The Acquisition of Pragmatic Dimension in the Teaching and Learning of Malay: an Early Review

This study is focussing on the acquisition of pragmatic structure in the first language parameter, particularly in Malay. The pragmatic structure assumes that a speaker innately has a choice for Face Threatening Acts (FTA\u27s) in his construction of sentences for a particular conversation. The structure of FTA\u27s are Bald On-Record (BOR), Negative Politeness (NP), Positive Politeness (PP), and Off-Record-indirect strategy (OR). From the pragmatic perspective, each of the FTA\u27s consists of a certain purpose. To look at the competency of pragmatic acquisition structure, subjects of this study were exposed through classroom interactions based on three learning outcomes. For each learning outcome, subjects were given six situations which totalling to 18 situations for all the three learning outcomes mentioned. Each situations demands subjects to discuss and interact using the FTA\u27s that they have already acquired. The study shows that in regard of the acquisition of FTA\u27s among subjects, BOR acquired the highest score, followed by PP, NP, and OR in all the six situations undergone by the subjects