THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN PRAGMATICS
Phase two of the project
Teacher responses to phase two: reflections on subject knowledge, substantive knowledge and pedagogical knowledge
Eighty-four teachers responded to the post-workshop questionnaire, which consisted of three questions. The first question assessed prior substantive knowledge: “How aware were you of using similar softening devices in your own interactions before today”. The second was geared more toward syntactic knowledge: “How important do you think they are for learners?”, and the third evaluated their pedagogic knowledge: “In the classroom, have you explicitly focused on how to use these aspects of English? How? How often?”.
Approximately one third of the teachers responded that they were “quite aware” or “fairly aware” of the issues prior to the presentation of the data from the research project. About half of these teachers indicated that they had a “good awareness”, or were “very aware” of the issues. The remainder claimed minimal or little awareness. This suggests that there was considerable variability in terms of the amount of substantive subject knowledge teachers had access to initially. For some teachers, however, the awareness they had was too vague to be either sufficiently substantive or usefully pedagogic:
Aware, but have neglected to pay attention to them some times (70)1
I was very aware of them in a very superficial way (79)
Quite aware on a personal level as well as in the classroom (68)
Fairly aware but would not have known how to use in a teaching context (57)
The workshops seemed to help crystallize these rather vague notions into something more solid and the teachers reacted positively to presentations of the materials, citing instances of personal experience which had contributed to their understanding of these devices, but recognizing also the benefits of more formal analyses:
I’ve been aware of this for many years as I’m an English speaker but not Australian born .. I grew very interested in the use of ‘might’ after a lot of misunderstanding of its use on first arriving (18)
I was aware I used them but I had never analyzed them in a formal (semantic, lexical) way. It really is interesting to look at what devices we actually use (73)
The sessions allowed teachers to focus more consciously on the issues and therefore to consider ways in which they might enhance their professional practice, both in terms of their subject knowledge, and their pedagogical knowledge:
I was generally aware but this session highlighted the need for further thought (35)
Aware but it’s interesting to hear it– and evidence etc (25)
I’ve been aware of the cultural differences but this session has been a good springboard to further this exercise (46)
The second question asked the teachers to evaluate the importance of understanding how these devices worked. There was high agreement as to their importance, with well over half the teachers identifying them as “very important”, “extremely important” or “vital!” and many other identifying it as “important: or “quite important”:
Very important - for the future success in such encounters (63)
Very important but usually/often overlooked (55)
Essential, especially for the workplace (71)
Extremely important in portraying the appropriate level of politeness/enquiry (70)
A number of the teachers considered this question specifically in relation to pedagogical and curricula content and related the importance of such aspects of language use to learners at certain levels or in certain occupations:
Important but these will be limited by competence of language acquisition (34)
Pretty (important) - at the higher levels. It’s also important to embed the conversations in the wider contexts of when to ask (how much notice is reasonable), under what conditions and how to re-negotiate (79)
Quite important for social/occupational English (5)
Many recognized that awareness of these devices were particularly critical for learners as they moved into the workforce and in social and other interactions outside of the classroom:
Essential for effective communication - especially in the workplace (3)
Extremely, to give confidence, develop vocab, understanding Australia culture (66)
Fairly important depending on situation and requirements (39)
I think it’s important because students need to know these subtleties in language (16)
The final question focused on evaluating their pedagogical knowledge and asked about the extent to which they taught such material in their classrooms. Although approximately half of the teachers indicated that they did consciously address pragmatic issues in the classroom, for many, this was incidental rather than planned:
Yes - as they occur naturally e.g. Teacher expects apology for disruption/absence /failed commitment or student inadvertently appears rude due to lack of awareness (22)
Yes - varies on the level I’m teaching. Usually fairly minimal - modals/past tense forms in explicit teaching but focus on cultural ‘polite’ forums and customs throughout course (59)
Yes. Sporadically throughout the course(s) (3)
What was apparent was that teachers often felt they lacked the necessary resources to assist them in teaching this kind of material in the classroom:
I’d love to see more classroom material available - this is actually a fairly complicated area (57)
Not as much as I would like - there are few materials and time gets taken up with form rather than function at times. (83)
The need to actually focus on it comes up, when specifically requested by the students or when I’m teaching [negotiating requests]as part of my program (78)
We were pleased to find that there were quite a number of teachers who had already incorporated the teaching of these devices into their normal classroom routine:
I teach Eng[lish] to migrant health professionals - this is an integral part of their speaking course. We spend a lot of time working through appropriate ways of talking to the public, peers etc. (18)
I always spend a lot of time on ‘requesting’ behavior in class and looking at formal-informal situations but again have never analyzed the language used (73)
I have focused on polite and impolite forms of request - important when completing work experience in the workplace (53)
Sometimes as a warmer. I use cards and students ask each other questions. Very frequently. Great to link up with the research (45)
Overall, then, the value of teaching these devices was recognized by this group of teachers, and indeed some of them regularly incorporated them as a focus. The sessions we ran with them seemed to build on their prior knowledge to activate, and in some sense legitimize, what they were aware of in a diffuse way.
1The number in brackets identifies teacher questionnaire the quotation comes from
