Explicit Strategies-Based Instruction for L2 Apology and Request Production: Should It Be Separate or Integrated?

Abstract

Pragmatic learning strategies have been recently addressed in descriptive studies; however, research into their instruction is scarce. This study compared the effects of explicit separate and explicit integrated pragmatic learning strategies-based instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ production of the speech acts of apology and request. Participants included 60 convenience-sampled intermediate EFL learners, randomly divided into an explicit separate instruction group (ESG; N = 30) and an explicit integrated instruction group (EIG; N = 30). ESG and EIG were both comprised of two 15-member subgroups, differing in the order of instruction of implicit and explicit strategies (N = 20) adopted from Tajeddin and Bagherkazemi’s (2021) Pragmatic Learning Strategy Inventory. Strategy-based instruction was offered as a separate course to ESG, and an L2 speech act course component was integrated into the while-task phase for EIG. A 16-item written discourse completion test, comprised of eight apology and eight request items, was used to measure the participants’ pre-treatment and post-treatment speech act production ability. Two separate analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) on apology and request scores showed explicit integrated pragmatic learning strategies-based instruction to be more effective than separate instruction. The findings indicate the greater effect of the integrated approach, which could be attributed to its embedded gap noticing and metapragmatic reflection opportunities. They have implications for speech act instruction aimed at enhancing learners’ interlanguage pragmatic development autonomy.