Teaching L2 Spanish Sociopragmatics Through Concepts: A Classroom‐Based Study

Abstract

This study explores the teaching of second language (L2) Spanish sociopragmatics through concept‐based pragmatics instruction (van Compernolle, ). The concepts of self‐presentation, social distance, and power were the focus of a pedagogical enrichment program in 2 sections of a beginning‐level Spanish class at a northeastern U.S. university. The concepts were illustrated by the Spanish second person pronoun system (i.e., tú vs. usted ). The analysis centers on preenrichment and postenrichment performances on 3 tasks: (a) a language awareness survey, (b) an appropriateness judgment task, and (c) a written discourse completion task. Results show positive gains in conceptual sociopragmatic knowledge and the ability to apply this knowledge when making pragmalinguistic choices. However, morphosyntactic accuracy in performance appears to lag behind conceptual knowledge.