Is teaching how to suggest a good suggestion? An empirical study based on EFL learners’ accuracy and appropriateness when making suggestions

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of foreign language classroom instruction and the effectiveness of an explicit teaching of pragmatic aspects, such as the speech act of ¿suggesting¿, to improve learners¿ grammatical accuracy and pragmatic appropriateness. Two are the main objectives: (1) to analyse the amount and type of suggestions used by EFL learners, as well as the grammatical mistakes they make; and (2) to ascertain whether learners receiving some sort of formal instruction on appropriate speech act forms or structures will improve their linguistic and pragmatic competence.