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Article published In:
Trends in Second Language Pragmatics Research Part I:
[Applied Pragmatics 4:2] 2022
► pp. 137–158

Teaching L2 pragmatics to young learners

A review study

ORCID logo | Universität Erfurt
This paper reviews research on teaching pragmatics – and more specifically speech acts – to young L2 learners from two perspectives: (1) studies investigating young L2 learners’ pragmatic competence and (2) studies examining the potential of different materials with regard to pragmatics instruction. The review of L2 learners’ speech act competence addresses cross-sectional and longitudinal developmental studies, as well as studies that examined the effects of specific instructional approaches, learning contexts or materials on young L2 learners’ pragmatic competence. The review of studies examining materials addresses both studies focusing on designated L2 teaching materials produced for the explicit purpose of foreign language instruction of young learners, as well as studies examining speech acts included in children’s books. The paper concludes with a discussion of issues relevant to young learners and the teaching and researching of L2 pragmatics.
Keywords: young learners, TEYL, L2 pragmatics, interlanguage pragmatic development, instructed pragmatics, pragmatic input materials, children’s literature, speech acts
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of literature
    • 2.1Studies investigating young learners’ L2 pragmatic competence
      • 2.1.1Longitudinal developmental studies in second language contexts
      • 2.1.2Cross-sectional developmental studies in instructed primary school contexts
      • 2.1.3Studies examining different teaching approaches
      • 2.1.4Studies comparing different teaching contexts in one country
      • 2.1.5Studies examining the effect of specific instructional materials
      • 2.1.6Critical summary
    • 2.2Studies investigating input materials for L2 pragmatic instruction
      • 2.2.1Studies examining teaching materials by textbook publishers
      • 2.2.2Studies examining children’s books used in EFL classrooms
      • 2.2.3Critical summary of studies examining input materials
  • 3.Conclusion and future directions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 13 April 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ap.00006.sch
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