Chapter 6. Proficiency effects on L2 pragmatics

Abstract

Proficiency is a widely used concept in second language (L2) pragmatics where it is commonly viewed as lexico-grammatical knowledge, and can be measured by means of standardised or researcher-designed tests, or estimated on the basis of levels in a language program. It is a common grouping variable in research studies, allowing researchers to compare the pragmatic or interactional abilities of learners at different proficiency levels, and such studies have overwhelmingly found a strong contribution of proficiency to L2 pragmatics. However, this contribution varies depending on the area of pragmatics investigated, and the degree of overlap depends strongly on the measurement instruments for both proficiency and pragmatics. We illustrate this through a study on the effect of proficiency on implicit and explicit pragmatic knowledge.