Second Language Pragmatic Knowledge of Indonesian Higher Vocational Education Students

Handayani, Luh Nyoman Chandra and Sumartana, I Made and Sanjaya, I Nyoman Suka (2019) Second Language Pragmatic Knowledge of Indonesian Higher Vocational Education Students. In: Prosiding of The 2nd International Joint Conference on Science and Technology. Atlantic Press, pp. 257-262. ISBN 10.2991/icastss-19.2019.30

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Abstract

Research into second language (L2) pragmatics has predominantly investigated the L2 learners' productive pragmatic performance, leaving L2 receptive pragmatic knowledge an uncharted area. The present study was aimed to contribute to our understanding of the L2 learners' receptive pragmatic knowledge by examining the extent of L2 learners' receptive pragmatic knowledge operationally defined as the ability to map a requestive form with a given social context. Seventy-seven Indonesian-speaking higher vocational students (mean age= 19.7) studying through their fourth semester agreed to participate in the study. The research instrument deployed to measure receptive pragmatic knowledge was a timed 20-item written pragmatic knowledge test battery consisting of 10 target items and 10 distracter items. The data was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. The major finding of the study was that the students' receptive pragmatic knowledge was severely limited; on average, out of the 10 target items included in the test battery the students could manage to answer 3.7 items correctly, strongly indicating that they were still pragmatically incompetent, assuming that receptive pragmatic knowledge underlies productive pragmatic performance. Such poor pragmatic knowledge leaves the students prone to pragmatic failure when using English for interpersonal communication. This finding points to the desirability of directing the students' attention to the pragmatic aspect of the English language in formal learning contexts.

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