Pragmatics — aka "Why We Just Don’t Say It That Way"

Table of Contents

“Hmm … There’s nothing incorrect with your sentence, but we just don’t say it like that.” If you’ve ever found yourself saying this to a student, you’ve crossed into the realm of “pragmatics" — a side of language that we as conversation tutors are particularly well-situated to teach!

What is Pragmatics?

But first off, what is "pragmatics"? As the name suggests, pragmatics deals with a very “pragmatic” or “practical” side of language: what people actually mean when they say something.

For example, let’s say your friend Bob asks you, “Do you have scissors?” He probably isn't just wondering if you have scissors; he's asking you to lend him a pair.

If you reply, “Yes” but don't give him your scissors, Bob would probably then ask, “Um … can I borrow them?” and wonder what was wrong with you.

This might seem like a silly example, but foreign language learners experience situations like these all the time. After all, the pragmatics of every language are different. Every language makes requests, asks questions, says greetings, etc. in different ways, and it can be hard to know what to say when most language classes focus on grammar and vocabulary.

But how do we teach pragmatics?

Reprogramming Our Grammar Minds

First let’s practice thinking of things in terms of pragmatics instead of grammar. For example, try to divide the following sentences into two groups:

“Do you have a pair of scissors?”
“Is it OK if I borrow your scissors?”
“I would like to borrow your scissors.”
“Please lend me your scissors.”

Some of us might divide the sentences into questions (1 and 2) and statements (3 and 4). And that's true grammatically-speaking.

However, as conversation tutors, it’s more helpful to ask ourselves, “What are these sentences trying to achieve?” and realize that all these sentences are asking for something, but in different ways: 1-3 are indirect requests, while 4 is a direct request (or even a demand).

Next, take a look at these sentences and think about what they’re trying to achieve:

“Wow, I didn’t realize it was this late.”
“I’ll let you get back to work.”
“OK, goodbye.”

You probably realized that the sentences are meant to close conversations. 3 is the most direct and would probably sound abrupt if used alone. 1 and 2 are more indirect ways to close a conversation.

Now, think about how you would end conversations in the following situations:

In a meeting
With a student
Over the phone

Here’s what I came up with:

“Well, it looks like we’ve covered everything we need to.”
“It was great speaking with you today, Kazu-san.”
Make it sound like the line is breaking up and say, “Sorry, can I call you later?” 😜

You may have come up with totally different responses, and that’s OK. The point is that they are all ways to end a conversation and we should learn to think of them in terms of this “speech act.”

Applying Pragmatics To Feedback

Now how can we apply pragmatics to our feedback? Consider the following sentences:

“It would make me happy if you lent me your scissors.”
“I’d like to borrow your scissors, but …”

These might sound unnatural or confusing, but would be totally acceptable in Japanese. If we heard a Japanese student say the sentences above, we’d probably respond with something like, “We don’t say this” or “this doesn’t sound natural.”

Instead, consider incorporating some principles of pragmatics: “In English, we don’t make requests like this. Here are some phrases you can use instead to make polite requests: “Is it OK if I …?”, “Could I …?”, etc.

Do this a few more times and the student will start thinking about what speech acts they want to achieve and what expressions they should use — instead of trying to directly translate everything with grammar and vocabulary.

As an exercise, look at the following exchange and think about what feedback you could give the student:

Tutor: Would you like to do self-introductions?
Student: Yes, I would.

You could first identify the speech act: “You’re accepting an offer.” Then, point out more common ways to achieve the speech act: “You can say, ‘Yes, please’ or ‘Yes, that would be great!’ instead.”

OK, last exercise. Imagine a tourist stops you on the street and says, “Hello, I’d like your help” and then asks you how to get to the train station. Think:

What are they trying to achieve with this sentence? What is the speech act?
What would be a better way to carry out this speech act?

(See a possible response at the end of this post.)

👋 That’s it for now!

As a final note, keep in mind that not all students care about pragmatics. English learners who’ve never lived abroad usually see pragmatics as much less important than grammar. In fact, I’ve even had a Japanese student say to me, “I don’t want to change the way I speak to sound more American or British. I like sounding Japanese in English.” And that’s fine … I guess. 🤷

But hopefully, this has given you a different perspective on feedback. Here are some pieces to get you started with providing good pragmatics feedback:

Happy tutoring!

(And as promised, a possible response to the exercise above is: 1. The tourist is asking a stranger for help; 2. They could just say “Excuse me”!)