Pragmatic Skills

When is the last time you didn't know how to interpret somebody's rain check, or read their facial expression, or how to insert yourself into a conversation?

These extralinguistic skills are a type of pragmatic skill, and vary depending on culture. They add an extra layer of challenge when navigating a new culture or for neurodivergent people in their everyday life.

Do you remember learning these skills in any language class you've taken, or on a language-learning app such as Duolingo?

Most likely you haven't, as most classes don't explicitly teach them. Likewise with classes for English learners, yet they are crucial for students entering our school system from other linguistic backgrounds.

Activity 1: Word stress clues

As you know, word stress can add layers of meaning onto the basic words of a sentence. Try saying the following sentence aloud to yourself, emphasizing the italicized word each time. See what extra information you interpret from it, and then hover over the sentence to see if our interpretations match up. (Note that there may be multiple possible readings.)