ABSTRACT
Pragmatic competence is recognized as an essential element in communicative competence (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Canale & Swain, 1980), and thus learning the pragmatics of a second or any additional language (L2) is a critical part of language learning. A long tradition of research demonstrates that pragmatics is essential to establish and maintain communication and rapport, as well as to avoid negative judgment and even stereotypical opinions about a community of speakers. When L2 learners engage in interaction with a competent speaker of the target language, language errors are usually attributed to a lack of their linguistic competence. However, when the errors are of a pragmatic nature (e.g., inappropriate register, lack of hedging, breaking of the turn-taking system), they are not attributed to a lack of linguistics competence, but rather to personality traits. As Thomas (1983) points out, L2 pragmatic errors are attributed to ‘apparent impoliteness or unfriendliness, not to any linguistic deficiency, but to boorishness or ill-will’ (p. 97).
