Beyond “classroom English” : second language pragmatics in French EFL classrooms

International audienceAlthough traditional foreign language (FL) classrooms generally focus on the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical structures, research has shown the inadequacies of structural approaches for developing the kind of pragmatic competence which is essential for communication in the multilingual networks of the modern world. Of particular importance in this regard is knowledge of politeness, an aspect of second language competence which is not perceived as obligatory (Leech, 2014) but is nonetheless indispensable for the maintenance of ‘social order’ and ‘human cooperation’ (Gumperz, 1987). Some thirty years of interlanguage (IL) research have shown that in traditional classrooms, more emphasis is given to lexicogrammatical functions of language rather than sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic aspects (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Kasper, 2001; Bardovi-Harlig & Mahan-Taylor, 2003). Drilling pupils to produce formulaic utterances such as asking permission to leave their seats or open a window, which textbooks often refer to as “classroom English”, is unlikely to help learners in more complex or creative language use beyond the classroom. For this reason, instruction in pragmatics is recommended Takahashi 2010), but this should not be restricted to ‘norm-referenced rules of thumb’ and, in the case of politeness to ‘overgeneralization’ of a restricted set of formulae (Van Campernolle 2014). Instead, pragmatic instruction should enable learners to make creative and spontaneous judgments to select and modify utterances according to the context. In addition, recent reforms in FL teaching in much of Europe to meet the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) recommendations are encouraging teachers to give more weight to pragmatic and sociolinguistic skills. However, little investigation of learners’ pragmatic development has been carried out, and even less with secondary school learners (Kontra, 2003). Hence, the time is ripe for research into the role of classroom activities and textbooks in developing this type of competence, including both a) the role of learners in displaying creativity to make use of the opportunities available in classroom, and b) the role of teachers in introducing innovative ways to teach second language pragmatics. The present study addresses these questions by exploring politeness strategies in requests by secondary EFL learners in France using elicitation tasks and classroom observation.This study replicates Rose (2000, 2009) which used an innovative cartoon oral production task (COPT) to elicit samples of requests and apologies from young EFL pupils in Hong Kong schools. Our research involves pupils at three levels of middle and high school in France, and our data include a) COPT audio recordings following Rose (2000, 2009) supplemented by b) an analysis of textbooks, and c) additional data in the form of video recordings of classroom activities. Data analysis is based on Blum-Kulka et al.'s (1989) categorization of requests. The study aims to document current classroom practice in this area, identifying instances of both creative language use by learners and innovative teaching methods by teachers, and perhaps recommending ways to encourage such important opportunities