Enhancing a Pre‐Service L2 Chinese Teacher's Knowledge and Skills in Teaching Pragmatics Through a Professional Development Course

Abstract

This study reports a case study on the development of a pre‐service second language (L2) Chinese teacher's knowledge and skills in teaching pragmatics through a 15‐week professional development (PD) course. From a sociocultural perspective, the course was designed to (a) provide the teacher with extensive exposure to academic concepts in pragmatics and instructional pragmatics, (b) engage her in languaging tasks that verbalized her conceptual understanding and fostered conscious reflection, and (c) offer opportunities for her to practically apply her conceptual knowledge. At the beginning and end of the course, the teacher completed questionnaires assessing her knowledge of pragmatics, along with her confidence and ability to teach it. Throughout the course, she participated in five monologic languaging tasks that articulated her conscious understanding of the concepts encountered during training. Toward the end of the course, the teacher had the opportunity to practically apply her conceptual knowledge by creating and presenting a lesson plan. To examine her development of pragmatic conceptual knowledge and skills over time, the study compared her pre‐ and post‐course questionnaire responses, analyzed her verbalized conceptual knowledge through the languaging tasks, and evaluated her lesson plan. The findings indicate the effectiveness of the PD course, as the teacher demonstrated notable improvements in her understanding of pragmatics, her awareness of pragmatic similarities and differences between her first language (L1) and L2, and her confidence and capacity to teach pragmatics. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the effective design of PD courses aimed at enhancing pre‐service L2 teachers’ professional knowledge and skills in pragmatics.