Testing conversational implicature in the TOEIC examination. Investigando la Implicatura Conversacional en el Examen de TOEIC.

doi.org/10.20420/ElGuiniguada.2022.508

Authors

Keywords:

implicatura conversacional, enseñanza del inglés como segunda lengua, examen de TOEIC, conversational implicature, teaching English as a second language, TOEIC exam

Abstract

The incorrect inference of conversational implicature might often lead to communicative breakdown among interlocutors who share the same L1, and it may certainly entail an extra degree of effort on the part of L2 language learners. For this reason, it should be tackled in L2 courses so that students are prepared to engage successfully in realistic communication. However, teaching learners to infer pragmatic meaning correctly when faced with conversational implicature raises the question of how to test whether these learners have managed to infer such pragmatic meaning. This paper intends to expand research in this area by focusing on the TOEIC examination (Test of English for International Communication) in a group of fifty university students who have taken the latest version of the exam, where conversational implicatures are included in the Listening and Reading sections. Results show that learners seem to perform better in the Listening section than in the Reading section thanks to paralinguistic cues. Reading comprehension items pose more problems and might benefit from explicit instruction and a higher linguistic competence.

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Author Biographies

Andrea Martínez Celis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Andrea Martínez Celis is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Financial Economics and Accounting and Modern Languages at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos since 2018 where she teaches English language and didactics. She is also a predoctoral researcher in English Linguistics and an Intern ad honorem since 2017 in the Department of English Studies: Linguistics and Literature at Universidad Complutense de Madrid since 2017. She holds a BA degree in English Studies and a Master's degree in English Linguistics: New Applications and International Communication from the same university. In her Bachelor studies, during her stay at University of Sussex, Brighton, she became interested in the topic of forensic linguistics and, more specifically, on the analysis of suicide letters carrying out a linguistic analysis on Virginia Woolf´s suicide letters. During her Master’s studies, switching to a new field of research, she focused on the role of pragmatics in English teaching and learning. Currently, following her works in this field, she is pursuing a PhD on the role of intercultural competence in the internationalisation of higher education.

Carmen Maíz Arévalo, Inglés

Dr. Carmen Maíz-Arévalo is Associate Professor in the Department of English Studies: Linguistics and Literature of the Complutense University of Madrid, teaching Pragmatics, English Language and Intercultural Studies, among other subjects. She is currently also the Academic Director of Idiomas Complutense. Regarding her research, her main interest is pragmatics, with special attention to intercultural pragmatics (English-Spanish), verbal courtesy and speech acts, and computer-mediated communication. She has published numerous studies in these areas and given numerous conferences at national and international congresses, as well as working for years as a teacher trainer. In addition to her teaching and research work, Dr. Maíz Arévalo has also held different academic positions such as Academic Secretary of the Department of English Philology I (from October 2014 to November 2017) or Editorial Secretary of the Complutense Journal of English Studies from 2006 to 2014.

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Published

2022-07-07

How to Cite

Martínez Celis, A., & Maíz Arévalo, C. (2022). Testing conversational implicature in the TOEIC examination. Investigando la Implicatura Conversacional en el Examen de TOEIC.: doi.org/10.20420/ElGuiniguada.2022.508. El G U I N I G U a D a, (31), 91–100. Retrieved from https://ojsspdc.ulpgc.es/ojs/index.php/ElGuiniguada/article/view/1361

Issue

No. 31 (2022): El Guiniguada

Section

Papers

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