Through a glass, darkly: When learner pragmatics is misconstrued

Tim Hassall

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2003.09.001

Through a glass, darkly: When learner pragmatics is misconstrued

Tim Hassall^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The notion of a second language native-speaker target for learners of pragmatics has been criticised on several counts. However, one problem with this target seems to have escaped notice: when a learner behaves in a native-like way the native speaker might actually misconstrue this behaviour, because he or she views it through a filter of expectations about how the learner will behave. This claim is illustrated with snippets of ethnographic data on one pragmatic problem: avoiding unwelcome questions in Indonesian.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	997-1002
Number of pages	6
Journal	Journal of Pragmatics
Volume	36
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2003.09.001
Publication status	Published - May 2004

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abstract = "The notion of a second language native-speaker target for learners of pragmatics has been criticised on several counts. However, one problem with this target seems to have escaped notice: when a learner behaves in a native-like way the native speaker might actually misconstrue this behaviour, because he or she views it through a filter of expectations about how the learner will behave. This claim is illustrated with snippets of ethnographic data on one pragmatic problem: avoiding unwelcome questions in Indonesian.",

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KW - Target norm

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Through a glass, darkly: When learner pragmatics is misconstrued

Abstract

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