Exploring the Potential of Explicit/Implicit Teaching through Plays for EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Development

Abstract

The present study investigated the possible contribution of plays as a medium of instruction for pragmatic development through explicit and implicit instruction. To this end, 80 English-major university students formed four intact experimental groups: two literary and two nonliterary groups. One of the literary groups (Implicit Play) received typographically enhanced plays containing the speech acts of apology, request, and refusal, and the other (Explicit Play) received the same plus metapragmatic instruction on the speech acts. The medium of instruction for the nonliterary groups were dialogs containing the given functions; they were also given either enhanced input (Implicit Dialog) or input plus metapragmatic information (Explicit Dialog). All the groups took a written discourse completion test (WDCT) and a multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) before and after instruction. Analysis of the groups' performance on the WDCT pretest and posttest did not show an advantage for the literary medium, that is, there was no significant difference between literary and nonliterary groups. It was rather the mode of instruction that mattered most; explicit groups outperformed their implicit counterparts. As for the groups' performance on the MDCT pre and posttest, analyses revealed that the groups had improved, but there was no significant difference among the groups as a result of the four teaching conditions, suggesting that pragmatic instruction regardless of the medium and mode of teaching can improve learners' knowledge of speech acts.

The Relative Contributions of Explicit and Implicit Instruction in the Learning of EFL Apologies

“…For instance, after a review of previous research on pragmatic intervention, Takahashi (2010) expressed her viewpoint that "positive effects of explicit intervention are not always assured; moreover, some forms of implicit intervention are equally effective," (p.127). This conclusion comes in line with a number of studies that either found no significant differences between explicit and implicit teaching on the development of students' pragmatic competence (e.g., (Rezvani, Eslami-Rasekh, & Vahid Dastjerdi, 2014;Takimoto, 2006bTakimoto, , 2009aTakimoto, , 2009b) or found mixed results among variations based on the use of different practice tasks or measurement tools (e.g., (Hosseini & Safari, 2018;Takimoto, 2012aTakimoto, , 2012b). It is worth noting that researchers casting doubt on the superiority of explicit teaching may adopt instructional practices in line with Schmidt (1993); Schmidt (2001) Noticing Hypothesis, such as different forms of input enhancement.…”

CEFR Based Learning Approach: Using Literature to Enhance EFL Students’ Reading Skills and Critical Thinking Skills

“…It provides a good example of vocabulary use and sentence structure which are both very useful for language learning. The students also become more familiar with the language used in different real-life situations (Collie & Slater, 2001;Hosseini & Safari, 2018;Rew & Moon, 2013;Yilmaz, 2012). In addition to language skill development, studying literature encourages the students to express their ideas and emotions towards the stories they read, particularly when they have to discuss or respond to the important issues embedded in the literary texts (Carrison & Slavit, 2005;Fisher, 2003).…”

Untitled

“…Given that no art exists outside the language (Bleinert, Curytto-Klag, & Kucala, 2014), the art of literature plays a vital role in nourishing our inner lives, reminding us of our prosperous and remorseful past, and inspiring us towards our promising future. Literature has been used in the EFL classroom for language improvement (Collie & Slater, 2001;Ghosn, 2002;Hosseini & Safari, 2018;Rew & Moon, 2013;Yilmaz, 2012), cultural understanding (Hall, 2015;Rahimi, 2014;Sell, 2005), as well as personal growth and emotional development in particular (Collie & Slater, 2001;Roohani, 2009;Yimwilai, 2015). Carter and Long (1991, p. 3) state that encouraging learners to read literature more effectively is to help them to grow as individuals and to enhance their relationships with other people.…”