Effects of proficiency and length of residence on the pragmatic comprehension of Japanese ESL

Abstract

Questions which have received less attention in the literature are whether and in what ways Japanese learners comprehend and interpret indirectness in American English. For example, are Japanese learners able to use conversational implicature and inferencing to interpret indirectness in English as NSs do? If they are, to what degree does this ability seem to develop “naturally,” along with increased general proficiency, or is it a skill that somehow requires regular exposure to a variety of contexts in daily life among NSs, the kinds of situations that can be experienced only by learners who reside in the target language culture?