Reorienting the assessment of the conventional expressions of complaining and apologising: From single-response to interactive DCTs

The importance of assessing pragmatics in the classroom has been recognized as a difficult and complex task since there are a lot of contextual factors that influence an appropriate use of the language. Therefore, it is essential to carefully design the methods that elicit learners’ production of a particular pragmatic feature given the fact that the use of a particular elicitation instrument may influence research outcomes. Considering these aspects, the aim of the present paper is the elaboration of a discursive type of instrument, that of an interactive discourse completion task, to assess learners’ use of the strategies employed when complaining and apologizing in a second/foreign language context. Additionally, the potential of using verbal reports to obtain learners’ insightful information as regards their execution of speech act production is also highlighted by the creation of a retrospective verbal report that may be used in combination with the elicitation method being elaborated. The choice of the speech acts of complaining and apologizing has been done on the fact that the performance of them in a second/foreign language may be a difficult task for learners due to their lack of familiarity with the norms and conventions of the target language which, in consequence, may result in an impolite and rude behaviour. Therefore, learners may require a certain level of pragmatic competence to perform these speech acts in an appropriate way in order to avoid possible communication breakdowns. To do so, learners need to know that the appropriate choice of the conventional expressions of complaining and apologising may depend on sociopragmatic issues such as the social status (low or high) and the social distance (close or distant) between the interlocutors, as well as the intensity of offense (less or more) involved in the communicative act. Considering these aspects, the aim of the present paper is the elaboration of a discursive type of instrument that of an interactive discourse completion task, to assess learners’ use of the strategies employed when complaining and apologising in a second/foreign language context. Additionally, the potential of using verbal reports to obtain learners’ insightful information as regards their execution of speech act production is also highlighted by the creation of a retrospective verbal report that may be used in combination with the elicitation method being elaborated.