Pragmatics - language use in context including the speaker's intention and the interlocutor's interpretation of the messsage.

With useful information and pedagogical materials for teaching and learning pragmatics and general linguistics, for

• language instructors
• students
• researchers


• Pragmatic variation Includes theoretical and empirical information on the acquisition of pragmatics by monolingual and bilingual children at different stages of pragmatic development. Pragmatic variation is illustrated on this site by an atlas which describes regional variation in the Spanish-speaking world and includes samples of how speech acts and conversational routines (e.g., greetings, agreeing/disagreeing) vary in Spain and in Latin America. (In progress.)
• Politeness Politeness phenomena and samples of perceptions of politeness among different speakers of Spanish.
• Speech acts Classifications and samples of various speech acts in English and Spanish: apologies, refusals, requests, etc. Access transcripts of interactions, listen, view video clips featuring interactions which highlight particular speech acts. (In progress.)
• Voces Hispanas Explores the rich diversity of the Spanish voices and culture around the Spanish-speaking world through audio clips of native speakers from multiple countries. Provides Spanish teachers with a variety of activities for teaching various aspects of the Spanish culture. (In progress.)
• Teaching Pragmatics Teachers' Resource Manual, student handouts, and PowerPoint presentations to accompany the instructor's presentation in class. Includes a pedagogical model that has been used at Indiana University's Department of Spanish and Portuguese, as well as various lesson plans for activities for teaching different cultural aspects of the Spanish-speaking world in the classroom (with audio clips and transcripts). (In progress.)
• Pragmatic Development Includes theoretical and empirical information on the acquisition of pragmatics by monolingual and bilingual children at different stages of pragmatic development. Audio and video samples of children communicating pragmatic intent include: greeting, requesting, disagreeing, apologizing, and complaining. Includes samples from everyday conversations in settings with family and friends. (In progress.)
• Exercises in Pragmatics Activities in pragmatics which allow learners to practice various speech acts in Spanish as a Foreign Language.
• Resources