Meaning and Context Conference, UWE, Bristol 13-15 April 2011
Researching Sociopragmatic Variability: Implications for the classroom
This panel explores sociopragmatic variability across a range of discourse contexts and
cultures and through the prism of different research methodologies. Sociopragmatics (Leech
1983, Thomas 1983) focuses on the 'relationship between linguistic action and social
structure' (Martinez-Flor & Uso-Juan 2010: 6) and is concerned with the influence of sociocontextual factors in language as social action.
Papers in the panel will explore the theoretical and methodological issues arising from
research studies of sociopragmatic variability and the communication of meaning in
interaction and will consider the implications of these studies for the teachability
of sociopragmatics in diverse learning contexts. The panel will incorporate insights from
empirical studies which have investigated sociopragmatic variability in a range of research
contexts: (i) the employment of pragmatic markers in varieties of English with reference to
length of stay, social context and markers of identity, (ii) variational pragmatics (Schneider &
Barron 2008) with regard to speech act production in Mainland and Taiwan Chinese, and (iii)
pragmatic development in ESL graduate students in relation to internal and external
modification of requests. The panel aims to explore sociopragmatic variability from teaching
and learning perspectives and to generate issues of relevance to both pedagogy and
research.