Pragmatics and Instructional Pragmatics in Second/Foreign Language Preservice Teacher Education: A Case Study in Australia and Vietnam

Abstract

Pragmatics in the field of English language teaching has recently received increasing research interests, but studies on teachers learning to teach pragmatics are limited. The present study extends this research agenda by investigating how well second/foreign language preservice teacher education (SLPTE) prepares teachers to teach pragmatics. Adopting a multi-site case study approach, this study examines (1) the representation of pragmatics and instructional pragmatics in SLPTE programmes at Australian and Vietnamese universities, and (2) programme leaders’ beliefs about pragmatics instructor preparation. Data were collected from curriculum document analysis, a questionnaire, and four individual semi-structured interviews. The findings show that pragmatics was represented to different extents across the programmes but instructional pragmatics was entirely absent. The findings further show three sets of the programme leaders’ beliefs: (1) preservice teachers were not well-prepared to teach pragmatics; (2) teaching pragmatics and instructional pragmatics to preservice teachers is important; and (3) pragmatics and instructional pragmatics need to be sufficiently addressed in SLPTE. The study has important implications for teacher educators, curriculum designers, and relevant stakeholders regarding L2 pragmatics teacher preparation.