This research examined the extent to which pragmatic comprehension, namely accurate and speedy comprehension of conversational implicatures, is related to cognitive processing skills and general listening abilities. Thirty-five Japanese students learning English as a second language completed five tasks: a pragmatic listening test that measured the ability to comprehend implied speakers' intentions, a phonemic discrimination test, a listening section of the institutional TOEFL, a working memory test, and a lexical access test that measured the ability to make speedy semantic judgment. (...) The students' pragmatic comprehension was analyzed for accuracy and comprehension speed. Results revealed a significant relationship between accuracy scores of the PLT and the TOEFL listening scores, but not with phonemic discrimination ability. Response time of pragmatic listening significantly correlated with the semantic access speed, but not with working memory. (shrink)

Motivation has an effect on the rate and success of second language (L2) learning. However, little is known about its role in students’ levels of L2 pragmatic awareness. This study investigated whether and to what extent students’ L2 motivation influences their pragmatic awareness. A total of 498 Chinese university students completed a two-part web-based survey (an appropriateness judgement task and a motivation questionnaire), of whom 12 were subsequently interviewed. The quantitative results show that pragmatic awareness correlates positively with attitudes towards (...) the L2 community and the intended learning efforts. Moreover, a model combining the intended learning efforts, attitudes towards the L2 community and attitudes towards learning English can significantly predict pragmatic awareness. The analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals a mismatch between students’ immediate needs when learning English and outcomes of pragmatic acquisition, which may contribute to the absent correlation between overall levels of L2 motivation and pragmatic awareness. (shrink)