooperative principles occur in the advertising to propagate the products and services advertised.</p><p><strong>Kata Kunci:</strong> <em>Pragmatic, Advertising, Illocutionary Act, Cooperative Principles, Utterance</em></p>

The article summarises the results of pilot research focused on the effect of explicit pragmatics instruction on the writing skills of students of the Primary school teacher training study programme. Explicit pragmatics instruction contributed to the students’ confidence about writing and the students themselves have a positive attitude to it. However, the pilot study revealed that the effect of pragmatics instruction on the students’ writing skills wasn’t significant and that there is a need of research design and respondents modifications, which are also described in this article.

Few studies have investigated the effects of the instructions provided in educational computer games on cognitive processing and learning outcomes. In our experiment, we sought to compare the effects on learning outcomes of two different types of goal-oriented instructions: mastery-goal instructions, which prompt learners to develop skills or master new knowledge, and performance-goal instructions, which are frequently used in game environments and which encourage individuals to demonstrate their ability to succeed, particularly by surpassing others. Results showed that a mastery-goal instruction elicited deeper learning (as assessed with a transfer task) than a performance-goal instruction. No effect of instruction was observed on either learning (demonstration consultation) times at the start of the game or on training task (solving riddles) performances during it. These results are discussed in terms of learning processes. This study demonstrates that mastery goal-oriented instructions can promote active processing of educational content in a serious game environment.

This article discusses the importance of the role of pragmatics in teaching and learning a foreign language. The issue of teaching pragmatics in a foreign language classroom is relevant today, as the younger generation who is learning a foreign language must be familiar with its language levels and rules of language use in order to learn and communicate successfully in social and academic environment. But often foreign language teachers are unable to present pragmatic ability in the classroom as long as there are shortcomings in how to teach pragmatics or they are not able to put it into practice sufficiently. At a time when the prestige of foreign language teaching and learning is growing, the number of studies on pragmatics teaching is also increasing. It is especially important to develop the skills between the teacher and the student to be able to use it in communication, especially in requesting and inviting.

Sociolinguistics pays attention to the social aspects of human language. Sociolinguistics discusses the relationship between language and society. In the following part of this paper, it will be focussed on the use of (1) language (2) dialects, (3) language variation, (4) social stratification, (5) register. This discussion talks about the five types of those topics because they are really problematic sort of things, which relate the social life of the local people. In relation to this, the most important point is to distinguish the terms from one to another. There are three main points to discuss: language, dialects and register. Languages which are used as medium of communication have many varieties. These language variations are created by the existence of social stratification in the community. Social stratification will determine the form of language use by the speakers who involve in the interaction. The language variation can be in the form of dialects and register. Dialect of a language correlates with such social factors such as socio-economic status, age, occupation of the speakers. Dialect is a variety of a particular language which is used by a particular group of speakers that is signaled by systematic markers such as syntactical, phonological, grammatical markers. Dialects which are normally found in the speech community may be in the forms of regional dialect and social dialect. Register is the variation of language according to the use. It means that where the language is used as a means of communication for certain purposes. It depends entirely on the domain of language used. It is also a function of all the other components of speech situation. A formal setting may condition a formal register, characterized by particular lexical items. The informal setting may be reflected in casual register that indicates less formal vocabulary, more non-standard features, greater instances of stigmatized variables, and so on.Keywords: language, dialect, register and sociolinguistic.

Reviewed by: Point of view and grammar: Structural patterns of subjectivity in American English conversation by Joanne Scheibman Adam Głaz Point of view and grammar: Structural patterns of subjectivity in American English conversation. By Joanne Scheibman. (Studies in discourse and grammar 11.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. Pp. xiv, 187. ISBN 1588112322. $80 (Hb). Joanne Scheibman’s book belongs to a series dedicated to research on the grammar of discourse. The volume is an empirical study of language in use (eighty minutes of recorded and carefully transcribed conversations in American English) conducted with two basic premises in mind, namely that (i) language is a tool subjectively used by speakers to express their viewpoints, and that (ii) the viewpoints emerge from the repetition of lexical and grammatical resources available. Ch. 1 offers a survey of previous research on language in use, especially on the notion of subjectivity and the relationship between grammar and conversational discourse. Ch. 2 presents the data under scrutiny, special attention being paid to the methods of coding and transcribing the structural, functional, and semantic properties of the conversations. To an extent, the chapter is also an analytical one: the coding procedures, which serve the need of transcribing pieces of actual discourse, allow one to verify the validity of linguistic categories established on the basis of theoretical divagations. The analysis proper, however, is presented in Chs. 3 and 4. Ch. 3 focuses on the combinations of different types of subject (first, second, and third person singular; first and third person plural; human/nonhuman; specific/generic), verb type (verbs of cognition, verbs of perception, verbs of verbal process, material verbs), and tense. It is observed that when describing events and participants in these events, speakers assume certain viewpoints, which influences the structure of the conversation in which the speakers engage. Ch. 4, in turn, examines what seems to be the most frequent utterance type in conversational discourse, clauses expressing relational processes (represented, following M. A. K. Halliday, by the formulae ‘x is a’, ‘ x is at/in/on/about etc. a’, or ‘x has a’). It is found that, unlike lexical verb types (cf. Ch. 3), relational predicates typically occur with subjects having nonhuman referents, usually it or that. This fact is taken as an indication that the speaker’s point of view is conveyed by expressing a relationship between the subject and the predicate, rather than between the speaker him- or herself and some other entity. Ch. 5 summarizes the study, recapitulates its major observations, and offers some insight as to the future research on language structure in general and linguistic subjectivity in particular. The volume is a very detailed and careful study of conversational discourse and the methods employed therein to convey speaker stance. The most important conclusion seems to be that, contrary to referentially based linguistic analyses in which lexis and grammar are viewed as describing events in an ‘objective’ manner, recurring lexical and grammatical patterns are tools used to convey the viewpoint of the speaker, his or her perceptions, feelings, or opinions. Adam Głaz Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Copyright © 2004 Linguistic Society of America

This paper reports on an empirical examination of the effect of instructors' formal training, professional experience, culturo-linguistic background, and exposure to the local context on the evaluation of EFL composition. A total of 106 English-native and Arabic-native instructors, with varying academic training, teaching experience, and exposure to the local context of EFL instruction, evaluated the language, the contents, and the rhetorical structures of two EFL compositions - written by Arabic-native speakers - using 10-point scales.Findings show that instructor's culturo-linguistic background was evidently the most influential factor on the evaluation of EFL composition. Instructor 's exposure to the local Arabic context of EFL instruction testified to confirm this effect.With respect to the effect of instructor's teaching experience on the evaluation of EFL composition, the findings reveal that expe-rienced instructors appear to be more rigid in their evaluation of EFL composition than their less experienced counterparts. The effect of instructor's formal training on the evaluation of EFL composition is generally inconsistent.

Discourse and pragmatics which are two important and useful factors in ELT should be paid special attention to. This essay aims to illustrate that both discourse and pragmatics are crucial to effective language teaching. Furthermore, it explored in what aspects discourse and pragmatics impact on language teaching form many detailed examples and illustrations from the practical use. Index Terms - Discourse, Pragmatics, Language Teaching I. Introduction According to Brown and Yule (1983, p.1), ―The analysis of discourse is, necessarily, the analysis of language in use. As such, it cannot be restricted to the description of linguistics forms independent of the purposes of functions which those forms are designed to serve in human affairs.‖ While Ellis (1998, p.719) claims that ―Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in communication.‖ As Brown & Yule and Ellis explain, the fields of discourse analysis and pragmatics focus on how language is used in real- life situations. Therefore, this essay will make a brief research on the effectiveness of discourse and pragmatics in language teaching from the aspect of practical use. It will be divided into two main parts. The first part will be focused on discourse and pragmatics, attempting to describe the principal aspects of discourse and pragmatics which influence language teaching. It will firstly introduce the general idea of what discourse and pragmatics are. Then, it will pick some points of discourse and pragmatics which are relevant to language teaching such as cohesion and coherence of text and cooperative principles, as well as some examples. In the second part, two pieces of published ELT materials which both focus on ―reading‖ will be evaluated, analysed and compared, through which, something in language teaching associated with the discourse and pragmatics skills might be gained.

This paper explores the use of English language in one communicative situation, known as English meeting club. Generally, English club meetings are designed to practice students’ conversations in English, and therefore, speakers or participants are expected to use English in their communication. In this paper, conversations in English club meetings are explored to see the styles of communication used. The main objectives were to find out the styles of languages or expressions used in English meeting clubs. The paper was based on the descriptive qualitative studies conducted in one English club meeting in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Data collected by recording the process of discussion in three meetings and analyzed the transcribed recordings by using the technique of Discourse Analysis. Findings show some styles in using the language to communicate such as the use of unstructured language, the use of first language and code-switching, and the use of polite markers. It can be seen that formality and informality are found in the communication applied in English meeting clubs. Results of these findings are significant in the study of sociolinguistics, a study of language use in a particular society, as well as in the study of TEFL, teaching of English as a foreign language.

The main objective of Discourse Analysis is the study of language in use, either oral or written, and verbal or nonverbal, by particular speakers on particular occasions. Discourse Analysis focuses not only on what is said but also on how it is said, to whom, when, and where. In political communication, it is important to take into account not only what politicians say but how, when, to whom, and in what context. Sometimes their gestures say much more than their words. There are different schools in Discourse Analysis and all of them focus on language not as an abstract system but rather as the means of communication. Some of the most widely known perspectives are: Pragmatics, Interactional Sociolinguistics, Conversational Analysis, Ethnography of Communication, Variation Analysis, Functional Perspective, Discursive Psychology, and Critical Discourse Analysis. They study how people use language and how they do things with language (express feelings, entertain others, or exchange information). Depending on the perspective, studies can focus on: cooperative principle and conversational maxims, speech acts, explicature and implicature, inferences, felicity conditions, face‐work, politeness, topic organization, turn‐taking, language variation, information structure, expression of attitude and emotion, or power relations.

Reviewing is an act of power and not a mere act of applying shared academic standards of rigor. As such, it is inevitably implicated in the cultural politics of “naming”. In this paper we animate this taken-for-granted statement in the context of naming the sociopolitical struggles against dictatorial regimes in the Arab world. Since the end of 2010, the Arab world has witnessed a relatively organized series of protests and the peoples have named them “revolutions”. Western cultural political discourse has renamed these (trans)locally constituted struggles the “Arab Spring”. If we take sociolinguistics seriously as the “study of language in use”, we should consider the peoples in the Arab world as “subjects” of their own definitions, rather than as “objects” of Western constructions. We contend that reviewers, as gatekeepers, are implicated in the politics of voice when they uncritically accept the use of Western inventions as the “only” appropriate way of naming the world, and in so doing they effectively subvert the revolutionary interests in the Arab world.

The goal of this book is to describe and explain intrasentential codeswitching - the production of two or more languages within the same sentence. Most linquists who do not study codeswitching think of it as belonging strictly in the domain of sociolinguistics. Most codeswitching studies do indeed have a social aspect, because they typically use naturally occurring performance data as their base. However, this book is just as much a study in grammatical theory as a study of language in use. The specific research question addressed is this: when speakers alternate between two or more linguistic varieties, how free is this alternation from the structural point of view? Carol Myers-Scotton develops a model of the morphosyntactic constraints on codeswitching; she concludes that the principles governing codeswitching are the same everywhere. Her model supports a lexically based model of language production.