Pragmatic Awareness of Implicatures

Tan, P. J. (2008). Pragmatic awareness of implicatures (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://libris.nie.edu.sg/

Background

The author was concerned that primary school students had little knowledge of pragmatic implicatures (implied meanings) and took things too literally.

Aims

The author explored the extent to which Singaporean children at the primary school level were aware of pragmatic norms in English.

Sample

Fourteen English language teachers and 593 Primary 1 to 6 students from a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school participated in the study.

Method

The teachers completed a survey consisting of six questions for each of the six types of implicatures (Irony, Relevance-Based, Minimum Requirement, Indirect Criticism, Pope Q and Sequence of Events). The teachers’ answers were used as a model for the students’ answers. (A Pope question is an irrelevant question with an obvious answers such as ‘Is the Pope a Catholic?’ used to tell the other person that the question they have just asked has an obvious answer.)

Findings

The findings showed that students from as young as Primary 1 understood implicatures. In general, the students’ responses aligned with the teachers’, especially for some. As the students’ academic level increased, so did the percentage of their answers that corresponded with the teachers’. Among the upper primary students (i.e. Primary 4 to 6), a lower percentage of low-proficiency (77%) than high-proficiency students (94%) matched the teachers’ answers. Nonetheless, the match between the answers of the low-proficiency students in the higher grades and the teachers was higher than that of the lower primary students and the teachers.

While all the students demonstrated universal agreement in the understanding of Pope Q and Relevance-Based questions, some other questions posed difficulties to certain groups of students. The Primary 2 and 3 students appeared to have the most problems with Indirect Criticism and Sequence of Events questions. Students at Primary 1 and 2 seemed to have more problems understanding Minimum requirement and Irony questions.

Implications

The author concluded that teachers did not have to teach implicatures to students, although they should be aware that students learn them gradually and may have different interpretations.

Original article retrieved from NIE Digital Repository.