Pragmatics in the Classroom and Applied Linguistics in Business

Pragmatics is a field that examines human language in social contexts. It also takes into account what a speaker intends to convey and how listeners interpret that meaning through body language, tone of voice, and other cues. It complements the fields of semantics and grammar, which focus on literal meaning and how words are put together.

Often, a speaker’s meaning is not fully understood unless pragmatics is taken into account. The word pragmatics is derived from the Greek word “pragma,” which means action or affair, and refers to an approach to life that seeks practical solutions. For example, a law student who attends a course on contract law might apply the pragmatics of that knowledge to his real-world experiences in the legal workplace.

In the classroom, incorporating pragmatics into the study of language and communication is a way to help learners become more aware of how their own utterances and those of others are perceived. It is also a tool that helps students develop the social skills that are necessary for communication in any situation.

For example, the Forum article “Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom” provides useful information about teaching pragmatics through an activity for practicing different greetings in various contexts. The teacher presents several scenarios and asks the students to choose which greeting would be appropriate in each of those situations.

Other pragmatics activities involve analyzing the context in which a particular phrase is used and discussing what the speaker really meant to communicate with that phrase. Then, the teacher explains why some phrases are considered appropriate in certain contexts but not in others.

A related area of pragmatics is computational pragmatics, which applies the principles of linguistics and semantics to computer systems in order to enhance their natural human language and information processing abilities. For example, one of the key issues in computational pragmatics involves reference resolution, a process that deals with how computers determine whether two incoming pieces of data are referring to the same item or not.

Applied pragmatics is an important tool for business professionals, who must be able to evaluate how their communication and presentation style will impact the audience and then adjust accordingly. For instance, a businessman who is speaking to a client about a new product should be sensitive to the client’s cultural background and how this may influence the client’s perception of the product. By taking a pragmatic approach, the businessman can ensure that his message is clear and understandable to the client. This will ultimately lead to a productive relationship between the company and its clientele. In addition, a pragmatic approach can help companies develop better relationships with their customers by making them feel that the company is a trustworthy partner. This will result in repeat business and referrals. In addition, it will give the company a competitive advantage over other similar companies by providing an excellent customer experience. This will ultimately help to drive revenue and profits.