L2 pragmatics: politeness in French EFL classrooms

LEARNING TO TEACH SECOND
LANGUAGE PRAGMATICS:
POLITENESS IN FRENCH EFL CLASSROOMS
TESOL France Colloquium Paris 19/11/16
SHONA WHYTE
AISHA SIDDIQA

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LEARNING TO TEACH SECOND
LANGUAGE PRAGMATICS:
POLITENESS IN FRENCH EFL CLASSROOMS

UMR7320 BASES, CORPUS, LANGAGE.
UNIVERSITÉ NICE SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS.
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LEARNING TO MAKE
REQUESTS IN ENGLISH
The acquisition of politeness
strategies by young EFL learners in
France: An exploratory study of
interlanguage pragmatic development

Doctoral thesis

JM Merle, S Whyte

LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION
SECOND LANGUAGE INTERACTION
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TEACHING ENGLISH AS A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Introduction to
classroom EFL research 
Master MEEF anglais 
Académie de Nice

Aims of presentation
Themes: Teacher Training and
Development &Young Adult Learners

Interlanguage pragmatics is
considered one of the major
communicative skills. However it has
been rarely a focus in traditional
classrooms that focus on lexico-
grammatical functions, and second
language (L2) speakers often fail to
approximate native-like norms. The
present study focused on supporting
EFL teachers in the teaching of
interlanguage pragmatics in
secondary schools, with a particular
emphasis on requests.

WORKSHOP
OUTLINE 1. BACKGROUND
2. DOCTORAL RESEARCH PROJECT
3. TEACHER EDUCATION COURSE
4. SAMPLE TEACHING MATERIALS
5. FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS
6. IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING
workshop

activities

What is pragmatics?
✤ “how-to-say-what-to-whom-when”  
(Bardovi-Harlig, 2013)
✤ “the study of language from the point of view of
users, especially of the choices they make, the
constraints they encounter in using language in social
interaction and the effects their use of language has
on other participants in the act of communication”  
(Crystal, 1997)

a. in a secondary school class
b. in a lecturer’s ofﬁce
c. at university
d. in a plane, before take-off
e. in the audience of a school concert
f. in a car park
g. in an ofﬁce
h. on a footpath
Contexts for requests
1. It’d be cool if you could move up
one.

2. Get us a pie, mate.

3. If you could just grab a copy of that
for a moment.

4. I was wondering if I could have, um,
3 weeks annual leave?

5. Would it be OK if I handed my
assignment in next Monday?

6. Could you just pop that up there for
me?

7. Do you wanna move over ?
Yates, 2008

Cross-cultural
(mis)communication
✤ Do you have a bag? Beebe &
Takahashi (1989)
✤ Japanese waiter in New York
sushi bar asked female
American customer if she had
a bag (information question vs
warning, illocutionary force)
✤ study of L2 pragmatics,
interlanguage pragmatic
development

Researching L2
pragmatics
1. Are there universals of language
underlying cross-linguistic
variation? If so, do they play a role
in interlanguage pragmatics?
2. How can approximation to target
language norms be measured?
3. Does the L1 inﬂuence the learning
of a second language?
4. Is pragmatic development in a
second language similar to ﬁrst
language learning?
5. Does type of input make a
difference? 
6. Does instruction make a difference? 
7. Do motivation and attitudes make
a difference? 
8. Does personality play a role? 
9. Does formulaic speech play a role? 
10. What mechanisms drive
development from stage to stage?
–Kasper & Rose, 2002

WORKSHOP
OUTLINE 1. BACKGROUND
2. DOCTORAL RESEARCH PROJECT
3. TEACHER EDUCATION COURSE
4. SAMPLE TEACHING MATERIALS
5. FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS
6. IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Research study
The use and acquisition of
politeness strategies among EFL
learners in France:  
An exploratory study of
interlanguage pragmatic
development

What is a request?
A request is a directive speech act whose illocutionary purpose is to get the
hearer to do something in circumstances in which it is not obvious that he/she
will perform the action in the normal course of events (Searle, 1969).
Request
Alerter
Head act Request
perspective
Internal
Modification
Request
Strategy
Supportive
Move

Head act: Request Strategies
Direct requests
Conventionally
indirect requests
Non-
conventionally
indirect requests
• Speak up please.

• Repeat please.
• Madam, can I go to the board?

• Can I have a paper please?

• I don’t have the paper.

Request modiﬁcation
Alerter
Lexical
modiﬁcation
Supportive moves
• Title or role: miss/madam
• First name: Sara/Loic
• Lexical or phrasal
downgraders: please, a little
•Can you give me some money please?
I forgot my money at home. Thank
you.

Doctoral research project: Research questions
1.How well are French learners of English able to
formulate requests?
2.Is there any evidence of development over time?
3.What kind of input do the classroom learners get
in France?
4.What opportunities do they have for production?
Do they use these opportunities? Do they
create others?

Methodology
Naturalistic + Experimental data
1. Classroom ﬁlming

2. Cartoon oral production task
(COPT)

3. Role plays

4. Teacher interviews

5. Textbook analysis

• Design of the study
Cross-sectional
• Participants
3 levels of learners
Level Name of
class
School year Approximate
age (years)
1 6eme First year of
middle school
11-12
2 3eme Last year of
middle school
14-15
3 Terminale Last year of
high school
17-18
Methodology

Level
Number
of
classes
Hours of class
recorded
(3 hours per
teacher)
Total
number of
learners
Mean
number of
learners
per class
1 5 15 131 26
2 3 9 73 24
3 5 15 104 20
Total 13 39 308
Can I come
to the board
please?
can I have the test
please because I
need the questions
Have you
règle, please?
Participants: Classroom ﬁlming

Level
Sessions
(N)
Participants
(N)
Age (years)
1 5 107 11-12
2 3 69 14-15
3 5 67 17-18
Total 13 243
Can you give
me one
paper?
Excuse me, can I
please borrow a
piece of paper?
Participants: COPT
It's possible: to
have, a paper
for me please?

Role play
participants
Level
Participants
(N)
Age (years)
Level 1 18 11-12
Level 2 10 14-15
Level 3 13 17-18
Total 41
§ Participant: #00:00:00-1# Sorry miss I, I was talking
with Arthur and, can you show again the video?
§ Interlocutor:#00:00:06-7# Okay in the normal
situation, yes. This is a test I told you this was a test
and I told you that our time was limited. So I'm
sorry, no. If you can't answer the questions, whose
responsibility is that?
§ Participant#00:00:17-8# It's my respon/
responsibility but, I would like to, to look the video.
§ Interlocutor #00:00:25-1# Yeah I understand…..

Development of request strategies
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
COPT
Direct
Conventionally Indirect
Non-conventionally indirect
Request strategy
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Role plays
Direct
Conventionally indirect
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Authentic Requests
Direct
Conventionally Indirect
Give me
a paper
Can you
give me a
paper?
Do you
have a
paper?

Development of modiﬁer use
Request modifications
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
COPT
Alerters
Internal modification
Supportive moves
0%
50%
100%
150%
200%
250%
300%
350%
400%
Role plays
Alerters
Lexical downgraders
Supportive moves
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Authentic requests
Alerters
Lexical and phrasal downgrader
Supportive moves
Miss,
excuse
me
Please,
a little
because I
didn’t….,
thank you

What our research suggests so far
• Learners make different choices regarding request strategies and
modifiers depending on task type
• in cartoon production and role-plays, learners use a range of
moves and more modifiers
• in naturally occurring classroom contexts, their request behaviour
is more restricted
• Learners do develop in request behaviour over time: older, more
proficient learners are able to make more indirect requests
• BUT the learners’ range of request strategies, modifiers and modals
remains quite limited
what are the implications for teaching pragmatics?

Masters in Teaching
English
master MEEF anglais (ESPE Nice)

modules in English studies and education

ﬁrst year: introduction to classroom research

Masters in Teaching
English
master MEEF anglais (ESPE Nice)

M1 => CAPES preparation (university/ESPE)

M2 => part-time teaching (collège-lycée), part-
time study (university/ESPE)

Masters in Teaching
English
modules:

English literature/culture, teaching English

general education studies, teaching practice,

classroom research

Masters in Teaching
English
ﬁrst year: introduction to classroom research

school placement: observation and supervised
practice (2 x 2 weeks, November and May)

collecting and analysing classroom data

second year: 9h EFL teaching (collège-lycée)

2.5 days’ teacher education

research project + report (mémoire professionnel)
collecting and analysing classroom data

Participants
class of ﬁfteen M1 student-teachers

4 student-teachers in 3 classes (stagiaires)

3 mentor teachers (tutrices)

17 learners in 3 focus groups (élèves)

Teacher education input
14 hours: school placement, introduction to
classroom research

raising awareness of IL pragmatics

sample teaching activities

data collection procedures

analysing learner language making polite
requests

Classroom study
student-teachers

planned and delivered lessons on making
appropriate requests in English

received feedback from school tutors

analysed classroom data

presented ﬁndings to peers
teaching
requests

Data
3 groups of student-teachers

Jenny, 3ème

Megan, 2nde

Aude & Faiza, 1ère
teaching
requests

video extracts
Watch and listen to three
extracts from TV series

Note down any requests
you hear

Compare with neighbour

video extracts
Read transcripts as you
watch again

Underline requests

What parts of requests or
strategies can you identify?

How do a) interlocutor status
and b) level of imposition
aﬀect requests?

How are modals used in
requests?

Joey: I can't believe what I'm hearing
here.

Phoebe: (sings) I can't believe what
I'm hearing here...

Monica: What? I-I said you had a-

Phoebe: (sings) What I said you had...

Monica: (to Phoebe) Would you stop?

Phoebe: Oh, was I doing it again?

All: Yes!

Monica: I said that you had a nice
butt, it's just not a great butt.

Joey: Oh, you wouldn't know a great
butt if it came up and bit ya.

Ross: There's an image.
Rachel: (walks up with a pot of coffee)
Would anybody like more coffee?

Chandler: Did you make it, or are you
just serving it?

Rachel: I'm just serving it.

All: Yeah. Yeah, I'll have a cup of coffee.

Chandler: Kids, new dream... I'm in Las
Vegas.

Customer: (To Rachel) Ahh, miss?
More coffee?

Rachel: Ugh. (To another customer
that's leaving.) Excuse me, could you
give this to that guy over there? (Hands
him the coffee pot.) Go ahead. (He does
so.) Thank you. (To the gang.) Sorry.
Okay, Las Vegas.

Chandler: Okay, so, I'm in Las Vegas...
I'm Liza Minelli-

Joey: I can't believe what I'm hearing
here.

Phoebe: (sings) I can't believe what
I'm hearing here...

Monica: What? I-I said you had a-

Phoebe: (sings) What I said you had...

Monica: (to Phoebe) Would you stop?

Phoebe: Oh, was I doing it again?

All: Yes!

Monica: I said that you had a nice
butt, it's just not a great butt.

Joey: Oh, you wouldn't know a great
butt if it came up and bit ya.

Ross: There's an image.
Rachel: (walks up with a pot of coffee)
Would anybody like more coffee?

Chandler: Did you make it, or are you
just serving it?

Rachel: I'm just serving it.

All: Yeah. Yeah, I'll have a cup of
coffee.

Chandler: Kids, new dream... I'm in Las
Vegas.

Customer: (To Rachel) Ahh, miss?
More coffee?
Rachel: Ugh. (To another customer
that's leaving.) Excuse me, could you
give this to that guy over there?
(Hands him the coffee pot.) Go ahead.
(He does so.) Thank you. (To the
gang.) Sorry. Okay, Las Vegas.

Chandler: Okay, so, I'm in Las Vegas...
I'm Liza Minelli-

Jake: Good job.

[indistinct chatter] Thanks. Bye. See you.

Jake: Harry, hey, that was... That was something.

Harry: I never got an A+ before.

Jake: Well, congratulations.

Harry: Can I ask you a question?

Jake: Yeah.

Harry: I'm going for a promotion. Can you write a letter to the
principal?

Jake: Only if you promise to give me a raise as soon as you're running
this place.

Harry: Yeah.

Jake: All right, see you.

Jake: Good job.

[indistinct chatter] Thanks. Bye. See you.

Jake: Harry, hey, that was... That was something.

Harry: I never got an A+ before.

Jake: Well, congratulations.

Harry: Can I ask you a question?
Jake: Yeah.

Harry: I'm going for a promotion. Can you write a letter to the
principal?

Jake: Only if you promise to give me a raise as soon as you're running
this place.

Harry: Yeah.

Jake: All right, see you.

THOMAS And they're oﬀ. 
MRS HUGHES No rest for the wicked. 
MRS PATMORE Lady Mary. Are the tea trays ready? 
ANNA All ready, Mrs Patmore, if the water’s 
boiled. Could you give us a hand to 
take the other two up? 
MISS O'BRIEN I've got Her Ladyship's to carry. 
GWEN I'll help. 
MRS HUGHES Back door. 
-- 
MR CARSON The papers at last. William. 
WILLIAM You're late. 
PAPERBOY Yeah. I--I know, but-- 
WILLIAM But what? 
PAPERBOY You'll see.

MR CARSON Do The Times ﬁrst. He only reads that at  
breakfast, and The Sketch for Her Ladyship. You can 
manage the others later if need be.  
--

DAISY Why are the papers ironed? 
MRS PATMORE What's it to you? 
MISS O'BRIEN To dry the ink, silly. We won't want His 
Lordship's hands as black as yours.

WILLIAM Mr Carson, I think you ought to see this. 
-- 
MRS HUGHES I can't make myself believe it. 
MRS PATMORE Me neither. 
THOMAS His Lordship's dressed. 
MRS PATMORE William! Will you stop talking and take this
kedgeree up, and mind the burners are still lit. 
WILLIAM Yes, Mrs Patmore. 
THOMAS Is it really true? 
WILLIAM Afraid so. 
MRS PATMORE Nothing in life is sure.

ROBERT, EARL OF GRANTHAM  
Is Her Ladyship awake? 
 
MISS O'BRIEN  
Yes, Milord. I'm just going to take in her breakfast. 
 
Thank you. 
-- 
May I come in? 
 
CORA, COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM  
Isn't this terrible?

pedagogical
strategy
awareness-raising or
noticing activities

presenting naturalistic
samples in context (TV series
with subtitles/transcripts)

focus on meaning before
form

drawing attention to features
of context and use of
language

Lesson 1: Structure
Jenny (3ème) : awareness raising
activity 50 minutes

1. watch video extracts of series
Fresh off the Boat with short whole-
class discussion

2. identify requests from transcripts

3. find alternatives to can I/can you
with different interlocutors

4. establish when each expression is
appropriate (explicit sociopragmatic
teaching)

Lesson 1: Student teacher
feedback
Choice of videos
Jenny: “I really ﬁrst I was more
worried about the videos. I knew
my tutor was working on
immigration and I thought about
this TV series about this Asian family
that I watch. So I just played the
ﬁrst episode and from the start
there were requests so I was just
“Oh yes, I can just take some
parts and make them watch it and
see how it goes.”

feedback
Unexpected lack of response
Jenny: I don’t know why, I mean when I showed them
the video, I don’t know if they didn’t understand what
I was asking or if it was that they didn’t understand
the video or, they didn’t want to do it, so I don’t
know.

Lesson 1: Learner
feedback
Comprehension diﬃculties
Pupil 1 : “…quand vous dites une phrase en anglais et il y a
personne qui répond ni rien, enﬁn la prof d'anglais elle fait ça elle
nous dit une phrase en anglais, quand elle voit qu'il y a un blanc
qu'il y a personne qui dit rien, eh ben elle répète la même mais
en français

Jenny: il faut me dire ça quand vous comprenez ça dès fois il y a
trop d'anglais

Pupil 2: Sinon elle la reformule avec des leçons qu'on a déjà
faites, et du coup vu que ces leçons on a déjà faites ça il y a tout
se rentre dans la tête, du coup ça nous fait réapprendre toutes
les autres leçons.

Lesson 1: Tutor feedback
Jenny’s Tutor: So I would have stopped.
They would have had asked me
questions about what was that , how do
you say un camion?

I might have asked them what kind of truck
is it why is there a truck? How do you say:
ils déménagent?
Then we would have watched it again and
this time that’s what I love about that,
everything is you know unlocked, and so
easier and they would have understood.

Lesson 2: Aude and Faiza
Structure of the lesson:
• brainstorm requests

• watch extracts from TV
series

• analyse transcripts (who
is talking to whom)

• focus on modals

feedback
Faiza: It was a discovery for us and for them as well....it was
out of the usual framework. Because as an English teacher,
you have to define specific plans with specific objectives. And,
we didn’t do that, for, this lesson actually, based on requests. We
didn’t keep in mind the objective, like linguistic objective or
cultural objectives.… So it was very blurry because we didn’t
know where to start ....because it was so new for us.
Aude: I think they might have realised that we were not
expecting ONE answer. There was no, you know the right one
and the wrong one. So that makes it more pleasant,
altogether.

Lesson 2: Learner
feedback
Pupil A: The ﬁlm is good. Interesting

Pupil B: I think, in classes we work more on the
grammar, grammar than the than the
expression...there is more participation now than the
(pause)

Researcher: the usual classes

Pupil B: Yes.

Lesson 2: Tutor feedback
Aude and Faiza’s tutor: "They all
managed to say things what they
don’t say, in class. And I was amazed
at the reactions of some who are
considered as so-called low
achievers and they could react
spontaneously. So this I found this very
interesting……. And, they all looked you
know keen and involved in the
activity. And they were attentive. They
did listen, not only to the teachers,
and the people present, but also to
each other."

Lesson 3: Examples of
production activity
The teacher used research cartoons to
elicit learner responses before explicit
instruction
Pupil 1: Can I have a sheet of paper please?

Pupil 2: Can you give me some money. I forgot mine at home.
Pupil 3: Can you explain this, exercise?

Pupil 4: Can you report the nex/ the test after, week.

Lesson 3: Analysis phase
Meghan: So what do you notice? In the way you’re making,
the requests.

Pupil 1: It’s always the same verb.

Meghan: Yes. Do you think there is other way to make requests?

Pupil 2: Is it possible to?

Teacher:Yes

Teacher: Any other?

Pupil 3: May I go to

Lesson 3: Production
activity
Production after explicit
instruction
Pupil 4: “is it possible to explain me this exercise please?”
Or “Do/ do you think that you’ve time to teach me this
exercise please?"

Pupil 5: “it is possible to report the test the next week. I’m
sorry but is it possible?”
Pupil 3: I’m sorry but, could you lend me some money
please?

Including pragmatics in
syllabus
Aude and Faiza's Tutor: I just wondered about the AIM of
the lesson itself. Uh as far as pragmatics is concerned, no
problem. But, in the syllabus or in, you know the type of
documents or units that we study with the students, how
can we relate it, to some unit, for example? That may
be, could be, a possible drawback if I may say. It sounds
to me a very speciﬁc grammatical point or aspect of
the language. Now how can we relate it, to the rest of
the unit? Or current events? Or maybe we need to add
some more follow up work. As the student asked me, what
about some more grammatical exercises on modals?

Mismatch between secondary EFL
expectations and IL pragmatic goals
• usual focus on grammar and
culture in collège/lycée EFL

•PPP approach based on
grammar point

•translates/subtitles/explains/
UNLOCKS target language
extract

•sets as a lesson to memorise
for subsequence reuse

• materials are selected on the
basis of themes (ﬁtting
cultural objectives) rather
than language used
• pragmatics instruction seeks
to trigger IL development via

•rich input

•noticing of particular aspects
of language

• pragmatics instruction
assumes that similar
pragmatic functions can be
accomplished through a
range of grammatical
structures  
(and should not be treated as
grammatical rules)

conclusions and
implications
clear patterns in IL pragmatic
development indicate need for
pedagogical intervention

awareness-raising or noticing
activities are relatively easy to
design and implement

production activities seem
harder for novice teachers

questions about integration of
pragmatics instruction in
wider teaching programmes

Take-aways
links to cartoon production
prompts

links to other request
lessons

links to other pragmatics
teaching materials

further reading …
wp.me/p28EmH-yL
Shona Whyte

whyte@unice.fr

eﬂ.unice.fr

@whyshona

Aisha Siddiqa

ashsiddiqa1@gmail.com

L2 pragmatics: politeness in French EFL classrooms

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