"Pragmatic awareness is coming”: the effect of out-of-school media contact on pragmatic awareness and competence in english philology students

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to explore the effect of out-of-school contact with English-language through TV programmes on the acquisition of pragmatic competence and awareness in undergraduate students of English Studies. In order to do so, an investigation was carried out involving twenty-three third year students of the English Studies degree programme at the University Jaume I. The study focuses on two variables: the quantity and quality of contact with English-language TV series, and the adequacy of the responses to a range of pragmatic routines. Results show that watching English TV programmes do not directly affect the pragmatic competence of the learner. Therefore, out-of-school contact with TV series is not a reliable variable in terms of pragmatic competence. Nonetheless, there is something interesting regarding the amount of time spent watching series and whether or not subtitles were used, as these results displayed a positive correlation with pragmatic competence.