The Role of Pragmatics in the Master's TESOL Curriculum: Findings From a Nationwide Survey

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of publications about pragmatics and second language learning and teaching. Yet the extent to which English language teacher preparation programs incorporate explicit instruction about pragmatics into their curricula remains unknown. A nationwide survey of master's‐level TESOL programs was conducted to determine where and how pragmatics is covered in the TESOL curriculum, what resources are used to teach graduate TESOL students about pragmatics, as well as to determine some of the prevalent attitudes, beliefs, and opinions about pragmatics held by TESOL graduate program directors and faculty. Individuals from 94 master's‐level TESOL programs in the United States participated in the study. Participating programs represent a variety of geographic regions, institution types, and departments. The findings of the study indicate that pragmatics is covered in a wide range of courses across programs (Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Introduction to Linguistics, Teaching Methods, SLA, etc.), and that the time spent covering pragmatics varies from no time at all, to more than 8 weeks, depending on the program. A great deal of variation was also found in graduate program directors' and faculty members' beliefs about the role of pragmatics in the TESOL curriculum.

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