The Pragmatic Instruction Effects on Persian EFL Learners’ Noticing and Learning Outcomes in Request Forms

Abstract

This study investigates the request strategies used by Persian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), aimed at exploring the pragmatic instruction effects on their noticing constrained by different types of treatment tasks. The subsequent effect of the learners’ noticing on their learning outcomes is taken into account as well. Thirty learners were divided into two instructional (treatment) conditions: a form-comparison condition and a form-search condition. Discourse completion tests were used to generate data related to the request strategies used by each group in pre- and posttests. The treatment data were examined regarding the extent to which the learners had noticed the appropriate manner of request realization in English and were further compared with the posttest. The findings revealed that during the treatment, the amount of learners’ noticing the target request forms in the form-comparison condition was greater than the form-search condition. Furthermore, learners’ higher awareness of the target request forms in the form-comparison condition could lead them to have a better performance in their posttest.

Keywords

• interlanguage pragmatics
• language instruction
• noticing hypothesis
• request speech act