Abstract:
This study explored EFL learners’ pragmalinguistic awareness in processing implicit
pragmatic input and the extent to which their awareness of the target features was related
to motivation and proficiency. It was carried out in an EFL context to explore the roles of
these two variables, particularly intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, in noticing bi-clausal
request forms in implicit pragmatic input. The participants in this research were 121
advanced EFL learners from a language center, participating as members of intact
classes. All participants took a proficiency test and completed a motivation questionnaire
in order to explore the factorial structure of motivation. Then, out of them, 35 learners
were randomly selected to form the treatment group. They then took part in a noticingthe-
gap activity as a treatment task. The degree of learners' awareness of the target
pragmalingustic features was assessed through a respective awareness questionnaire
administrated immediately after the treatment. However, the current study shows that
EFL students are rather extrinsically motivated and instrumentally oriented to noticepragmalinguistic features, which is incompatible with what Takahashi reported on
students’ intrinsic orientation to notice pragmaliguistics in the Japanese EFL
context. This suggests that learners in different contexts have different motivational
dispositions to pragmalinguistic awareness.
Machine summary:
"Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics (IJAL), Vol. 14, No. 2, September 2011, 145-171 Noticing Request-Realization Forms in Implicit Pragmatic Input: Impacts of Motivation and Language Proficiency Zia Tajeddin a Associate Professor, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran Saman Ebadi b Ph. D.
The Study Aiming to shed more light on pragmatic acquisition, though in a different EFL context, and drawing on two previous studies by Takahashi (2001, 2005), the current investigation focused on the relationship of motivation and proficiency with EFL learners' awareness of L2 pragmalingustic features under an implicit input condition.
Since motivation is multi-dimensional motivation and highly culture-bound and context-specific and previous findings have been inconsistent in linking motivation sub-scales to pragmatic learning, the current study also aimed to examine the influence of EFL learners' motivation sub- scales on their pragmalinguistic awareness of request forms.
In light of these findings, the answer to Research Question 2 is partially positive: when pragmatic input is presented implicitly, learners’ noticing of the target pragmalinguistic features is associated with some factors underlying L2 learners’ motivation.
01, N=35, REQ-1= "I wonder if you could VP," REQ-2= "Is it possible to VP?," REQ-3= "If you could VP," DMA=discourse marker, IDE=idiomatic expression, N-IDE=non-idiomatic expression Factor 1=Determination, Factor 2=Extrinsic motivation, Factor 3=Sociability Factor 4=Class anxiety, Factor 5=Attitudes to TL community, Factor 6=Failure attribution Factor 7=Self- confidence, Factor 8=integrative orientation, Factor 9=intrinsic motivation As Table 10 shows, there were no significant correlations between awareness of the target features and any of the proficiency subcomponents or overall proficiency."