Pragmatic, which means to be practical, is an important philosophy that teaches us how to be flexible in our beliefs and views of the world. It allows you to believe in partial truths as long as they provide you with something that can benefit you and other people.
Pragmatists are people who believe that reality is not static, and that it changes constantly as events occur. They also believe that actions are key to changing the world.
Teaching pragmatics is one way to help students develop language skills that can make them more effective communicators in a variety of situations. For example, a lesson in pragmatics might include a role-play activity where students practice using different greetings and other functions of communication in various contexts.
The classroom is a good place to teach pragmatics because it is a safe environment for learners to experiment with language in different ways. It is also an opportunity for teachers to help their students develop culturally relevant skills.
In some cases, instructors will use pragmatics instruction as a way to build upon the language content in their textbook units. For example, if the textbook unit on apologies is being taught, the instructor might add lessons in pragmatics to give students more information about how to apologize in their home language and target language.
Experimental research in linguistic pragmatics is enormously complex and often offers conflicting findings. This is because the results of studies will vary depending on the task that participants are required to complete (Shrout and Rodgers, 2019).