Department of Spanish and Portuguese

• Objectives

This course examines current issues in intercultural pragmatics and the development of intercultural communicative competence in three learning contexts: foreign language, study abroad, and heritage language pragmatics.  We will critically review existing models and frameworks, including issues of assessment and testing. The first part of the course will review concepts such as pragmatic competence, interactional competence, interculturality, intercultures, individual differences, context and contexts, intercultural interaction, common ground, and metapragmatic awareness, among others. We will focus on the construct and scope of intercultural communicative competence and its application to pragmatic development, pragmatic instruction, testing, and assessment. The second part of the course will look at empirical studies that analyze the development of intercultural communicative competence and the concept of the intercultural speaker as a mediator, agent, analyst, and negotiator. Research methods for the analysis of intercultural and cross-cultural pragmatics will also be covered. Evaluation is based on short assignments, class discussions, and a research project that examines one aspect of intercultural communicative competence, pragmatic variation in one or two varieties of Spanish, or cross-cultural pragmatics. (Course will be taught in Spanish; readings will be in English and Spanish).

HISP-S 612    #35563      9:45A-11:00A       TR         BH 010      Prof. Cesar Felix-Brasdefer