A proposal to teach implicature to intermediate students of English

Abstract

Teaching pragmatics in language learning is growing more and more relevant in order to achieve the goal that the speakers of a language can communicate effectively with both native and non-native speakers. As a result, misunderstandings when communicating will be avoided. Within pragmatics, implicature is one of the most problematic aspects for students to grasp. Besides, not being able to handle it correctly may interfere or even hinder communication. Therefore, teaching implicature effectively becomes a must for twenty-first century teachers. This means that their goal has to be to equip their students with the necessary skills they will need to manage successfully in a globalised world where English is used as a lingua franca. This paper begins by revising the main concepts about pragmatic competence, together with the most common and effective ways to teach pragmatics. Then, some possible ways to assess the acquisition of pragmatic competence, as well as a proposal to teach implicature to intermediate students of English are presented in this paper. The proposal takes as a reference the different stages, activities, kind of input, materials and ways to teach and assess implicature that have proven effective in previous research studies into this issue. The different parts of this proposal are described, as well as the materials to be used with it. They are mainly authentic input, as well as examples of the most habitual types of activities employed for this purpose. Finally, the results which are expected to be achieved through this proposal are outlined.