ESL learners perceptions and strategies, I would like you to help us by completing

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1 Appendix 1: Questionnaire According to the title of a research on the development of pragmatic competence in ESL learners perceptions and strategies, I would like you to help us by completing this questionnaire about your pragmatic knowledge/competence and your language learning strategies of pragmatics in using English. Your answers to the questions will assist us ensure the accuracy of the data. Thank you for your help. Section I Demographic information (Please choose your answer from the following choices.) 1. What is your gender? A. Male. B. Female. 2. What is your age? A. Under 20. B. Over 20 (include 20). 3. What is your major? A. Liberal Arts. B. Science. C. Engineering. D. Other. 4. How many years have you learned English? A. Less than 6 years. B years. C. More than 10 years. 5. Do you have any overseas English language learning experience? A. Yes. B. No. 250

2 Section II Your views on pragmatics in English learning and teaching at university level. Part A: The Likert 1-5 rating scale is used. You can choose only one answer to each question. 1= Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree 6 I believe learning English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation mean learning English I think that the knowledge of how to use the language is as important as linguistic knowledge (e.g. vocabulary and grammar). 8 The main reason why I need to learn English is to pass the examination. 9 College English textbooks provide much information on culture, conversation rules, usage, and on how to use English correctly. 10 Communicative activities are a waste of time in the English class. 11 I admire the people who can communicate with others in English fluently and accurately. 12 I think teachers should teach us how to communicate with people, and how to use English appropriately in the classroom teaching. 13 I know how to obtain cultural knowledge and appropriateness of language use in my learning. 251

3 14 Tasks used in English class provide me knowledge and skills to improve my ability to use English appropriately. 15 I prefer my English class to be focused on communicative language teaching and practice, with grammar explained when necessary. 16 I like grammar and vocabulary explanation, and sentence drills in my English class. 17 I wish to speak like native English speakers and would like to imitate their pronunciation and intonation. Part B: Please choose only one answer from following choices to each question. 18. What English would you like to learn to use most? A. Indian English. B. American English. C. British English. D. Other. 19. What tasks do your teachers most often use in the classroom teaching? A. Group discussion. B. Pair-work. C. Role-play. D. Debate. 20. In which way do you want to get information about the use of English? A. Teacher s explanation. 252

4 B. Classroom discussion. C. Listening to radio programs/dialogues and watching TV programs/videos. D. Self-study. 21. What kind of abilities do you want to develop most in learning English? A. Ability to communicate with people. B. Ability to do well in English examinations. C. Ability to read materials related to my major. D. Ability to translate. 22. What kind of knowledge do you want to learn most in your English classroom teaching? A. Linguistic knowledge (e.g. grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation). B. Cultural knowledge. C. Communicative skills. D. Knowledge on how to use English. 23. If you meet some difficulties in English learning, what will you do first? A. Ask the English teacher or other native speaker. B. Discuss and work with your classmates. C. Try to solve the problem on your learned language knowledge by yourself. D. Look up a dictionary or try to find the answer on the Internet. 24. What is the most effective way of learning English? A. Memorizing vocabularies and reciting texts. B. Doing sentence drills and translation exercises. C. Imitating a language model and applying it in a new context. 253

5 D. Self-studying and self-evaluation. 25. Tom is buying a ticket at the booking office of a theme park. Tom: I d like to buy one ticket, and I want to have a map of the theme park. Ticket seller: All right. What s your post code? Question: What does the ticket seller mean? A. The ticket seller wants to book Tom s address. B. The ticket seller wants to have Tom s post code. C. The ticket seller wants to know the language Tom uses. D. The ticket seller wants to find Tom s post code on the map. 26. Jack, a villain, met one acquaintance, Richard, on the corridor in a hospital. Jack: I am going to have a new heart. Richard (contemptuously): It is about the time. Question: What does Richard imply? A. Jack has a serious heart disease and needs a new heart. B. Jack has become a good man. C. Jack has found a new heart to cure his heart disease. D. Jack needs to realize his evil and totally change his behavior. 27. While traveling, Mary put a heavy bag on the bus shelf. The bus stopped suddenly and the bag fell on a passenger. The passenger: Oh, my god! What is that? Mary: It is my bag. It s all right. Question: How appropriate do you think the reply from Mary was? A. Very appropriate. 254

6 B. Appropriate. C. Inappropriate. D. Not at all appropriate. 28. A university student borrowed his teacher s book and promised to return it that day. When he reached the university, he discovered that he had left the book at home. The teacher: Have you brought the book? The student: Sorry, I forgot. Don t worry. I will bring it tomorrow. Question: How appropriate do you think the reply from the student? A. Very appropriate. B. Appropriate. C. Inappropriate. D. Not at all appropriate. 29. Mary was at John s house. After dinner, she was offered dissert. John: How about another piece of cake? Mary: Thanks. I am full. John: Come on, just a little piece? Mary: No more, thanks. Question: How appropriate do you think the replies from Mary was? A. Very appropriate. B. Appropriate. C. Inappropriate. D. Not at all appropriate. Part C: Please choose your answers from following choices to each question. You can choose more than one answer to each question. 30. What do you usually do in the English class? A. Note-taking. B. Group-discussion. 255

7 C. Presentation. D. Listening to the teacher all the time. E. Listening to the teacher only when necessary. 31. What do you usually do to learn English after class? A. Watching English movies and listening to English broadcasts. B. Doing preview and review work. C. Reading English newspapers and magazines. D. Doing exercises, such as translation, sentence drills. E. Practicing English with classmates. F. Practicing English with English native speakers. G. Doing self-evaluation. H. Memorizing English words and reciting texts. Part D: Please answer following questions. 32. What kind of tasks do you think is necessary to improve learners communicative ability in English language teaching and learning? 33. What kind of language learning strategies do you think is necessary to improve the learners pragmatic competence in English language learning? 34. Do you believe that the current University English teaching and learning will enable you to improve your ability to communicate with people and to use English appropriately? Why or why not? 256

8 Appendix 2: Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) According to the title of a research on the development of pragmatic competence in ESL learners perceptions and strategies, I would like you to help us by completing this Discourse Completion Tasks about your pragmatic competence in using English. Your answers to the questions will assist us ensure the accuracy of the data. Thank you for your help. Directions: Please read the following 12 situations. After each situation you will be asked to write a response in the blank after you. Please read each question carefully. Respond as if you would talk to the person in English in real life conversation. Please respond as naturally as possible. Do not worry about your grammar. You have 18 minutes to finish the following tasks. 1. You are a teacher in a language school. You have invited a group of students to your house for a meal. After the meal, one of your students comes to speak to you. Students: I didn t know you were such a talented cook. The food was wonderful! 2. You started a computer course three months ago. At the end of a lesson your teacher comes up to you. Teacher: You are very intelligent and have a flair for computers. Besides, you show a lot of interest in what we do in the lessons. 3. You have just had your hair cut in a fashionable style, and you bump into a friend in the street. Friend: That hair cut makes you look great. It makes you look younger! _ 4. You are wearing a new Rolex watch. You meet one friend at your office. Friend: Wow! What a nice watch! I wish I had one like that. 257

9 _ 5. You have given a presentation in English class. After the presentation, one ofyour classmates comes to you. Classmate: That was a great presentation. I really enjoyed it. 6. You are wearing a new sweater. One of your friends meets you on the playground in the morning. Friend: What a nice sweater! You look great in it! 7. You borrowed a magazine from your best friend, and you ripped the cover page by accident. You are giving back the magazine to your friend. Friend: Oh! What happened to the magazine? 8. You are the English teacher who mistook one student s examination paper for another due to the similarity in their names and failed him. You have recognized that you had made a mistake, and the student has known what had happened and came to meet you in your office. Student: What has happened, Sir? 9. You showed up an hour late for a group trip on a winter morning because you got up late on that morning. Your classmates are blaming you at the meeting place. Classmates: Hey, what s happened to you? You are so late! 10. You wanted to meet your English teacher in his office, but you went to the wrong office and interrupted a strange teacher s writing. 258

10 Teacher: It s all right. Take it easy. 11. You and Tom are co-workers. You forgot to pass a private message to Tom, and this is the second time you forgot to pass a message on to him. Tom knew you had a message for him and went up to you. Tom: I ve been told that you have a message for me. 12. You and Mary are classmates. Someone in the class borrowed money from you and did not give it back. You insisted that Mary was the person who borrowed money from you. Mary insisted that she did not borrow money from you. At that moment, another student came into the classroom and told you that he was the person who had borrowed the money. Mary (angrily): Do you believe me now? 259

11 Appendix 3: Interview questions In this part, participants should consider interview questions by understanding such questions better and express themselves much more freely relating to the title of the study. 1. What kind of knowledge do you need most at the present stage of English learning, for example, linguistic knowledge (such as vocabulary, grammar, phonology, etc.), pragmatic knowledge (such as functions, speech acts, appropriate use of English, etc.), or both? Give your reasons. 2. How important do you think it is to develop learners pragmatic competence (ability to use English appropriately)? 3. What kind of communicative tasks in classroom teaching (such as role-play, group discussion, pair work, presentation, debate, etc.) do you think is important in developing learners pragmatic competence? 4. What tasks/activities do your English teachers usually conduct in the classroom teaching? What do you think of your English teachers classroom teaching in terms of developing your pragmatic competence? 5. Do you believe that current University English classroom teaching and textbooks can help you develop your pragmatic competence? Why or why not? 6. What kind of language learning strategies do you think is important to improve the learners pragmatic competence? Why? 7. What do you usually do to obtain pragmatic information/knowledge after class? 8. Do you often apply the English knowledge you have learned in class to the real situations? Why or why not? 9. What difficulties do you have in learning pragmatic knowledge? 260

12 Appendix 4: Transcripts to L2 learners responses to open-ended questions in the questionnaire Open-ended question 1 What kind of tasks do you think is necessary to improve learners communicative ability in English language teaching and learning? Categorized Tasks: 1) Group discussions 2) Role play 3) Debate 4) Pair-work (e.g. practicing dialogues) 5) Watching original English films and videos 6) Learning to sing English songs 7) Reading original English materials (e.g. newspapers, magazines) 8) Presentations The explanations of L2 learners in different types of necessary tasks in improving communicative ability in English language teaching and learning listed as follows: Learner A said: Group discussion is one of the most important things in developing L2 learners pragmatic competence because it can help learners carry out different tasks, practice speaking skill for increasing fluency, give and share their opinions to others, and communicate with their classmates without any worries. Learner B stated: Pair work is useful for learning English because learners can work together in pairs. By employing this kind of task, learners can have more opportunities to use English in 261

13 the class. It can improve your speaking skill and fluency. This one leads to achieve your communication abilities and pragmatic competence in the classroom. Role play is a kind of activity which learners are asked to perform and it encourages thinking and creativity. It can improve learners speaking skills in different situations by interacting each other. Learner C told: watching original English movies and videos and reading original English materials are fruitful for obtaining pragmatic information because by watching English movies, we can get more information about words, phrases, idioms in different situations and certain contexts while reading original English materials can reinforce your reading and writing skill and improve your vocabulary therefore I prefer to use more authentic materials to learn English. Open-ended question 2 What kind of language learning strategies do you think is necessary to improve the students pragmatic competence in English language learning? Various Language learning strategies: 1) Memorizing English words, expressions and texts 2) Imitating native English speakers pronunciation and intonation 3) Cooperating with others 4) Note-taking 5) Translation 6) Preparing lessons in advance 7) Guessing the meaning of (key) words and sentences from the context 8) Using some images and videos 9) Self-management or self-monitoring 262

14 10) Self-evaluation 11) Transferring the knowledge and thinking skills of Chinese to learning English 12) Selective attention 13) Contextualization L2 learners Reasons on different types of language learning strategies on their improving pragmatic competence in their English language learning noted in the following: Learner A said: Memorizing and imitation can be helpful in learning language skills and by imitating native English speakers pronunciation and intonation; we can improve our L2 pragmatic competence in our English language learning. Learner B pointed out: Through note-taking during the class, learners can easily understand the lesson after the class when they want to revise their works after class. Learner C believed: The roles of English teachers are significant in encouraging us to guess the meaning of (key) words and sentences from the context before look up the dictionary while reading, because it helps develop our reading skills. Open-ended question 3 Do you believe that the current University English teaching and learning will enable you to improve your ability to communicate with people and to use English appropriately? Why or why not? 263

15 The learners negative responses involved: 1) The current University English teaching and learning didn t improve their ability to communicate with people because teachers just focused on their subjects and they didn t want to do lots of practices on English teaching and learning. 2) University English teaching didn t improve the ability of learners for communication. Such kinds of teaching by University teachers improved them for examination and not for language development. 3) Unlike American or British schools and colleges, the teachers in the current University did not care much for pragmatic usage of English. They just did enough to make them pass the examinations. 4) The educational system was old and it should be changed and updated with the newest English textbooks with different language strategies. 5) In every Indian University, teachers tried to teach English in classes but the problem was the way of teaching. Teachers couldn t use different strategies such as doing English activities, communication activities and so on. 6) Teachers put more pressure on the linguistic knowledge such as grammar, vocabulary but they didn t focus on pragmatic knowledge and communicative skills in class. 7) The current University system was not based much on the English teaching and learning. Considerable importance of English learning must be realized and it should be put into practice and it should be employed by various tasks for improving the learners ability to communicate with people. 8) The current University English teaching and learning was teacher-dominated in classroom. It was one-sided and the teacher just taught his/her lesson in class. 264

16 The learners positive responses included: 1) Learners used English in class and they could learn new words, sentences from communicating to each other and tried to speak with other classmates for improving their knowledge of English language. 2) By getting the way of presentation and usage of English vocabulary and words by the teacher improved them and they could get the fluency and ease of communication not only with the teacher, students, and friends but also with the foreigners. 3) The University was consisting of Indian and foreign students so it helped them to have intercultural communication to improve their abilities to communicate with others. 265