Different Usages of Pragmatic Markers in Different Cultures : for Developing an English Teaching Medium

Abstract

In learning second language settings, communication abilities together with socio-pragmatic competence have recently been emphasized in addition to the importance of learning grammar and vocabulary. Over the last few years, we have paid attention to the appropriate uses of the pragmatic markers which typically serve significant pragmatic functions in social interactions, and observed their behaviors through screen English, hoping to develop a teaching medium. This paper deals with two kinds of pragmatic markers which come at the end of the sentence, tag questions and you know, through different movies from the cross-cultural viewpoint. Through the data observation, we have found that these two pragmatic markers have basically the similar pragmatic functions but their occurrences vary from culture to culture. We have also found their usage are different according to the situations and speaker's mental state in the on-going interaction. Finally, we introduce the teaching method incorporating the findings, showing if we make the best use of screen English, together with the pragmatic considerations, we can teach communication styles of native English speakers even in classroom settings.