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Article published In:
Study abroad and the Erasmus+ programme in Europe: Perspectives on language and intercultural learning
Edited by Anne Marie Devlin
[Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education 5:1] 2020
► pp. 89–118

Erasmus students in an Irish study abroad context

A longitudinal analysis of the use of ‘well’ and ‘like’

| Aston University

While second language (L2) pragmatics research has predominantly investigated speech acts, little attention has been given to pragmatic markers (PMs) (Müller, 2005). Research demonstrates that PM use by learners is limited (Liao, 2009) and that their production is aided by native speaker (NS) contact (Sankoff et al., 1997). Thus, if study abroad (SA) provides a combination of instructed and naturalistic input / exposure, the analysis of PM development gives insights into the role of language exposure during SA. Against this background, this article investigates the use of PMs in L2 English during an Erasmus programme in Ireland. Data were collected using sociolinguistic interviews (Labov, 1984) and the PMs studied were ‘like’ and ‘well’. These PMs were tracked longitudinally to investigate differences in frequency and use. Findings were analysed quantitatively and compared with English NSs. Results point to an increase in frequency but also reveal constraints on the use of the PMs studied.

Keywords: L2 pragmatic markers, pragmatic development, student mobility, language exposure, L2 English, Irish English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pragmatic markers
    • 2.1‘Well’
    • 2.2‘Well’: Characteristics of use
    • 2.3‘Like’
    • 2.4The pragmatic uses of ‘like’
  • 3.Research aims
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Data collection and extraction
    • 4.2Participants
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Longitudinal analysis of the learner data
      • 5.1.1‘Well’
      • 5.1.2‘Like’
    • 5.2Comparative analysis between the learner and NS data
      • 5.2.1‘Well’
      • 5.2.2‘Like’
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusions and future directions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.18008.mag
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