Investigating L2 Pragmatic Development in Tandem Telecollaboration

Abstract

This study aims to triangulate the results of the pragmalinguistic analysis of L1/L2 English criticisms and suggestions carried out in a previous study with the ratings of speakers of US English. Five students from a Californian university were asked to rate the pragmatic appropriateness of three Italian learners' and four L1 or highly proficient speakers' use of English during the peer feedback discussion phases of e-tandem interactions. A pragmatic assessment questionnaire was purposely developed for the rating, and the raters were trained to focus on the pragmatic aspects of the speakers' productions. The study did not confirm the evidence for incidental pragmatics learning emerged in Del Bono and Nuzzo. However, the triangulation of findings revealed that the raters focused on the same features addressed in the previous analysis.