| Shifts in the way foreign language teachers approach language learning have necessitated the incorporation of theories based on sociolinguistic and interlanguage pragmatics research into the way language is taught in the classroom. The present study attempts to move beyond descriptive investigations of what foreign language learners can and cannot do in terms of speech acts and takes a quasi-experimental approach to teaching learners to modify the strategies for apologies, requests and refusals that they employ in various situations.; The research is based on a comparison of two sections of a fourth-semester Spanish course. The sections differed in the treatment of grammatical and extralinguistic features of speech acts presented to the subjects via videotape, audiotape and teacher talk. The experimental group engaged in discussion about the grammatical features of the speech acts presented to them in addition to talking about the content of the situations on the tapes, while the control group talked only about the situations and was not directed to pay attention to the grammatical features.; The researcher looked at pre- and post-treatment use of the various strategies and determined whether or not there was a change. These changes, when they occurred, were compared to the responses of native speakers of Mexican Spanish. Few instances of significant change were found as a result of the treatment, and those instances did not always represent changes that were more like the responses of the native speakers.; The study also raises some questions about classroom-based interlanguage pragmatics research, particularly that which attempts to employ an experimental format. |
