Pragmatic competence in the context of EFL instruction

Finally, I would like to refer to the remarks of the teacher who piloted the treatment tasks. In our discussion she mentioned how much she liked the tasks and admitted that she feels like she lacks the necessary knowledge and confidence to teach pragmatic competence in her classes. As I consider her a very competent and highly respected teacher, I do not think that this is her individual problem. Though this issue did not come up in the follow-up interviews, this teacher concurs with Wolfson (1989), who argued that this lack of conscious knowledge is a common characteristic among both native and non-native teachers. Nevertheless, this remark and some of the insights gained through the classroom observation underline the importance of pragmatic instruction and awareness raising in teacher training (Bardovi-Harlig, 1992).

vocabulary practice in preparation for an exam. Her class was conducted in a teacher-fronted manner the whole way through. All teachers monitored the activities and helped students with language or emotional support. In some cases they encouraged peer-help.

Many times students were willing to help each other even without being prompted. I observed this in Anna’s class when the two boys sitting in front of me finished their task, one of them immediately said: “Segítsünk másnak!” In most classes, especially Anna’s and Csaba’s, students were willing and eager to stand up and mingle when asked to;

which provided for a lively atmosphere. Teachers made an effort to include students that seemed to be shy or less willing to respond. However, in some cases more proficient or louder students dominated the discussions and others were not encouraged to join in.

The language used throughout the classes was predominantly English. Teachers used it for most instructions and classroom management issues. Hungarian was used in some instructions and grammar explanations. Overall, teachers tried to encourage students to use English by showing an example and sometimes asking students directly.

Edit, when one of her students kept making funny comments in Hungarian during a task, said: “This is an English-speaking zone. I’m glad you’re so happy, but try and use your English.”

The observations did not uncover any significant problem issues in the classes.

The only conflicts I encountered between the teachers and the students were quite typical, such as the unwillingness to write a test and the reluctance to perform a task, both of which were handled well by the teachers. The general “overloadedness” of Hungarian secondary school students was also apparent in some cases. I observed an instance in Erika’s class, where one of the girls was visibly having a difficult time staying on task

and obeying the teacher. She commented that the English class was her eighth lesson that day and she could not concentrate any more. Erika first replied with a sarcastic comment, then engaged Viki in a number of ways, which seemed to redeem the situation.

Overall, the observations revealed some very interesting issues that could not have been otherwise detected. Even though some tasks were not implemented as expected, in general the teachers facilitated the lessons in a way that was beneficial in conveying the necessary pragmatic issues covered in the experiment. The classes provided feedback about the treatment tasks that point to the relevance and application of these activities, as well as some weak points in the design.

7.2.2 Students’ usage of English outside the classroom

After the completion of the treatment, 86 students filled in the questionnaires and all five teachers were interviewed (see Appendices E and F for the student questionnaires and the teacher interview protocol respectively). All teachers argued that in recent years students have had plenty of opportunities to use English outside the classroom. The three most frequent activities according to the teachers are watching television (cartoons and movies), using the computer (e-mails and games), and listening to music. Students’

responses verify this list, as these three activities are among the most frequently mentioned ones (29, 20, and 29 participants brought them up respectively). However, what most students (58 out of 86) use English for is talking to foreigners. This includes vacationing in a foreign country, having summer jobs and attending camps in Hungary, talking to relatives living abroad, corresponding, and e-mailing. I was surprised that only

one teacher (Anna) brought up this activity, saying that her students talk to tourists in their town.

Other interests the students pointed out were subtitled movies in the cinema and books (17 and 15 students respectively). Ten respondents mentioned practicing English with Hungarians, such as family members and friends. One student speaks English to her younger brother, who taught himself the language watching Cartoon Network. Another respondent mentioned that speaking English is frightening for her, except when she is talking to her Hungarian friends. Reading newspapers and using English for translation (lyrics, poems, interpreting) were mentioned by five and four students respectively. Last, only five participants brought up using English in everyday life (such as reading product labels) and five students mentioned the possibility of using English in their future jobs.

Teachers shared some valuable insights concerning their students’ use of English outside the classroom. Edit encourages her students to be open to use English whenever and wherever, such as reading the labels on products in a store (incidentally, hers were the only students who mentioned the everyday use of English). Her goal is to supply the students with strategies that will last beyond the school years (”életre szóló stratégiák kialakítása”). Erika’s approach is very individualistic to students’ use of English outside the classroom. She mentioned that if someone delights in listening to American pop music (which she personally does not take interest in), she will not judge them and force them to read literature instead. On the contrary, she is glad that her students use the language for their needs and she is willing to help them in any way. She underlined it several times in the interview that students own their own language learning experience and decisions (“Hát énnekem kell az a nyelv? ... A nyelvtudás az övéké!”).

Overall, each teacher is very open and flexible about their students’ use of English. Szilvia is always willing to devote class time to songs, because she knows that students identify with them and can integrate the words into their vocabulary easily thanks to the catchy tunes. Both Szilvia and Erika mentioned that they learn new vocabulary from students when they bring in words from computer games and popular songs. Anna argued that the computer has a limited vocabulary and structure range, yet it provides regular input for the users, mainly boys in her classes. She suggested that it would be beneficial to build computer language into the syllabus, but she lacks both the necessary resources and the competence to do so. Csaba touched upon the relevance of pragmatic competence in students’ usage of English. He pointed out that the pragmatic training may not yet benefit students in their regular activities outside the classroom, as these are largely passive in nature (watching TV, reading), but it does and will in real-life situations, when they have to use English in an active way.

7.2.3 Problem areas in learning English

The student questionnaires revealed three main problem areas. More than half of the sample (38 participants) mentioned vocabulary problems, mainly the lack of words for everyday communication and struggles with how to overcome these limitations.

Almost the same number of participants (37) brought up difficulties with grammar, especially verb tenses. As one of them put it, “Magyar nyelvű számára az igeidők érthetetlenek.” The third problem is speech production; namely fluency in spontaneous speech, which some students indicated as difficulty with the role-plays as well. Students are aware of the fluency-accuracy “dilemma”, meaning that they are unable to

concentrate on accuracy when trying to speak fluently. In one of the participants’ words,

“Ha nagyon figyelem a nyelvtant, megbénul a beszéd”. Other problem issues mentioned were formal writing, spelling, listening skills, pronunciation, and comprehension of live speech (especially understanding foreigners, native speakers, those who speak fast, and people speaking various dialects). As for areas in pragmatic competence, one student mentioned difficulty with formal and informal styles, and one pointed out greetings as a problem area. Two students indicated that they have no problems when using English.

Teachers brought up different areas of difficulty. Anna regards activating vocabulary and grammar as her students’ greatest problem area, which is in accordance with her students’ feedback. Her students have difficulty building their knowledge into active speech production. She also mentioned this concerning the treatment tasks, namely that how and when students can apply the learned material is limited. Erika found it hard to come up with a specific problem because all her students have very complex needs.

What she mentioned though is a student who is unable to compensate for her weaknesses like her peers who make up for their lack of grammatical competence using their self-confidence and communicative abilities. She considers it part of her profession to assist students in discovering their strengths and weaknesses and “help them help themselves”.

Szilvia said that her students have inhibitions about speaking English. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that she had been focusing on written skills because of the washback effect of the exam. On the other hand, some students’ academic achievement is weak in other subjects, which obviously lowers their self-esteem. I noticed this when we recorded the role-plays and some of the students were visibly very anxious before performing the dialogues (though as Szilvia mentioned, they were excited about our

coming). We agreed that this lack of self-confidence did not necessarily manifest itself in poor performance, suggesting a problem of psychological nature, which Szilvia is determined to work on with the students. Csaba’s main challenge is to motivate his students. As his group has been learning English for a long time and has a high number of classes per week, Csaba sometimes finds it difficult to motivate them to speak English and complete the activities. Yet when something grabs their attention or he finds a way to inspire them (even by giving away some chocolate), the students are willing to do their best. As Csaba put it, “Be lehet őket lelkesíteni, akkor bármit megcsinálnak.”

The problem Edit mentioned is mixed-ability classes, where some of the students are very ambitious, yet some are unwilling to speak. In the case of shy students she mentioned that the key is to increase their self-esteem before even starting to worry about their language problems. Another interesting issue that both Edit and Erika brought up is that some students have difficulties with English grammar because they struggle even with their Hungarian language skills. This phenomenon is not unique for the Hungarian context. In the learning center one of our programs catered for the needs of Hispanic people. We noticed that in many cases they struggled in their ESL classes because they lacked the appropriate literacy skills in their mother tongue. For this reason, devoting attention to students’ first language skills is essential.