SOME SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND PRAGMATIC ISSUES IN SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Krainenko O. V. (Kharkiv)
In multilingual society, today, when the world strives to be fast-paced and everchanging like it has never been before, multilinguals and experienced language
learners seem to have a better strategic competence in tackling communication
problems. Therefore, the second language learners (SL) also seem to have more
metalinguistic and metacommunicative competence if they are successful in their
studies.
According to Housen & Pierrard, as sociolinguistic and pragmatic features of
language are supposed to have an impact on the development of the learners’ 
communicative competence, the learners’ attention is to be drawn to them, as well
as to language form, where” form” stands for grammatical structures, lexical items, phonological features.
The so popular communicative approach with its result-oriented and absorbing
process philosophy leads to effective language acquisition; though, more recent
research has confirmed that is seems just as difficult to find what successful SL
learners have in common as it is to establish the psychological profile of
millionaires (according to Dewaele, 2009). Difficulties in teaching due to the
students’ school background and language problems gives special role to a teacher;
here, his ability to communicate, psychological tolerance and professionalism can
be beneficial in solving many problems.
Special attention is given to the types of motivation. Internal motivation arising
from the foreign language activity plays major role in the effective teaching of
students. The elements of the integrative teaching model propose some practical
tasks which increase the memory span, activate the cognitive processes and
memory concentration.
Since our language is closely linked with our personality and culture, why not
use the process of acquiring a new language to gain further insight into our
personality and culture? Learning is more effective if a number of activities
adapted from “values’ clarification theory”, are included in the language teaching
process. The term “message-oriented communication” (in the German original
‘mitteilungsbezogene Kommunikation”) was coined by Black and Butzkamm
(1977). They use it to refer to those rare and precious moments in foreign language
teaching when the target language is actually used as a means of communication.
Since foreign language teaching should help students achieve some kind of
communicative skill in the foreign language, all situations in which real
communication occurs naturally have to be taken advantage of and many more
suitable ones have to be created.
There is an aspect that tackled in communicative effect studies; it is pragmatic
failure. Thomas (1983) noticed that in cross-cultural communication, learners
expressed their ideas in a way that was different from the native speakers. This
interlanguage phenomenon, free of grammatical errors, sometimes led to
miscomprehension in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, sociolinguistic and
pragmatic competences are typically difficult to acquire without intense exposure to and use of the target language. Kemp said, “the knowledge of more languages
has been linked to a capacity for grasping the grammar faster in a new language by
applying a wider variety of learning strategies” (2007), a stronger inclination to
pursue the study of foreign languages (according to Dewaele & Thirtle, 2009),
more metalinguistic awareness and cross-linguistic awareness (according to
Jessner, 2006). So, at the heart of the SLA process, thus, lies an affective factor,
which has been variously described as ― “motivation‖” (according to Dörnyei, 2005; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Gardner, 1985; Ushioda & Dörnyei, 2012).
Here we can make a conclusion, the language comes to life and becomes a tool
for communication, rather than an abstract object of study. With the language being used in its original environment (Lisbon) with its inhabitants, comes also
additional information on cultural practices, on the history of the place and the
people, on food, architecture and climate. Consequently, the frequent use of an
interlanguage in authentic communicative situations was found to benefit not only
grammatical, but also sociolinguistic, sociocultural and pragmatic competence.
Participation in social networks in the target community not only boosts linguistic
skills but also pushes SL users to reflect on their identity, beliefs and practices.
Moreover, once SL users engage in intense contact with members of that speech
community, they develop sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence and may start
to conform to native speaker variation patterns (according to Howard, Mougeon &
Dewaele, 2013; Preston & Bayley, 2009).
Resume
The article deals with some sociolinguistic and pragmatic issues in second language acquisition. It states that participation in social networks in the target community not only boosts linguistic skills but also pushes SL users to reflect on their identity, beliefs and practices.
Key words: sociolinguistic and pragmatic issues, second language acquisition
Анотація
У статті розглядаються деякі соціолінгвістичні та прагматичні проблеми при навчанні другої іноземної мови. Стверджується, що соціальна активність та стосунки з носіями другої іноземної мови сприяють не тільки розвитку мовленнєвих навичок, а також впливають на ідентичність, переконання та життєві норми тих, кто вивчає другу іноземну мову. 
Ключові слова: соціолінгвістичні та прагматичні проблеми, навчання другої іноземної мови