The Neglected Combination: A case for Explicit-Inductive Instruction in Teaching Pragmatics in ESL

1. Research shows that teaching pragmatic skills is more effective than mere exposure to the target language.

2. I

3. Guided discovery is the key; Students participate in activities, analyze the interaction then decide for themselves the rules with the assistance of the teacher

4. Pragmatic teaching explores the meaning behind the spoken or written word via purposeful interaction with others

5. An idea for classroom teachers: Observe a clip from a movie displaying a disagreement. Discuss the scenes about what happened between the speakers. Be specific about the behaviors observed. Then ask students to role-play a disagreement scenario using the observed behaviors.

6. Idea for classroom teachers: Students can learn how environmental print carries message functions. They can read samples such as; giving directions, warnings, price tags and then discussed in a teacher led lesson.

7. Teacher idea; Use a read aloud depicting a social situation; encourage students to look for general patterns behind the actions then they can role play practicing what they have discovered.

8. The question is should we teach the rules first then engage students in practice or engage then teach rules

9. Inductive approaches: language is first introduced without teaching rules

10. Deductive teaches rules first then engages in activities

11. inductively taught learners outperformed their deductively taught peers if both designs featured rule provision.

12. explicit inductive designs were more beneficial than explicit deductive ones