As the field of SLA pragmatics has sought to define itself over the years, the editors of Pragmatics and Language Learning (PLL) have effectively tracked its development through their selection of articles from the biennial International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning. A must-read for researchers who want to stay informed about the current direction of SLA pragmatics research, Volume 12 picks up where Volume 11 left off, focusing on second language (L2) development and learning and conversation analysis (CA).
The book is divided into two parts: “Sequences and Resources in Second Language and Multilingual Talk” and “Second Language Interaction in Pedagogical Settings.” By devoting a section to pedagogy, the editors have highlighted the study of pragmatics in a classroom context, yet an emphasis on pragmatics in a social context unifies the book. Much of the research presented here involves CA, and many of the chapters present a view of pragmatics and language learning from a sociological and ethnographic perspective, both within and outside pedagogical contexts.
Part 1 begins with four CA studies (Mori, Greer, Furukawa, DuFon). Although they share a research method, they vary considerably. Mori and Furukawa each explore the use of a single expression, although Mori’s is in an adult L2 Japanese learner context, whereas Furukawa documents the speech of one multilingual Okinawan-English-Hawai’i Creole speaker. Multilinguals are also the focus of Greer’s study, in which he examines high school students’ codeswitching between Japanese, English, and even “Yoda” (from Star Wars) as a means of establishing an identity as part of a group, or multiple groups simultaneously. The social aspects of pragmatics are explored in DuFon’s study as well, through her observations of L2 learners’ acquisition of Indonesian leave-taking rituals.
The book is not limited to CA and ethnological studies, however, and the last four studies in Part 1 explore other interesting topics. Yates’s study of first language (L1) Dinka learners of Australian-English and Roever’s study measuring the potential biases in tests of English as a second language (ESL) pragmalinguistics that favor one learner group over another both deal with the problems faced by learners due to cultural factors that put them at a disadvantage.
Finally, in related studies, Bardovi-Harlig explores the recognition of conventional expressions, and Bardovi-Harlig and colleagues investigate how utterance length is affected by the use of conventional expressions by English learners of multiple proficiency levels. These cross-sectional studies provide insight into both the interlanguage pragmatics of the participants and the development of conventional expressions across proficiency levels.
The studies in pedagogical settings in Part 2 of the book are all CA studies, but they differ in languages, age groups, and topics. Two of the studies deal with young children. Hosoda and Aline study instructors rather than learners, evaluating their use of applause instead of verbal cues alone as a way to provide assessment. Karrebaek, on the other hand, looks at the effect an increase in linguistic proficiency has on a L1 Somali–L2 Danish child’s ability to join a play group. Karrebaek’s study demonstrates the negative consequences that can occur when the child is not successful. Talmy also deals with negative consequences in his study of high school students whose use and acceptance of mock ESL encourages learners to assign a lower social status to newcomer ESL learners. Finally, Hauser’s study of other-correction of language form among L2 English learners and Fujimoto’s investigation of agreements and disagreements in a Japanese English as a foreign language classroom round out the volume.
For the most part, PLL Volume 12 is a reflection of the current state of the field of pragmatics in SLA, showing a clear direction and focus that was not evident 20 years ago when the series began. Several elements that were introduced in Volume 11—an emphasis on CA; a focus on learning, pedagogy, and interlanguage development; and the continued expansion of target languages beyond English—are solidly established in Volume 12. One caveat, however, is that, if readers make assumptions about the field of pragmatics in SLA based solely on this book, they may mistakenly believe that the only type of research method currently used in SLA pragmatics is CA, and this is not the case. Rather, CA is an important type of research in the field, but one of many.
