A study on ways to raise pragmatic awareness in Movie English: Based on L1 translation

Abstract

This paper investigated how to raise pragmatic awareness through movies. Seven undergraduate students participated in this case study: two beginners (A, B), two intermediate learners (C, D), and three advanced learners (E, F, G). The study used movie scripts, with L1 translation of the scripts as the activity to raise participants’ pragmatic awareness. During the translation activity, the researcher instructed the participants implicitly (mainly talking about movie storylines) and explicitly (teacher’s explanation about appropriate language items). The participants completed two tests: recall and awareness. The result showed that all participants were excellent in the recall test regardless of their language fluency. Participants A, C, E, and G tended to focus on language items, but B, D, and F preferred the movie storyline in the awareness test. Also, participant A showed that he could perceive pragmatic awareness even though he was a beginner. Overall, the responses to this activity are subject to individual differences than to English fluency or the differences between implicit or explicit instruction. In addition, the data indicated that L1 translation was a key factor in blurring the boundary between implicit and explicit activities. No participants compartmentalized between implicit and explicit areas in the L1 translation.