Teaching Pragmatics from a task-based approach: The case of apologies

Treball Final de Grau en Estudis Anglesos. Codi: EA0938. Curs acadèmic: 2018/2019This paper focuses on the teachability of pragmatics in the context of English as a Foreign Language. In order to seek the best way to teach pragmatic features, the present paper challenges the traditional perspective to language teaching by adopting the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach. Task-based instruction has gained popularity in language teaching over the last few decades, but it has not been widely applied to the field of pragmatics. Therefore, the purpose of the present paper is to apply the principles of the Task-Based approach to the instruction of pragmatics, bringing these two aspects together. In order to fulfill this aim, a review of the application and development of both areas of study is presented. Taking into account this background, a pedagogical proposal for the instruction of pragmatics following TBLT is suggested. The proposal is aimed at 1st of ESO students and it includes a two-lesson outline which contains a sequence of tasks in order to teach the speech act of apologies. The suggested proposal demonstrates how TBLT constitutes an appropriate approach for the instruction of pragmatic features since it provides learners with all the necessary conditions for pragmatic learning