Littlewood's division of advanced learners' communication needs into pragmatic and social needs¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article adopts Littlewood's model of advanced language learners' development, which divides communication needs into pragmatic needs, "the desire to communicate effectively in a pragmatic sense", and social needs, "the desire to communicate appropriately in a social sense". The author uses this division to show that advanced learners' typical problems lie at the interpersonal social level, as in the embarrassing greeting exchange with Prof. X, and that learners must heighten their awareness of both need types to stay motivated.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Learners must heighten their awareness of pragmatic and social needs so they remain motivated to strive for communicative competence.

Constraints¶

• The model is applied to advanced learners, for whom failures of pragmatic needs such as the bus and bookstore cases are described as relatively few.

Target Learners¶

• advanced second language learners

Target Learning Objectives¶

• sociolinguistic and pragmatic appropriateness in the target language

Claims¶

• Mere Exposure Insufficient Advanced L2 Communicative Competence [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Littlewood's distinction between proactive and reactive autonomy

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Yu Liming. (1990). The Comprehensible Output Hypothesis and Self-directed Learning: A Learner's Perspective. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada, Vol. 8, No. 1. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ420159