Pragmatic Comprehension of Conversational Implicature in L2 English: Effect of Instruction

Non-native speakers of English are known to have difficulty in interpreting conversational implicatures even though they are advanced level of language proficiency (Cook & Liddicoat, 2002; Roever, 2010). The current study examines the effect of pragmatic instruction on interpreting conversational implicature, focusing on Korean EFL learners. To improve learners’ comprehension, linguistic theory, based on Grice (1975), was incorporated into classroom instruction. Activities from previous studies (Murray, 2009, 2011) were adopted and modified for college-level students. Then a brief survey was conducted to find whether the teaching of conversational implicatures was effective between the pre-test and post-test. The results of the study revealed that the mean differences between the pre-test and post-test were statistically significant. The learners performed better than before receiving the instruction. Among the types of implicatures, Pope Q and relevance-based implicatures were relatively easily recognized by the learners while indirect criticism was difficult, which was consistent with previously identified patterns (Lee, 2002; Taguchi, 2005). Pedagogical implicatures are discussed with reference to the role of linguistic theory in English education.