New Trends in Pragmatics Assessment Research: An Introduction

Abstract

Even though it can be argued that pragmatics is an important element of the second language (L2) assessment research agenda, a number of challenges have consistently surfaced in this field. For example, adequate coverage of the construct has been consistently formidable, particularly considering that many studies take an atomistic view of pragmatics through their focus on speech acts rather than on contextualized language use (Roever, 2010). Likewise, issues of practicality and benchmarking remain underdeveloped, and understanding regarding the hierarchy of different types of pragmatic meanings continues to be limited (Roever, 2012, 2014). However, in recent years, there have been several attempts to expand our understanding of L2 pragmatics. As illustration, new models of pragmatic ability have been proposed (Purpura, 2017; Timpe-Laughlin, Wain, & Schmidgall, 2015), and it is hoped that these theoretical developments lead to practical applications in L2 pragmatics research and pedagogy.