Effect of Movies on L 2 Learners Pragmatic Competence A Case of Request and Apology
The presentation of rich and contextually appropriate input has been regarded as a necessary condition for developing L2 learners' pragmatic ability in an L2. The aim of this study was to seek whether or not employing movies can scaffold pragmatics teaching that affects the pattern of using different request and apology strategies by L2 learners. To do so, 37 upper intermediate students, aged 21 to 25, at an English institute in Isfahan, Iran, were selected based on their level of proficiency measured by the Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT) and assigned into 2 groups. A version of a discourse completion test (DCT) was used as the pretest prior to launching the instruction to check the request and apology strategies used by the participants. The data collected from the DCTs indicated that the pattern of using different request and apology strategies changed significantly after watching the movies; however, the control group participants who had not benefited from any effective visual aids in pragmatics teaching followed the same pattern prior and after the study course. The results also indicated that the differences in using each type of request strategy before and after watching the movies were not conspicuous with regard to the female participants; however, the male participants' preferences in using the request strategies changed considerably from the pretest to the posttest. Regarding apology strategies, the differences in using each type of apology strategy before and after watching the movies were obvious with respect to both the male and female participants, indicating a remarkable shift in their initial preferences to use different apology strategies after watching the movies.