Teaching pragmatics in the ethiopian con

The data were drawn from the content analysis of two student textbooks grade 11 &12, responses of four teachers teaching grade 9-12 and self-perceived competence and pragmatic awareness

INVESTIGATING THE CHALLENGES AND

COMPETENCE OF EFL STUDENTS: THE CASE OF St

JOSEPH SCHOOL IN ADAMA

KORIE SHANKULIE ARSIE

Adama Science and Technology University

‹sanseetee@gmail.com› or

‹soolanee33@yahoo.com›

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities for teaching pragmatics in EFL context

Learners often find the area of language use difficult Teachers are advised to explicitly teach

pragmatic features of language and make use of authentic models of language to help learners practice using appropriate language in social contexts In spite of this, information about pragmatic aspect of language and pragmatic-focused instruction is lacking in an EFL Ethiopian context Textbooks and teachers are an integral part of language teaching in general in an EFL setting where there are no opportunities to learn the language informally outside the classroom However, the textbooks almost never provide adequate pragmatic information for students to develop successfully their pragmatic competence The findings indicated that there is a scarcity

of pragmatic information contained in the English for Ethiopia 10th and 11th grades textbooks, and the variety of pragmatic information is limited Most of the metalanguage explanations are simple; and there are no metapragmatic explanations at all

It is fairly possible to infer from the teachers’ response that well-designed teacher training and teaching materials should be in place for teachers to develop students’ pragmatic competence Moreover, the teaching hours to cover the issue of pragmatics; thus, to properly manage each

lesson may solve the current problem of teaching pragmatics in the classroom The results of this study also showed that teachers seldom use pragmatic instruction in classrooms, and mostly students have to spend time by themselves developing pragmatic competence without explicit instruction Overall, the pragmatics instruction is immature and needs to be developed, and teachers need professional training to be aware of how to teach pragmatics effectively

Although the learners’ self-perceived competence mean score was high, their MDCT result was low; and this confirmed that self-perceived competence and the actual performance never match This is why according to Dewaele (2011) higher levels of self-perceived competence are linked

to lower levels of communication which in fact has to be further investigated in our own context The research was entirely qualitative except that some simple statistical calculations were used to compute the frequency, mean and percentage of the numerical data The data were drawn from the content analysis of two student textbooks (grade 11 &12), responses of four teachers teaching grade 9-12 and self-perceived competence and pragmatic awareness test results of 183 students The findings of this study have implications for teaching pragmatics to EFL learners, the development of pragmatic-focused materials, future research and well-designed teacher training

Key Words: Pragmatic competence, challenges and opportunities for developing pragmatics in

EFL setting, textbook content analysis, self-perceived-competence, MDCT

Introduction

Learning a foreign language is regarded nowadays as an essential component in the curricula at different educational levels In particular, learning the English language has become necessary given its widespread use throughout the world according to House and Kasper (see, Martinez-Flor, 2004) However, in order to make learners become communicatively competent in the English language, there a shift from previous theoretical frameworks, which considered language

as a formal system based on grammatical rules, towards a more communicative perspective

(ibid) Alcaraz (see, Martinez-Flor, 2004) points out that the shift from language usage rule to language use rule was possible due to the advent of pragmatics as a specific area of study within linguistics that favored a focus on interactional and contextual factors of the target language

(TL)

As international and cross-cultural communication has become part of everyday life in Ethiopia, pragmatic competence should be an important asset to a person and thus, rehearsing pragmatic skills alongside other linguistic aspects should be one of the objectives of language teaching in formal education In Ethiopia, formal instruction of English or the learning environment, most commonly comprises of a non-native language teacher, a fairly large classroom full of learners with very dissimilar aptitudes, and the teaching materials, which refer to anything that can be used to facilitate the learning of a language, such as textbooks, printouts, or grammar books Teaching authentic language use, which resembles the way the language is used in the “real world” outside the classroom, in these circumstances is very challenging and the teaching materials should play an integral role in offering the students a model of real-life language use

Although language teachers have the right to develop their own materials, the most commonly used materials are only published textbooks As Vellegna (2004) aptly points out, the textbook is often the very center of the curriculum and syllabus In such cases, textbooks used should be carefully designed, to make sure that they are perfectly in line with the learning objectives and learners’ need Basically, the chosen textbook should provide all the important linguistic inputs outlined for each stage of learning and life outside the school However, studies have shown (for example Vellegna 2004, Peiying, 2007; 2008) that textbooks rarely provide enough information for learners to successfully acquire pragmatic competence

Similarly, ‘knowledge about how conversations work and what the sociocultural norms and practices are in each communication culture is often inadequately presented in the textbook contents’ (Bardovi-Harling 2001:25) In order for students to learn how language really works, they need authentic materials of authentic communication situations The demand for pragmatic input is particularly relevant when upper secondary school teaching materials are concerned, because at this level, students are expected to be quite proficient language users In other words,

at upper secondary school stage, they are at an advanced level and competent to understand the subtleties of English Most students in upper secondary school study English as their compulsory language, that is, the language that has started in the lower stage of the comprehensive school and that is obligatory to all students

Practicing pragmatic abilities in a classroom requires student-centered interaction The teaching materials should provide a relatively wide range of exercises designed to rehearse the sociopragmatic knowledge of students In a similar vein, Kasper (1997) suggests the inclusion of

activities such as role-play, simulation, and drama to engage students in different social roles

and speech events The activities in the textbooks provide valuable opportunities to practice the pragmatic and sociolinguistic skills that students need in their everyday interactions outside the classroom

Pragmatic competence can also be acquired through raising awareness on the pragmatic aspects

of second/foreign language, and in this process, the metalanguage, that is, “a language which is used to describe language” (Lyons 1995: 7), can assist significantly In teaching and learning of

any language, metalanguage is essential, both in classroom interaction and within the teaching

materials In language instruction context, metalanguage helps the learners to understand the key elements of the target language and the major differences between the target language and the learner’s L1 Evidently, ‘as the learner’s metalinguistic awareness increases, the level of language proficiency increases as well’ (Renou 2001: 261), and therefore the teaching materials should be rich in pragmatic metalanguage and teachers should also be aware of the significant role of learning pragmatics

In conclusion, this study has focused on challenges and opportunities for teaching pragmatic competence Besides, it was the intent of this research to evaluate teachers’ perception of the textbooks content in terms of their pragmatic content Furthermore, it was the concern of this study to look at what teachers think are impediments for them to deliver pragmatic instructions

in the EFL setting Moreover, the students’ self-perceived competence and their ability to choose appropriate language based on a given context was the other concern of this research

Statement of the Problem

Equipping Ethiopian students with communicative competence in order to help them communicate effectively in all walks of their lives and international communication is truly essential English has been used as a medium of instruction from grade 7 or 9 upwards since long time ago, but problems in learning and teaching English have been observed ever since (Jarvis,

as cited in Amlaku, 2010) had given his personal account of experiences and observations

Presently, says Amlaku for his part ‘[teachers] at schools and employers in industries have been complaining about the low level English language competence of students and graduates, respectively’ (p.9) But what are the challenges that pull back language learners not to competently communicate when there is a need to do so?

Although there have been studies about communicative language teaching in Ethiopian schools, the investigation on pragmatic information in English textbooks used in Ethiopia has not yet been conducted Similarly, whether there exist any additional pragmatic features in teacher’s book as a resource for teachers has not been questioned Likewise, whether English language teachers bring in outside materials to help learners develop pragmatic competence has not yet been investigated in the setting of the current research

There is paucity of pragmatic contents and their presentations are marginalized as compared to other language items There are no courses offered to pre-service language teachers in the area of pragmatics as a result of which teachers do not complement textbooks with inputs to help learners acquire pragmatic competence Although, it is vitally important to acquire communicative competence, there are no research emphases in the area of pragmatics in the present research area

The current research, therefore, looks into the challenges and opportunities in teaching pragmatics to language learners in the EFL context and the way forward to it

Objectives

This study was aimed at:

 Analyzing English textbooks on the basis of thanking strategies, apologizing strategies, complimenting strategies, complaining strategies, refusing strategies, and requesting strategies presented in Aijmer (1996); and Ishihara and Cohen, (2007)

and 11th grade students,

 Investigating the challenges teachers in EFL setting, particularly those in St Joseph School, were facing in teaching pragmatic aspects of the English language,

Considering these concerns, the aim of this study was two-fold: to deal with those theoretical approaches that inform the process of learning speech acts in particular contextual and cultural settings; and, secondly, to present a variety of methodological proposals, grounded on research-based ideas, for the teaching of the major pragmatic features in foreign language classrooms

Research Questions

This study attempted to answer the following questions:

1 To what extent do the students’ textbooks provide pragmatic information for learners

to acquire pragmatic competence?

2 What are the challenges perceived by high school teachers to develop students’ pragmatic competence?

3 How do the teachers perceive students’ textbooks pragmatic contents-are they

challenges or opportunities for them?

4 Do students choose appropriate language based on a provided situation/context?

5 To what extent do teachers consider other possibilities than the textbook, for teaching pragmatics in an EFL setting?

Significance of the Study

In this research an attempt was made to examine the socio-pragmatic aspect of the students’ textbook, the challenges faced by teachers and the availability of opportunities to teaching pragmatic competence to EFL learners Generally, this research is expected to have the following significance:

• It can help syllabus designers to revise English language syllabuses to include substantial quantity of pragmatic features and the quality of their presentations in the textbooks

• The research would also be worthwhile resource for teachers who are interested to develop their own teaching materials for teaching pragmatics/speech acts

• The research would be helpful for textbook writers to consider including the substantial amounts of the pragmatic aspect of the English language in the English language textbooks and wishing to have an informed opinion on the pedagogical implications derived from research on pragmatics/speech act performance

• It fills the research gap that exists in studying challenges and possibilities to teaching pragmatics in an EFL setting of Ethiopian context

• Above all, the research would be of importance for the other researchers to look into the field attentively

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning It studies how the transmission of meaning depends not only on the linguistic knowledge (e.g grammar, lexicon etc.) of the speaker and listener, but also on the context of

the utterance, knowledge about the status of those involved, the inferred intent of the

speaker (Kasper, 2004), and so on In this respect, pragmatics explains how language users

are able to overcome apparent ambiguity, since meaning relies on the manner, place, time

etc of an utterance (Cohn, 2008) The ability to understand another speaker's intended

meaning is called pragmatic competence (Kasper, 1997) An utterance describing pragmatic function is described as metapragmatic (Verschueren, 2000) Pragmatic awareness is regarded as one of the most challenging aspects of language learning, and comes only through experience Hence, learners of EFL context face challenges in understanding the interplay

of language, language users and their intentions, and the social context.

Challenges of Teaching Pragmatic Competence in EFL Setting

In foreign language context teachers are non-native speakers of English language and they need to be well-prepared for teaching the pragmatic aspect of knowledge of language In addition to this fact there are no sufficient, or no course, is offered to teachers either during pre-service or in-service education programs in the area of pragmatics This situation is what El-Okda (2010) calls as ‘paucity of pragmatic courses in both pre-service teacher education programs and in-service professional development’ (169) If the student teachers or those teachers that are handling the teaching of English language are provided with the pragmatic courses, ‘[they] can help their students see the language in context, raise consciousness of the role of pragmatics, and explain the function pragmatics plays in specific communicative event’ (Brock and Nagasaka, 2005:20)

The second pillar in developing the pragmatic competence of learners is ELT material Language teaching materials need to frequently include pragmatic materials so as to help learners develop pragmatic competence, because ‘teachers in EFL settings, where there are relatively few opportunities for students to use the language in communicative contexts’ (Brock and Nagasaka, 2005), will make use of textbooks as the major source of pragmatic knowledge However, the attempt of including very few mini-dialogues for certain speech acts and that are contrived and de-contextualized does not help the learners develop their pragmatic competence or does not represent the reality outside the classroom (El-Okda, 2010:180) Let alone the external environment, ‘many students do not know how to make polite requests in English in the classroom’ (Brock and Nagasaka, 2005:21)

Teachers in most cases complain for the unmanageable class size Large classes, limited contact hours and little opportunity for intercultural communication are some of the features

of the EFL context that hinder pragmatic learning (Eslami-Rasekh et al., 2004; Rose, 1999)

Understanding teachers' perceptions and beliefs is important because teachers, heavily involved in various teaching and learning processes, are practitioners of educational principles and theories (Jia, Eslami & Burlbaw, cited in Eslami and Fatahi, 2008) Teachers have a primary role in determining what is needed or what would work best with their students Findings from research on teachers' perceptions and beliefs indicate that these perceptions and beliefs not only have considerable influence on their instructional practices and classroom behavior but also are related to their students' achievement In most cases teachers do not give attention to pragmatic/communicative functions in the classroom Omaggio (see in Uso-Juan, and Martinez-Flor, 2008) gives the following three reasons for neglecting intercultural/pragmatic competence in the language class:

1 Teachers usually have an overcrowded curriculum to cover and lack the time to spend

on teaching culture, which requires a lot of work;

2 Many teachers have a limited knowledge of the target culture and, therefore, afraid to teach it;

3 Teachers are often confused about what cultural aspects to cover (p.165)

Possibilities/Opportunities for Teaching Pragmatics in EFL Classroom

What opportunities are offered for pragmatic learning? The research works have made mention of such opportunities as: opportunities for pragmatic input: teacher talk (Kasper, 1997; Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford, 1996; Nikula, 2008), textbooks (Salazar, 2007; Uso-Juan, 2007) and audiovisual material (Alcón, 2005; Fernández Guerra, 2008; Martínez-Flor, 2008)

Although typically an ESL environment is thought to be superior to an EFL environment for learning language, especially the pragmatics of a language, some studies show that this is a sweeping generalization and not necessarily true According to Wallace (2011) ‘Pragmatics can be successfully acquired in an EFL setting’ (p.274) Furthermore, some think that lack

of exposure to the target language in an EFL setting hinders students’ development of pragmatics In fact, researches show that well-designed textbooks and explicit pragmatics instruction can be more effective than implicit pragmatics instruction

Savignon (2006:10) discusses about shaping or designing language curriculum that entails five components out of which one is “language for a purpose, or language experience.” Language for a purpose or language experience is “the use of language for real and immediate communicative goals” She argues that for not all learners are taking a new language for the same reasons, teachers should do the following in selecting language inputs:

It is important for teachers to pay attention, when selecting and sequencing materials, to the specific communicative needs of the learners Regardless

of how distant or unspecific the communicative needs of the learners, every program with a goal of communicative competence should pay heed

to opportunities for meaningful language use, opportunities to focus on meaning as well as form (pp 11-12)

The Role of Language Teacher’s Talk

Teachers vary in their attitudes to ´teacher talk´ according to findings Some of them accept that it is useful source of language input for all language levels, except from the more advanced ones Others regard it as an important part of the early stages of learning, but

believe it should be abandoned as soon as possible” (Lynch as quoted in Adriana 2009:1) There are at least three main reasons that make teacher talk worth studying and improving The reasons are as follows:

a People have recognized the vital link between comprehension and the progress made

in the language classroom

b Studies of classroom language have shown that certain aspects of teacher talk, such as the way we ask questions, influence the way learners use language

c It is not easy for learners to understand what the teacher is currently trying to focus their attention on (ibid)

Due to its importance, it is inevitable to make sure that the teacher talk fulfils certain criteria First of all, it should be simplified, but not unnatural It needs to exhibit a certain level of redundancy (words like let me see, in fact, well, etc.) and words, together with structures, should be repeated at regular intervals

The Role of Textbooks

Textbooks are key component in most language programs In some situations they serve as the basis for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom They may provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills taught and the kinds of language practice the students take part in In other situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teachers’ instruction

Bardovi-Harlig (2001) argues that since teachers’ talk cannot be considered as a pragmatically appropriate model for learners, “textbooks with conversations are designed to

be models for students, and yet they generally fall short of providing realistic input to learners” (p 25)

She suggests that textbooks should be used cautiously:

Any textbook should be used judiciously, since it cannot cater equally to the requirements of every classroom setting In bilingual and multilingual situations, there are special limitations on the amount of English language teaching that can be done via the textbook The textbook can present examples of common difficulties, but there are problems specific to different language groups which are left for the teacher to deal with It is

also likely that a textbook will outlast its relevance because of changes in the language policy of the community for which it was written (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001:24)

Therefore, textbooks are always at the center of curriculum although there are some limitations attributed to them with regards to their pragmatic contents

The Role of Culture [Local and Target Culture]

People may meet with various problems in intercultural communication The knowledge of target language’s culture is as important as its grammar or vocabulary Perhaps more to the point, a lack of cross-cultural awareness can be a severe hindrance in the understanding of a message which is linguistically accurate or comprehensible As a rule, people are much less tolerant of cultural bumps and cultural shocks than they are of grammatical mistakes and lexical insufficiency

Language is inseparable from culture Thus, when learners learn a language, they learn about culture; and as they learn to use a new language, they learn to communicate with other individuals from a different culture Magnifying the significance of target language culture

in learning a foreign language, Jie (2010) opines:

Through analyzing and comparing the anecdotes of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication from the aspects of lexicon, syntax and discourse, some pragmatic strategies are suggested in intercultural communication To improve learners’ cultural awareness and communicative competence, a cultural-linguistic approach in foreign language teaching should be adopted (p.1)

A language cannot exist in vacuum It has to express some objective function when utterances are made or some text is written Regmi (2011:2) points out “When we learn a new language, we need to adopt the culture of the target language to a certain extent because the cultural aspect comes amalgamated with the target language.” However, what about the learners and their own culture? Regmi again has the following to say with regards to this question:

The learners have their own set of cultural experiences and objectives of using a language They have their own cultural amalgamation which has to

be addressed during target language learning process to make it meaningful and relevant to the learners We can assume that integration of local culture and context is inevitable while learning a target language (ibid)

Thus, local context becomes inseparable from the use of language This is because, “… students want to see cultural elements from both target language culture and local culture in foreign language classrooms as well as in language learning materials” Devo and Yasemin (2010:4)

Method of the Study

This chapter deals with the processes involved in selecting the research design, instruments, and subjects of the study Even though the investigation of the problem did not confine itself

to a particular method, qualitative method has been taken up to a large extent The main thesis of the study was an attempt to explore the challenges being faced by English language teachers to teach pragmatics to their students, and investigate the manifestation of contents

of pragmatics/social language in the current EFL textbooks For this purpose, therefore, a descriptive research method was chosen as it is used to specify or describe a phenomenon without conducting an experiment

Research Design

The study was principally designed to be qualitative Questionnaires, observations, discourse completion tests and content analysis seemed to be appropriate instruments to collect data for the study since objectively recorded teachers and students behaviors such as actions, utterances and verbal expression of their attitudes (opinions) towards the concept can be elements of descriptive studies (Mc Arthur 1983)

Procedures of the Study

This study consisted of the following methodological steps First and foremost, the researcher conducted pretest- at this step the researcher has attempted to design some open

learners After the current research’s groundwork was finished, formulating research questions, stating the motive behind the research, stating the limitation and delimitation of the study, stating the significance of the study followed Following the scheme of the research, related discourses were reviewed Next to reviewing related sources, research tools that were proper to the study were chosen and designed After instruments for data collection were designed, determining sample size in question, and selecting an appropriate sample from the data on hand took place

Subsequently, before administering the tools, as it was part of the subjects of the present study, textbooks were selected, and unit of analysis were defined, contents for analysis were constructed and categorized; the contents were coded according to the established definition Afterwards, the questionnaires were administered to the language teachers with the intension

to elicit their perception of the pragmatic contents of the textbooks, their own awareness and teaching of the pragmatic aspect of language and impediments they were facing in teaching pragmatic aspect of the English language Corresponding to this, questionnaires and discourse completion tests were distributed to the participant students to assess their perception of their own language ability and performance respectively The questionnaires for the teachers were delivered on hand Discourse completion tests were distributed to the sampled students in a classroom, in collaboration with the school teachers All the questionnaire and test papers were collected back On the whole, the collected data were descriptively analyzed, interpreted and conclusion were drawn

Content Analysis Sampling Process

a Sampling Units for Content Analysis

Since it was difficult to observe all contents, the researcher was forced to sample from available content for coding pool Units of analysis may differ from units of observation Sample selection depends largely on unit of analysis The researcher was well aware that he needed to be clear about unit of analysis before planning sampling strategy to avoid problems that may occur later The sampling could involve stratified, purposive, systematic

or random technique of selecting the representative population of the study In the present study the researcher planned to pursue purposive sampling

Before sampling the representative data in relation to the central issues of the study, code sheets were designed to identify the presence or absence of any elements relevant to the focus of the study The coding instructions and element definitions were written to ensure that specific concepts were highlighted and received a specific level of attention in the text before they would be coded as present.

b Data Coding Scheme for Content Analysis

After the data collected for the study were categorized, the textbooks were coded for the above elements while entering the data into tables for analysis Coding is the heart of content analysis Coding is the process of converting raw data into a standardized form Each additional entry of datum collected from the textbooks was registered under each code Coding therefore is the technique to classify content in relation to a conceptual framework Like in the current study, pragmatic elements can be categorized, general pragmatic information, language use rule, cultural context, physical context, approaches to sociopragmatics competence, social context, physical context, mode of instruction, etc

c Procedure of Content Analysis of the Textbooks

The process of content analysis begins during or after the data processing/entering Thus the procedure consisted of formulating the research questions, collecting the data, categorizing the data based on the research questions, indentifying the connection between the data collected from the textbooks and that of the respondents’ and finally interpreting or assigning meaning to the data obtained

student was included in the sample Moreover, all (100%) teachers that were teaching English language to grade 10th

and 11th students were also part of the research subjects Questionnaires were distributed to all the participant teachers and students; and all of them had returned papers In addition to this, all the students included in the sample were seated for the MDCT

Table 1:Data Representing the Research Participants

Procedures for Collecting Data

Sampling of the participants

In the present research the researcher employed two stage schemes of sampling: the first purposive sampling only focusing on high achiever students This was to test the extent to which the learners were aware of pragmatic/functional aspect of the target language Doing this in turn helped the researcher to proceed with the research work as designed with some minor modification when need arisen During the first stage sampling, only 15 students were selected and tested The second and final sampling was systematic random sampling so as to include all students: low, medium and high achievers even though the aim was not to distinguish between these groups of students All teachers who are teaching 9th-12th grades were part of the research

Tools of Data Collection

Primarily, sample questionnaires were designed and administered to teachers who were teaching English the same grade level at selected school Feedbacks were obtained that there were no difficulties to comprehend the message of the questionnaire Similar questionnaires with minor modifications were administered to elicit teachers’ perception of the students’ textbooks with regards to pragmatic content and their own pragmatic background knowledge

Whereas, questionnaire for the students were newly developed in addition to the discourse completions test that was completely changed from open ended format to multiple choice The change was made to alleviate the difficulty that might occur in analyzing the data and MDCT is gaining its prominence to test learners’ pragmatic proficiency in EFL (Setouguchi,2008:1) More than 99% of the questionnaires were close ended The respondents were asked to put only a tick mark (√) in the column of their choice or that represents their perceptions of the rating scales The rating scales range from one up to five where 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=undecided 4=agree 5= strongly agree In the data analysis, the researcher has combined strongly disagree (1) and disagree (2), and strongly agree (5) and agree (4) together

Classroom observation has always been considered as one of the tools for data collection in language acquisition researches, because it allows the study of a phenomenon or behavior at close range with many of the contextual variables present (Waxman, 2011)

Thus, the researcher observed classrooms to ascertain the prevalent challenges to teach pragmatics in EFL classroom as indicated by the teachers This is to say that the observation was mainly done to cross-check whether the problems forwarded by teachers exist or not The researcher was physically present in the classrooms to observe how the teachers use the textbooks to develop pragmatic competence of learners through metapragmatic explanations

of the language in point or use materials prepared by themselves for the same purpose to supplement the text books

Pertinent lessons were observed based on agreement with the teachers, especially, when there are oral presentations and speaking skills sessions In each class teachers who took part

in filing out the questionnaire were observed In all the observations conducted, the researcher took the position where his presence did not disturb the class In other words, the observation was made without intervention in any way Teachers were requested to voluntarily cooperate with the researcher and the sections were chosen on random basis

Discourse Completion Test

Discourse completion tests are used to elicit the pragmatic awareness of learners Hence, the

researcher employed DCT/MDCT to cross check what students replied in self-perceived

competence questionnaires with what language they chose in MDCT

Besides the DCT/MDCT, some questions were added at the end of the test paper so that

students can give what they believed as regards to the sources of their current knowledge of

pragmatics

To test the difference in the learners’ awareness in the grammatical and pragmatic domains,

the researcher developed a contextualized pragmatic and grammatical judgment task

presented in a written format The task was developed in five steps for pretest: (a)

identifying and constructing the test scenarios, (b) testing the scenarios through a production

(written) task, (c) selecting the targeted responses for the task, (d) piloting the judgment task

in written format, and (e) retesting the revised scenarios (MDCT format) In the first step, 7

scenarios were constructed to elicit one of five speech acts: complaint, compliment,

requests, apologies, and refusals To ensure that learners interpreted the scenarios as

requiring the targeted speech act, the researcher asked 15 (purposively selected) secondary

School EFL students to carry out a standard discourse completion task (DCT) They were

given a scenario and asked how they would react, as in Example 1

You are wearing a new shirt and a classmate looks at you and says: “This shirt looks great

on you! Blue is a great color for you.”

You answer: _

The study was open ended and exploratory in nature It asked learners to report whatever

they were thinking and then examines those reports to gain insights into what they know

about pragmatics and how they acquire pragmatic knowledge and ability

Content Analysis

The purpose of this research is first to investigate the impediments faced by language

teachers to teach pragmatics and second to analyze aspects of the content of pragmatics

manifested in the students’ textbooks and their classes to determine if certain elements (e.g.,

apology, compliments, complain, request, thanks, etc) are present While content analysis, if

used properly, can indicate the presence (or absence) and extent of elements that may be signs of quality or effectiveness, based on what previous studies or other literature have established about those elements.

As Krippendorff (2004) indicates:

Content analysis is potentially one of the most important research techniques in the social sciences The content analyst views data as representations not of physical evidence but of texts, images, and expressions that are created to be seen, read, interpreted, and acted on for their meanings, and must therefore be analyzed with such uses in mind

Analyzing texts in the context of their uses distinguishes content analysis from other methods of inquiry (p xiii)

Content analysis includes, for instance, comparing the frequency of single words, phrases, or things in a text, or the space dedicated to them in a piece of work The purpose of the content analysis was to get the research data to a form that is easier to perceive, and thus to help in drawing the conclusions The conclusions do not, however, pop up straight from the analyzed data, because content analysis can only give direction to theoretical discussion According to writers, content analysis is a scientific way of making observations and collecting data from a document Further precise definition of content analysis is provided

by Krippendorff, (2004): “Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the context of their use (p.18)

This definition of content analysis best suits the current study In this definition it is deducible that content analysis is a research technique; which implies that content analysis involves specialized procedures As a research technique, content analysis provides new insights by increasing the researcher’s understandings regarding the phenomena under study Krippendroff, further argues that content analysis is a scientific tool (ibid); that is employed

to collect and analyze data

For validity and reliability of the whole work, the researcher employed triangulation so as to not concentrating on just one source of information He approached the topic from different

points of view by combining qualitative data from discourse completion tests (DCTs), questionnaire for teachers and qualitative data from content analysis using checklists designed for the same purpose He used theories and background knowledge from books and journals or articles that guide him to approach the topic in the right way.

Procedures for Data Analysis

In the process of data analysis the first step was organizing the data by research questions because organizing by research questions draws together all the relevant data for the exact issue of concern to the researcher and it preserves the coherence of the research With respect to the content of the textbook, coding the content according to the established definitions, categorizing the data, counting the frequency of each code in the textbooks and tabulating was done After the data were gathered from the textbooks, the students and the respective teachers, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were geared up Content analysis and questionnaire were chief data gathering tools Once the data obtained through textbook content analysis, questionnaires, discourse completion test and classroom observations were organized, the next step was description of the data Thence, the meaning was given to the data This stage involved explaining the findings and triangulation for veracity and validity (accuracy) of the data The last stage of data analysis was reporting or drawing conclusion and looking for implications that were dealt with in the next chapter

RESULTS

The research findings showed that based on the inventory made pertaining to the presence and absence of the pragmatic features in the students’ textbooks, there is a dearth of language use contents in the plethora of other linguistic features that almost constituted above 90% of the textbooks contents It was also evident from the data analysis that the pragmatic elements that were only given a lip service were given insufficient metapragmatic and metalanguage explanations Hence, it is one of the challenges to teaching pragmatics in Ethiopian EFL context

The other research result was that teachers did not bring in outside materials to complement the paucity of pragmatic contents of the English language textbooks so as to facilitate the opportunities for teaching and learning pragmatics in the classroom Evidence for this was

where 100% of the teachers responded unanimously that no teacher could be singled out for bringing in outside materials to instruct pragmatics in EFL setting where there are rare opportunities to learning pragmatics

Further research result was that the majority of the participant students scaled that most of the communicative acts or social functions of language that they were tested for are difficult

As a result of which most of them scored below average in MDCT The classroom observation results were also consistent with what was detected from the textbooks inventory, teachers’ responses and that of students’ responses that there were no lessons or interactions directed to the development of pragmatic competence in the classrooms

Table 2.Communicative Acts in the Textbooks

ts appearance/possessions e.g., You look absolutely beautiful!) √ x

performance/skills/abilities (e.g., Your presentation was excellent.) √ x

Direct refusals (e.g ‘No’, ‘I can’t’, ‘I don’t think I can’) x x

Statement of regret (e.g ‘I’m sorry’) x x

Statement of positive opinion (e.g ‘I’d love to’, ‘I wish I could’) x x

Excuse, reason, explanation (e.g ‘I have to study for the test’) x x

Statement of future acceptance (e.g ‘Perhaps some other time’) x x

Indefinite reply (e.g ‘I’m not sure’, ‘I don’t know’) x x

Statement of alternative (e.g., ‘How about the movies’) x x

Statement of empathy (e.g ‘No offence to you’) x x

g Good wish to hearer

(e.g ‘Have a nice trip’, ‘Hope you have fun’)

Thanking someone explicitly (e.g Thanks, thank you, thank you for,

thank you very much, thanks a lot, fine thanks…)

Expressing the appreciation of

Suppressing one’s own

Expressing regret (e.g I’m sorry, I’m regretful …) √ x

Demanding forgiveness (e.g Pardon me, forgive me, excuse me…) x x

Explicitly requesting the

for the offending act

Promising forbearance from a

similar offending act

(e.g I promise you that will never happen again)

(e.g Can you come to the party?

Can you help me? Can I talk to Mr

president? )

Asking about the possibility of

the desired act happening

[consultation]

Asking whether the hearer is

willing to do or has an

objection to do

something[willingness]

Expressing a wish that the

agent should do something

[want]

Expressing a need or desire for

goods [need]

Stating that the hearer is under

the obligation to do something

[obligation]

Stating that it is appropriate

that the hearer performs the

desired action

Asking an idiomatic WH

questions

(e.g What about…, how about…, why don’t

Hypothesis (e.g If you would…, perhaps you would….) x x

Appreciation (e.g I would be grateful if you would do…,

I would be glad if …)

Naming the object requested (e.g The next slide please) x x

expressing the feelings of the

Speaker about either the

Addressee or the problem

Closing - An utterance made by

the Speaker to conclude the

complaint set

Threat- An utterance stating an

action the Speaker might take,

depending on the reaction of

the Addressee

(e.g e.g "I, er could take it higher than just talking to you." )

Remedy - An utterance calling

for some corrective action

Justification of The Addressee

- An utterance giving a reason

or excuse for the Addressee's

having committed the wrong or

considering the effect on the

Addressee

( e.g 'Is this time particularly difficult for you?" )

Justification of the speaker-An

utterance explaining why the

Speaker is making the

complaint and the effects of the

wrong on the Speaker

( e.g " because I you're making me miss lectures by turning up late." )

Act Statement- An utterance

which states the problem

directly

(e.g "This is the fourth time this month you've been really late!" )

Orientation - An utterance

giving the Speaker's intent in

initiating the complaint, but

with no detail

(e.g 'I've been meaning to talk to you about the rubbish you've been leaving outside.' )

Opener- An utterance initiating

the speech act set but giving no

information about the wrong

Explicit complaint (e.g You’re not fair You’re inconsiderate

One should not postpone this type of operation I’ve been waiting here for nearly

an hour You are always late I expected different treatment from a physician like you.)

Request for Explanation-

An utterance calling for an

explanation of the Addressee's

behavior,

Blame -An utterance finding

fault with the Addressee or

holding him/her responsible for

the wrong,

(e.g 'You realize 'cause you're late again ')

Adapted from Aijmer 1996; Ishihara and Cohen, 2007

Most lessons are insubstantial and that there are no matapragmatic explanations provided For example, we can see the following lesson presented in grade 10 students’ book under the

title ‘apologizing’

“How would you say sorry to someone? Look at the expressions:

Sorry, I didn’t mean to…

I am sorry but…

I apologize for…

I hope you will forgive me but…

I seem to have made a mistake I’m really sorry…

I am sorry for misunderstanding…

I hope you will understand…” (p 62)

Another lesson that has to do with compliments as presented in 10th English textbook on

pages 85 and 91, has got similar problem For example,

‘Mercy is a good person’

‘You are good at Maths’ (p.85)

Tesfaw is so good at speaking English

Tesfaw is such a good English speaker (p.91)

In the excerpt there is no clear instruction for the learners to further practice the language feature and there is no explicit metalanguage or metapragmatic explanation is given Similarly, with the intention to say ‘no’ or refusal to requests for sex, the following expressions are presented merely for the sake of presenting in 11th grade English language

textbook No metapragmatic explanation is provided They are present only in name

‘ I would really rather not…

If you don’t mind, I’ll say ‘no’ to that

I don’t want…, if you don’t mind

I’m sorry, but I’ve said ‘no’ and I’m not going to change my mind

I’d prefer to…/I’d rather…

Why don’t we… instead?’ (p.103)

Likewise, a topic about ‘tourist complaint’ that is presented in grade 11th

textbook page 128, must have left learners with unsolved puzzle That is to say complaining being important feature of pragmatics, ample matapragmatic explanations and scenarios must have been provided For the excerpt presented above no metalanguage and metapragmatic explanation has been given No authentic context for practice and use is provided No scenarios or situations were presented so that the learners will learn how the expressions are used in a real life like simulations The objective states ‘by the end of the lesson you will be able to learn to apologize to someone’ however there are no practice activities to assess learners’ behavior

Table 3.Frequency of Communicative Acts in Each Textbook

is said to be textbook, particularly in EFL setting and where there is meager opportunities for learners to develop their pragmatic competence, scantiness of such pragmatic contents in the textbooks can highly debilitate learners’ communicative competence

Table 4.Challenges related to students textbooks

According to literatures textbooks can be either opportunity or challenge to teaching pragmatics in EFL context What do St Joseph school teachers think of textbooks’ pragmatic contents? Inadequate=1, fairly adequate=2 and adequate=3

a/explanation of pragmatic aspects of English N 4 - -

Table 5.Why teachers do not teach pragmatic aspect of English language?

progress in pragmatics, they may be reluctant to focus on pragmatics in their teaching.’

Table 6.General Perception of Teachers about Opportunities for Learning Pragmatics

Teacher’s talk in the classroom is

important…to help learners acquire pragmatic

knowledge

The current English textbook discusses and

identifies pragmatic areas of the students’

needs…

Methods and techniques of teaching CL and

pragmatics are supposed to be different