Teaching and Learning Interactional Pragmatics in a Digital World: Introduction

Abstract

This volume was born from the 2022 Pragmatics & Language Learning online conference that was organized by the editors of this volume with the support of the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and the The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon. The topic of the conference was Teaching and Learning Interactional Pragmatics in a Digital World, and our intention was to give voice to presentations on a range of topics that explored how pragmatics are affected by our digital communication practices and how the digital world is also affecting the pragmatics of how we communicate with each other and with machines. The online format of the conference allowed us to include six top researchers in the field of L2 pragmatics, and we were delighted that three of them agreed to contribute to the volume with chapters reflecting their talks. In addition, nine conference participants were selected to contribute their work. In this introductory chapter, we synthesize each chapter as part of a larger vision for the field. This vision focuses on five critical considerations as we plant and tend to the seeds presented here: (1) utilize methodological potential, (2) create a deep understanding of “the digital,” (3) carefully consider learning contexts, (4) explore digital tools to connect people, and (5) critically examine emergent technologies.