Cross-Cultural Pragmatics and Foreign Language Learning

Hamburg University Dániel Z. Kádár is Qihang Chair Professor and Director of the Center for Pragmatic Research at Dalian University of Foreign Languages, China. He is also Research Professor at the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Hungary and Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Maribor. He is an ordinary member of Academia Europaea (MAE.), and he also has a higher doctorate (D.Litt.) in pragmatics (2015) and Ph.D. in linguistics (2006). His areas of research involve cross-cultural, intercultural and L2 pragmatics; linguistic (im)politeness and interactional ritual; language and politics; and historical and modern Chinese language. He has published many books with internationally leading publishers, and research papers in high-impact journals. He is author of Relational Rituals and Communication: Ritual Interaction in Groups (2013), Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual – Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction (2017), and co-author of Understanding Politeness (with Michael Haugh, 2013) and Intercultural Politeness – Managing Relationships across Cultures (with Helen Spencer-Oatey, 2020). His most recent book is Cross-Cultural Pragmatics (with Juliane House, 2021). He is co-editor of Cross-cultural pragmatics – A Cross-Disciplinary Journal.

Overall, this book enriches academic discussions and advances more critical reflections on how to learn, teach, and conduct pragmatics research. Its integration of a theoretical framework and in-depth empirical analysis is highly relevant for ESL/EFL teachers looking to enhance students’ pragmatic competence through context-based instruction, which may be more responsive to student needs. It also offers a well-structured framework for teacher educators to design more effective teacher training programs, identify pragmatic gaps among students, and develop targeted teaching interventions. Additionally, the book’s exploration of sociopragmatic variables opens ample opportunities for further studies to explore the often overlooked pragmatic dimensions, particularly in underexplored linguacultures. It also reminds readers that cross-cultural pragmatics is a dynamic field. To this end, this work serves as an excellent resource for future research and L2 teaching to improve pragmatic competencies across cultural boundaries.

• About the AuthorsAcknowledgementsSeries Introduction1. Introduction2. The Foundations of Cross-cultural pragmatics3. Our Contrastive Pragmatic Framework and Its Use in L2 Pragmatics4. Exploring Speech Acts through Expressions in L2 Pragmatics5. On the Problem of Altered Speech Act Indication in L2 Pragmatics 6. Speech Acts and Interactional Acts 1: The Case of Criticising 7. Speech Acts and Interactional Acts 2: The Case of Ritual Congratulating8. Types of Talk in L2 Pragmatics 1: Greeting in English as a Foreign Language9. Types of Talk in L2 Pragmatics 2: The Case of Extracting10. Types of Talk in L2 Pragmatics 3: The Case of Phatic Opening versus Business Talk11. ConclusionGlossaryReferencesNotesIndex