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L2 Pragmatics in Action: Teachers, learners and the teaching-learning interaction process
Edited by Alicia Martínez-Flor, Ariadna Sánchez-Hernández and Júlia Barón
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 58] 2023
► pp. 169–189

Chapter 7
Working memory and task difficulty as factors of L2 pragmatics

| Georgia State University

This study explored the effects of working memory capacity and task difficulty on pragmatic performance in Chinese as a second language (L2). Fifty American learners of Chinese completed a pragmatic listening judgment test (LJT), an oral discourse completion test (ODCT), and a working memory test. The LJT and the ODCT involved two scenario types with different levels of task difficulty: a PDR-high (i.e. higher power, large distance and high imposition) condition, and a PDR-low (i.e. equal power, small distance and low imposition) condition. Results showed that task difficulty influenced pragmatic production but not pragmatic judgment. Working memory capacity correlated with ODCT appropriateness scores and LJT response times, but these correlation patterns were only found under the PDR-high condition rather than the PDR-low condition.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Effects of working memory on L2 pragmatic performance
    • 2.2Effects of task difficulty on L2 pragmatic performance
    • 2.3The present study
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Target pragmatic features
    • 3.3Metapragmatic session
    • 3.4Instruments
      • 3.4.1Working memory test
      • 3.4.2Pragmatic listening judgment test (LJT)
      • 3.4.3Oral Discourse Completion Test (ODCT)
    • 3.5Procedures
    • 3.6Data analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • 6.Pedagogical implications
  • 7.Limitations and future directions
  • References
Published online: 12 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.58.07lis
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