Data Collection Methods in L2 Pragmatics Research

L2 pragmatics research is concerned with how L2 learners develop the knowledge and ­ability to use various aspects of the target language pragmatics. Speech acts have been by far the most commonly researched aspect of L2 pragmatic competence, but implicatures (i.e., indirect meanings) and routine formulae have received less attention (see Taguchi & Roever, 2017, for a review of typical constructs examined in L2 pragmatics research). Depending on the research goals, researchers have used a variety of methods to gather and analyze L2 pragmatics data. This chapter presents an overview of methods commonly used for data collection and analysis in researching L2 pragmatics in three areas: (1) pragmatic production, (2) pragmatic comprehension and perception, and (3) pragmatic decision-making processes. My review is based on a survey of 246 empirical studies in L2 pragmatics published from 1979 to 2017. Of the 246 studies, 105 come from Bardovi-Harlig’s (2010) review from 1979 to 2008. ¹ I performed another search for the period from 2008 to 2017 using multiple databases (e.g., LLIBA, ERIC, and ProQuest) and search terms (e.g., ‘pragmatics,’ ‘interlanguage pragmatics,’ and ‘L2 pragmatics’). My search yielded an additional 141 studies. Then, I coded each study for (1) research purpose—production, non-production (comprehension, perception, or pragmatic decision-making processes), and mixed ² ; (2) data collection methods; and (3) data analysis methods (see Appendix for the summary of the data collection methods). There were 165 production studies, 29 non-production studies, and 52 mixed studies. Altogether, pragmatic production was examined in 217 studies, pragmatic comprehension and perception in 54 studies, and pragmatic decision-making processes in 31 studies.