111-124_AKUTSU

1 Pragmatic competence is an indispensable ability to interact successfully in a language community. It is required in most of our daily life communication; when we talk, we must draw on the knowledge since even small talks require it. However, many studies on pragmatic competence have indicated that the pragmatic of native speakers (NSs) and learners are different, as Schmidt and Richards (1980) pointed out that "even greetings and leave-takings show differences," and that the disparity may lead even to communication breakdowns. In other words, language learners must improve pragmatic skills to communicate naturally and effectively. One of the reasons for the difference suggested in previous studies is the limited and insufficient input for the learners. Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei (1998) suggested two reasons that may result in the difference in development of pragmatics between native speakers and non-native speakers (NNS s); "the availability of input", and "the salience of relevant linguistic features in the input from the point of view of the learner" (p234). Kasper (1997) among others pointed out that the learners often do not get enough input in the institutional settings, an