Chapter 3. Teachers’ awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards instruction in L2 pragmatics

Abstract

Despite its crucial contribution to second/foreign language (L2) competence, pragmatics has still not gained a fixed place in many language teacher training programs. To address this, a workshop for in-service primary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers was conducted to raise awareness of L2 pragmatics and to present suggestions for teaching it in the classroom. This chapter documents the contents of this professional training course and presents insights into the participants’ expectations and perceptions of the workshop, as well as their knowledge and attitudes towards the teaching of L2 pragmatics. Data was collected by means of questionnaires at the beginning and end of the workshop. In addition to presenting the results, the chapter discusses implications for teacher education to help bring pragmatics into the L2 classroom on a wider scale.