Pragmatic awareness and its role in both teaching and learning English

Abstract

Broadly speaking, the following research study will examine critically the impact of local socio-cultural factors on the process of second language acquisition (SLA) among Thai learners of English. In particular, it will highlight that when learning a second/foreign language (L2), people often respond to certain expressions in the new language more engagingly if these expressions somehow represent a concept or an idea that people are familiar with or can easily identify with from the perspective of their own cultures. Throughout this research study, I am thus advocating for more pragmatic awareness, pragmatic competence and shared cultural knowledge among teachers and learners of English, as I believe it will help us interpret each other's intended meaning(s) better and inform us as teachers on how to conduct our teaching practices better when teaching the L2.