Teaching and Learning Pragmatics: Where Language and Culture Meet

An understanding of sociocultural context is crucial in second language learning–yet developing this awareness often poses a real challenge to the typical language learner.

This book is a language teachers’ guide that focuses on how to teach socially and culturally preferred language for effective intercultural communication. Moving beyond a purely theoretical approach to pragmatics, the volume offers practical advice to teachers, with hands-on classroom tasks included in every chapter.

Readers will be able to:

· Understand the link between language use, linguacultural diversity, and multilingual identity

· Identify possible causes of learner errors and choices in intercultural communication

· Understand applied linguistics theories that support culturally sensitive classroom practices

· Develop a pragmatics-focused instructional component, classroom-based assessments, and curricula

· Help learners to become more strategic about their learning and performance of speech acts

· Incorporate technology into their approach to teaching pragmatics

This book aims to close the gap between what research in pragmatics has found and how language is generally taught today. It will be of interest to all language teachers, graduate students in language teaching and linguistics, teacher educators, and developers of materials for teaching language.

Noriko Ishihara, Ph.D., is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Hosei University in Tokyo and facilitates language teachers' professional development courses in Japan, online, and elsewhere, with a special focus on L2 pragmatics and intercultural communication. She serves as a researcher in applied linguistics, teacher of English as an additional language, and language teacher educator while working to bridge peace linguistics and critical awareness of equity and diversity in language learning/teaching.

Andrew D. Cohen (contributor) was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural community development with the Aymara Indians on the High Plains of Bolivia (1965–1967); Professor of ESL at UCLA (1972–1975); Professor of Language Education at the Hebrew University (1975–1991) with a year as Fulbright Lecturer and Researcher at the PUC in São Paulo, Brazil (1986–1987); and Professor of Second Language Studies at the University of Minnesota (1991–2013) with a year as a visiting professor at Auckland University, NZ (2004–2005).