Input in the EFT Setting: focus on the teachers' awareness and use of requests, suggestions and advice acts

Abstract

Within the area of second language acquisition it has been assumed that the three conditions to acquire different aspects of the target language include pertinent input, opportunities for output and feedback. Regarding the first condition and focusing on pragmatic issues, learners' opportunities for input in the foreign language classroom are limited to two main sources, namely those of materials and teachers' output. Previous research examining the presentation of pragmatic information in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) materials has demonstrated an artificial and decontextualised use of language. However, paying attention to the second source, there are no previous studies which have focused on both teachers' awareness and production of a particular pragmatic aspect. In this respect, the present study aims at analysing a group of university teachers' degree of grammatical and pragmatic awareness on the one hand, and their production of exhortative speech acts, those of requesting, suggesting and advising, on the other. In so doing, we attempt to ascertain whether teachers' output may be regarded as appropriate input in the foreign language classroom. Results show that teachers are more aware of grammatical errors than pragmatic violations. Moreover, their production of the three speech acts analysed, particularly suggestions and advice acts, make us finally state, in line with Bardovi-Harlig (1992, 1996), that it would be beneficial to develop teacher training programs on pragmatics.