User:Ale Rivera/Academic Writing Notes Ale

BRAINSTORMING - LITERATURE REVIEW

The importance of developing a pragmatic competence when learning a foreign language

Problem

Students from Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes learn English through different skills; however few teachers involve them in the learning of pragmatics. The problem students face is that when they want to communicate in English they fail because they have not developed a pragmatic competence, and they are not able to recognize if they are using the language accurately.

Purpose

To determine if pragmatics is an essential tool when learning English in Fomento Courses at Univesidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. To identify how the absence of this competence is detrimental to students when using the language to speak with native speakers, in a foreign country or even in real contexts.

Research questions

¿what is pragmatic competence? ¿is it an element teachers should considering when teaching English? ¿How the absence of this competence affects students?

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annotated References

Write a small paragraph including

1. Evaluate the authority of the author, is it a valid author, background of the author

2. Comment on the intended audience

3. Compare or contrast thee work with other authors.

4. Explain how this work helps your literature review.

Consider:

a) Problem statement

b) Purpose

c) Research questions

• REFERENCE 1

Journal

Tello, Y. (2006). Developing a pragmatic competence in a foreign language: Theoretical Discussion Papers. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 8, 169 – 182.

Y. Tello Rueda has investigated different teaching methods and techniques; her principal area has been the language instruction. In this journal, the author presents a contrast between the grammatical and pragmatic competence, she provides theoretical and empirical information about how competences are generally ignored in the language instruction. She reflects on the importance of explicit pragmatic instruction as a tool to help learners developing a pragmatic competence. Her theory is just based on contrasting the pragmatic and grammatical competences in order to convince the audience about the importance of pragmatics; however, during the document is easy to note how the author states that both elements (pragmatics and grammar) are important when learning a foreign language. The theory and examples the author presents will be relevant during the current research in order to identify the importance of competences when learning a foreign language.

• REFERENCE 2

Journal'

Grossi, V. (2009). Teaching pragmatic competence: Compliments and compliment responses in the ESL classroom. AMEP research Center. 24(2), 53 – 62. Retrieved from http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect_journal/volume_24_no_2/Vittoria_Grossi.pdf

In this paper Grossi, V. discusses how teaching can be approached to adults who are learning English as a second language. The author explains how important different conditions in a classroom are so that students can learn English accurately. The author provides evidence in the study taking as sample speakers of different ages and settings, including the workplace and the home. The information the author presents is relevant for the study of the importance of pragmatics, since the author suggests that pragmatics is an element teachers should consider in a language lesson.

• REFERENCE 3

Journal

Stadler, S. (2010). Coding speech acts for their degree of explicitness. Journal of Pragmatics, 8, 36 – 50, doi. 10.1016

This document is completely about speech acts. The author analyses the function and modification of speech acts in discourse; however, this document is relevant because speech acts are certainly part of pragmatics. The author mentions how speech acts help learners to develop a communicative competence. Therefore, it is clear to determine how pragmatics is merely related to the student’s communicative ability. For this reason, this article is really essential in the study, in order to identify the role of pragmatics in other areas such as discourse and even to determine the role it plays in communication.

• REFERENCE 4

Book

Kasper, G. & Blum-Kulka, S. (1993). Interlanguage Pragmatics, UK, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

In this book the authors present a clear description about interlanguage pragmatics. The study of this field in language is relevant to study pragmatics, since it is the field that studies how nonnative speakers use and acquire the linguistic actions and patterns when learning a second language. This theory or study proves how interlanguage pragmatics is a relevant factor during the language learning process. However, the area of interest in this paper is just the definition the authors give to pragmatics and the importance they give to this field when learning a foreign language. In this book, the authors present a synthesis of the diverse perspectives that already exist about the production and development of a pragmatic competence. They took the existing theories in order to apply them in the study of interlanguage pragmatics. This document is essential for the study since it present recent researches conducted in the area of interest: pragmatics.

• REFERENCE 5

Book

Lightbown, P. & Patsy, N. (2006). How languages are learned. UK, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

In this book the authors present different theories about how languages are learned so that the teacher can be able to use those theories when teaching. The authors believe that teachers are not able to use different methodologies in the classroom since they do not know about theories and even methodologies that can be used. This book is important since in some of its chapters the authors present the importance of pragmatics when teaching a second language. The authors assume that pragmatics is an important field when teaching, since students need to learn how language should be used in different contexts and even situations. The book presents the importance that pragmatics has in the language methodology. It presents how teachers can teach this area of language and under what purposes. This is why this material is relevant for the research since it presents a theoretical framework of pragmatics in the field of language learning.

• REFERENCE 6

Book

Gruyter, M. (2009). Pragmatic Competence. Berlin: Naoko Taguchi Press

The author of this book is one of the leading publishers in the field of linguistics. The author has gained reputation through different journals, researches, multimedia publications and bibliographies. In the book, pragmatic competence, the author presents how important is for language learners to become pragmatically competent when using the second language. The author analyses how teachers can assess and even teach this competence. The author presents evidence within the study of a group of students that were learning Japanese as a second language. This book is relevant for the study because the author suggest some strategies and even techniques teachers can use in order to promote the instruction of pragmatics in the language classroom.

• REFERENCE 7

Book

Celce – Murcia, M. & Olshtain, E. (2000).Discourse and Context in Language Teaching. UK, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The author, Marianne Celce-Muricia, is a professor at the University of California. She is a Ph.D. teacher of applied linguistics and TESL. Nowadays Marianne is Dean of English Programs at the American University of Armenia in Yervan. This author has published many articles and books about language teaching methodology, pronunciation and grammar. In the book Discourse and Context in Language Teaching the author suggest a communicative approach that teacher can use in their classroom. She presents a perspective on how teachers can include different skills such as pragmatics in the language classroom so that students can be able to learn not only language as itself, even the pragmatic field that allow them to use the language appropriately in different circumstances and contexts. This is why this book is essential in the study of the importance of pragmatics.

• REFERENCE 8

Web Page

Moore, A. (2001) Pragmatics and speech acts. Retrieved on September 5th, 2010 from http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.htm

The author of this information is currently working for the Directorate of Lifelong Learning of East Riding of Yorkshire Council. The information provided in this article is relevant since the document presents a lot of information that entails what pragmatics is; however, there are no facts that can prove the validity of the information; however, it is just a summary of what other authors have mentioned about pragmatics. Nevertheless, this document includes different examples that have to do with pragmatics, leaving the reader the idea of what pragmatics refers to. The author drives sub themes which are related to the importance of pragmatics in the process of learning a second language, and the presentation of the information goes from the general to the abstract. This information is important for the actual research since it is a way to determine and identify all the elements that pragmatics concerns.

• REFERENCE 9

Web Page

N,A. (2001). The role of pragmatics in language teaching: pragmatics and semantics. Retrieved on September 21st, from: http://la_creazione.tripod.com/pragmatics_teaching/id6.html

In this web page, it is presented relevant information that has mainly to do with the study of pragmatics. The author (unknown) presents appropriate information that covers all the aspects of pragmatics. The most significant part of this information is the difference that the author makes between semantics and pragmatics. This contrast is important for the study of pragmatics since there is confusion between these two terminologies, pragmatics and semantics. Although there is no information about the author, the information presented in this web page is really essential and it is really applicable for the study. The sub topics presented in this paper are even essential and although most of them are mainly connected with the topic, not all of them could be use in the research about the importance of pragmatics, for example, the author explain the pragmatics and communication, but he offers a point of view mainly centered on the speech acts, and this is why all the information cannot be considered for the research. However, all the information is essential to understand what pragmatics is.

• REFERENCE 10

Web Page

Thanasoulas, D. (2001) The Importance Of Teaching Culture In The Foreign Language Classroom on September 20th , 2010 from http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue3_3/7-thanasoulas.html

Although, there is no information about the author,in this document it is clearly identified the author’s idea. He presents a study that supports the idea that culture should be included as part of the language lessons. He presents a series elements that teachers should consider when teaching a foreign language;such as the pragmatic competence, the communicative competence, but even the cultural competence. However, he supports the idea that teaching culture is a factor that allow students to use the language appropriately since knowing the culture permit students to feel more comfortable when using the foreign language. Although this paper is not about pragmatics, it is relevant for the study because the author explains why teachers should consider different elements and not only the syntactical one. He also explains how the communication proceeds when the learner understand the cultural background of the language. As it was stated, the culture is not study in this research; however, the fundaments the author presents are important since he assumes that culture help students to develop and understand how people exhibit certain behaviors when using the language in real contexts, which certainly has to do with pragmatics. So, this part of his research is the one that help us to identify that pragmatics is even part of culture. This paper is important since it explain the process that teachers can follow in order to teach culture, but even how they need to organize the learning so that students can understand the cultural differences so that students can be more confident with the language. His principal objective is to promote objectivity and cultural perspicacity.

MEAL PLAN

M main idea

E evidence

A analysis

L link

APA STYLE

JOURNALS Author's last name, First Initial. (Year).Title of the article. Name of the journal, Vol. Section, page number.doi (#).

Example: Li-di, M. (2008). Survey on the relationship between developments of language transfer theory and second language acquisition. US-China Foreign Language, 6(12), 15-22.

BOOKS

Author's Last name, First Initial. (Year). Title of the book.Place of publication: Publisher

Example: Cook, V. (2002) Second language acquisition, 1 : Portraits of the L2 user. Clevedon: GBR: Multilingual Matters Limited

WEB PAGE

Stewart, B. (1999). Ben goes on vacation. Retrieved on September 28, 2010 from www.yahoo.com

Ben goes on vacation. (2010). Retrieved on September 28, 2010 from www.yahoo.com

Stewart, B. (n.d.). Ben goes on vacation. Retrieved on September 28, 2010 from www.yahoo.com

Author's last name, First initial. (Year). Name of the article.

TYPES OF ARTICLES

LITERATURE REVIEW

CONTENTS OF A RESEARCH PAPER

• Title page

• Abstract

• Literature review (background information)

• Method (participants’ description, instruments

• Results section

• Discussion section (analysis)

• Conclusion

• References

• Appendix

• Sometimes the results and the discussion section can go together.
• Do not use the word Bibliography instead of References

CASE STUDY

It focuses in one or few individuals because these people are unique. You want to find out what’s different about them, what’s unique about them

ACTION RESEARCH

It is internal. The researches and the participants are the same.

FIELD RESEARCH

The investigation is in a real context. Investigating participants in a natural set, context, environment.

PARTS OF AN ACADEMIC PAPER

• Title Page

Running head Title

• Abstract

(120 words)

• Table of contents
• Literature Review
• The heading is the title of the paper
• The first word of every paragraph is indented (0.5 inch)
• Method
• Participants
• Context
• Instruments
• Results
• Findings
• Conclusion

It should not be more than 1 page (250 words)

• References
• NOTES:

All text is justified

All lines are doble spaced

All headings are in bold text

Only headings are in bold text

• Separated page

Thesis Statement

During this class I read some tips in order to write a thesis statement, what I understood is that to write a thesis statement first we should determine what kind of paper we'll write so we could find the exact words in order to be brief and clear. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper, but remember that we need to keep the main idea of our paper while we write because the topic may change, so we will need to check if we are really clear and coherent when writing.

Three Paragraph Essay

Today I finished my essay, for me it was very difficult to write it since it is hard to integrate different ideas in just one body paragraph; however, I think this helped me a lot because it is a way to learn how to synthesize ideas in order to be clear when writing. The most difficult part for me was the body paragraph, because I had lots of ideas, and I just mentioned two. I would like to learn how to do this when writing a loner essay.

Feedback

Hello Ale. Your notes pages is coming along but you were asked to make some updates this past week to you notes. You might consider APA tips, writing strategies, or structural writing techniques that you have learned so far this semester. --Benjamin Stewart 01:44, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

RESEARCH PAPER

Title: The importance of developing a pragmatic competence when learning a foreign language

Problem: Students from Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes learn English through different skills; however few teachers involve them in the learning of pragmatics. The problem students face is that when they want to communicate in English they fail because they have not developed a pragmatic competence, and they are not able to recognize if they are using the language accurately.

Purpose: To determine if pragmatics is an essential tool when learning English in Fomento Courses at Univesidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. To identify how the absence of this competence is detrimental to students when using the language to speak with native speakers, in a foreign country or even in real contexts.

Research questions: ¿what is pragmatic competence? ¿is it an element teachers should considering when teaching English? ¿How the absence of this competence affects students?