Using short stories vs. video clips to improve upper intermediate EFL students’ sociopragmatic knowledge: Speech acts in focus

Abstract

To formulate appropriate speech acts necessitates the use of specific pragmatic and sociolinguistic skills which play a pivotal role in the knowledge of scripts and patterns of communicative events. Such an ability is influenced by the contextual and social variables that determine the linguistic resources required for choosing particular types of speech acts. Framed in speech act and sociopragmatic theories, this study sought to investigate the effect of using short stories vs. Video clips on the improvement of foreign language students’ oral production of English speech acts. To this end, from the target sample of students learning English at Isfahan University Language Center, those at the upper intermediate level were selected using a Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT). At the next step, the samples were randomly divided into three groups, twenty-five each and then they were assigned to one control and two experimental groups. The treatment included direct instruction of most commonly used speech acts across different cultures including disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking through the application of carefully chosen short stories and video clips. While one of the experimental groups received their instruction through short stories, the other was exposed to video clips. Before and after the treatment, Two Discourse Completion Tests (DCT) were used as pre and posttests whereby the participants were encouraged to produce the targeted speech acts in specific but contrived real life contexts. The quantitative analyses of the data revealed that the students in the treatment groups significantly outperformed those of the control group in producing the target speech acts orally. Moreover, the students exposed to video mediated instruction displayed better oral production of speech acts than those receiving their instruction through short stories. Notably, the findings could offer practical benefits to those language teachers and curriculum developers who are concerned with finding the best ways of raising language learners’ consciousness about sociopragmatic related issues.

Keywords:

• Oral production
• short stories
• sociopragmatic knowledge
• speech acts
• upper intermediate students
• video clips

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Framed in Austin’s (1962) theory of speech act, the present study looked into the effect of using short stories and video clips on the Iranian EFL learners’ oral production of speech acts. The focused speech acts included disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking. To gather the needed data, 75 individuals were selected from among the students learning English at Esfahan university language center. The participants were then randomly assigned to two experimental and one control group. Next, the members of the aforementioned groups were exposed to different methods of teaching. The findings of the study confirmed that the improvement of sociopragmatic knowledge is made possible by increasing learners’ consciousness raising, noticing and professional use of authentic language input such as short stories and video clips.

1. Introduction

It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the essential role of pragmatic competence which is considered a functionally significant communicative tool in the context of general communication. Essentially, the main purpose of interlocutors in the process of communication is to convey a particular message within a specific socio-cultural context by ensuring that the intended message is successfully conveyed from the sender to the receiver. As such, sociopragmatic knowledge and its function in interpersonal interactions has become the heart of our understanding of the ways by which foreign language learners can learn to develop their pragmatic competence in order to satisfy their communicative needs in the process of communication (Hymes, 1972).

Essentially, success in communicating with others requires more than grammatical and lexical knowledge. To manage an interaction effectively, people also need to possess a knowledge of relational and socio-contextual factors dominating the use of speech acts appropriately. Being an important area of pragmatics, speech acts are formulated by the individuals for performing different actions (Birner, 2012).

The formulation of speech acts involves a tripartite arrangement labeled locution, illocution, and perlocution. Locution or an utterance act refers to a stretch of speech with a meaningful sense and reference. As Cutting (2005) maintains, the locutionary act is the act of producing meaningful utterances. In other words, any speech act triggers particular verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of language in order to materialize an illocutionary act which is in effect the result of the actual meaning represented the formulated locutionary act. As an illustration, in a directive speech act like “Stop making that noise”, the speaker uses an utterance act with specific phonetic, syntactic and semantic features in order to activate an illocutionary act of warning to the listener telling him or her not to make the disturbing noise anymore.

Contrasted with locutionary and illocutionary acts, perlocutionary act refers to the effect of utterance act on the addressee. In other words, perlocution deals with the consequences of utterance acts with various illocutionary forces such as such as persuading, convincing, thanking, warning, enlightening, inspiring, etc. Therefore, when analyzing utterances, the perlocutionary effects on the addressee should be emphasized (Hulford & Heasley, 1983). It can further be stated that perlocutionary act is the effect of the utterance on the thoughts or actions of the addressee. Notably, the effect is determined by the conditions dominating the communicative event including a plethora of factors that are intentionally or unintentionally evoked by uttering a particular utterance in a particular situation.

Searle in Levinson (1983) suggests that speech acts can be classified into five distinct categories; namely, representatives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declarations. Representatives commit the speaker to the truth of an expressed proposition and represent the speaker’s belief of something that can be evaluated as either true or false. By making assertions, conclusions, and descriptions, speakers try to represent the realities of the world based on their own beliefs. When someone makes a statement like “All swans are white”, they are making an assertion about a physical entity based own their personal experiences. Verbs such as assert, define, remind, tell, deny, correct, state, guess, predict, report, describe, inform, insist, assure, agree, claim, etc. are often used in representative speech acts.

Directives are types of speech acts such as begging, requesting, suggesting, recommending, demanding, permitting, etc. whereby the speaker tries to get the addressee do something. Exemplifying this would be a situation when someone makes a request like “Could I use your bike?” the utterance reflects the speaker’s desire to use someone’s bike. Contrariwise, commissives are speech acts like promising, threatening, offering, refusing, etc. that commits the speaker to some future course of action. For instance, a directive like “I’ll buy you a gift for your birthday”, represents the speaker’s promise about a possible action in the future.

Additionally, expressives are utterances reflecting a psychological state. Speech acts such as thanking, apologizing, welcoming, and congratulating are typically used to depict the speaker’s feelings about themselves or the world (Weigand, 2010). For example, when someone says “Make yourself at home” they try to welcome the addressee. Finally, declarations are speech acts in which the speakers tend to change the world via their utterances. In such situations, the speaker tries to alter the external status or condition of an object or situation, simply by making the intended utterance (Austin, 1962). More typically, declarations are broadcast within a social group and their success depends on the speaker whose social power is officially recognized by the community, institution, committee or by one of the members of the group to perform such acts under pre-specified conditions (e.g., a referee ejecting a player from the playing field), providing the conditions are satisfied, the addressee’s reaction as an individual will be regarded as irrelevant to the effectiveness of the declaration (K. Allan, 1998).

Apparently, native language (L1) and target language (L2) sociocultural differences could adversely affect foreign language students of English (hence force EFL learners) understanding of messages exchanged in L2 communication situations because EFL learners are not familiar with the rules and conventions underlying L2 communicative events which are highly context dependent. Such factors as time, place, purpose, participant, tone, and type of speech have a great bearing on the intended meaning of utterances (Searle, 2005).

Not surprisingly, the perlocutionary effects of various speech acts in different L2 situations have become central to the entire discipline of language education where foreign language learners must learn to improve their sociopragmatic knowledge. This ability is often gauged and assessed by particular linguistic resources used by the learners for formulating specific types of speech acts.

Therefore, the initiation of any communicative event presupposes the selection of accurate pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features which underlie various forms of communication. As Trosborg (2010) maintains, these features are clearly two different concepts which perform complementary functions. The distinction is of great importance to both the teaching and learning of communication skills, specifically in language teaching contexts where L2 oral production enjoys top priority. Failing to consider the pedagogical significance of such functionally vital distinction can adversely affect instances of language use and may result in pragmatic misinterpretation or communication failure (Liu, 2006). To minimize instances of pragmatic misperception and communication failure, foreign language teachers of English (hereinafter EFL teachers) should help students learn both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features of the authentic L2 language use (Yates, 2010). Such an important pedagogical need has heightened research endeavors in the area of comparative cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics highlighting the utility of speech act realization patterns and strategies in different communicative events and emphasizing the notion of authenticity.

Notably, the notion of authentic input has evoked a new focus on “realism” in language learning materials and has recently placed a higher emphasis on learner autonomy as well as the successful handling of communication skills in language learning interactions (Mishan, 2005).In its widest sense, “authenticity” is related to notions of “realness” or “trueness to origin”. As a technical term in the field of English language teaching (ELT), authenticity has been used to characterize texts (both written and spoken), learning materials, tasks, cultural artefacts, multimedia products, forms of assessment, and even types of teacher and audience. Not surprisingly, a variety of definitions co-exist, and Gilmore (2007) outlines a total of eight different meanings or uses for the term “authentic” in ELT professional discourse. For the sake of clarity here, however, the focus will be on two major aspects; namely, text and task authenticity.

In language-teaching contexts, the notion of “authenticity” was mainly applied at first to texts (spoken or written), characterizing a quality of the language used in them (e.g., authentic Scottish accent, authentic representation of the language, and so on) or the provenance of the texts themselves (e.g., the authentic texts such as newspaper articles, recorded station announcements, etc. which have not been originally designed for learners). In the late 1970 s, however, Widdowson introduced a distinction between authenticity and genuineness. While the former is particularly designed for real-life communicative events and daily encounters, the latter is used for language teaching purposes in various pedagogical contexts.

It is believed that a maximal exposure to authentic materials adapted to the learners’ levels and interests would enhance their sensitivity to the target language. Authentic materials such as video clips from mass media, movies, comics, and short stories have been found appealing because of their realistic nature and relevance to learners’ cognitive level and experiences (Gardner & Miller, 1999). According to Peacock (1997), such authentic materials are produced to fulfil specific social purposes in the language community. Underwood (1989) further adds that authentic materials like video clips and short stories allow the L2 learners “to hear as much more real acts of communication with all the interactional features which are not normally found in scripted materials” (p. 100). In other words, these materials provide language learners with a true representation of real, spontaneous speech helping them to appropriately employ the speech acts involved in real life, verbal encounters.

According to Austin (1962), studying speech acts necessitates speakers’ understanding of “performative sentences” or “performative utterances” which is nothing but the issuing of special utterances for performing an action (p. 6). The term, “speech act” appeared in a study by Searle (1969), and it referred to the production of various functions such as making promises, asking questions, giving commands, and making statements. Richards et al. (1985) define the concept as the utterances serving as functional units in human interactions in myriad social settings. In particular, the influences of such social variables as power and distance have similarly become considerably important in current years. Whereas “power is an asymmetrical social dimension of relative power” (Brown & Levinson, 1987, p. 77), social distance is described as the symmetric social aspects of communication within which the speaker and listener strive for figuring out the purpose of a given speech act and the kinds of goods exchanged between them (Jalilifar, 2009).

There exists a wide range of speech acts that individuals utilize in various daily communicative encounters like requests, refusals, complaints, greetings, apologies and so on. Due to insufficient language proficiency or unfamiliarity with cultural conventions of the target language, second or foreign language learners might find it quite difficult to appropriately use the required speech acts. The inability is partly the result of transferability of first language rules into L2 situations (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984).

As Cohen and Olshtain (1993) suggest, the existing challenges in using speech acts could be solved if language learners learned how to use both rules of usage and rules of use for actualizing the required speech acts in different communicative events without resorting to their L1 felicity conditions. Notably, the knowledge of speech acts is universal and common to all languages; however, applying speech acts in real life L2 situations is a culture-bound phenomenon and language learners need to restructure the knowledge of their sociopragmatic competence in light of unique rules of interaction defined by the sociocultural norms of the particular L2 community. Consequently, different studies (e.g., Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Timpe, 2013) have reported that appropriate employment of speech acts in L2 communication with native speakers is a matter of great concern to second and foreign language students. EFL teachers need to learn how different types of speech acts are realized by nonnative speakers (NNSs) of a second language (L2) with different language backgrounds and how it is possible to teach them the proper selection and use of pragmalinguistic structures in order to cope with what is said by whom in what situation.

Therefore, taking sociopragmatic competence for granted can result in interlocutors’ misunderstanding in interpreting the sociocultural factors dominating a communication process. It is believed that lack of pragmatic knowledge might influence even high proficiency level language learners since they might make communicative errors which may ultimately lead to communication breakdown (Yang, 2015). Therefore, the necessity of teaching second language pragmatic conventions can provide language learners with the self-confidence necessary for dealing with real life communication encounters (Ishihara & Cohen, 2010; Timpe, 2013).

There is a general consensus that speech acts can be effectively taught and their instruction is pedagogically possible if appropriate methodological approaches are adopted (Ishihara & Cohen, 2010). However, teaching speech acts in the classroom is quite challenging for several reasons. The first obstacle, as Ishihara and Cohen (2010) state, lies in many teachers’ unfamiliarity with the pragmatic principles dominating successful communication. As a result, many instructors employ their self-knowledge of pragmatics instead of developing their understanding of L2 pragmatic competence and its related features. This has led to the adoption of unreliable methodologies by the teachers, which reduces the quality of instruction drastically. Second, instruction, to a very large extent, depends on the depth and breadth of pragmatic input provided by the textbooks selected for particular groups of students. However, “textbooks cannot be counted on as a reliable source of pragmatic input for classroom language learning” (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001, p. 25). O’Keeffe et al. (2011) believe that this can be attributed to “insufficient specific input or insufficient interpretation of language use” that textbooks often contain (p. 139). Finally, the classroom environment is not quite similar to the real-life learning contexts in order to satisfy the pragmatic needs of the students. The classroom, as stated by Webb (2013), cannot “replicate the real world and prepare students for all possible encounters with the target language community” (p. 30).

Despite such obstacles, students should be exposed to authentic materials in order to internalize the appropriate communicative functions embedded in various socio-cultural contexts (Kasper & Rose, 2002). It is further reported that very few speech acts might be utilized in the second or foreign classroom settings because, as noted by Bardovi-Harlig et al. (1998), the teaching content “lacks a sufficient range and emphasis of relevant exemplars” (p. 234). Such problems create a poor input environment where the natural presentation of pragmatic norms becomes impossible. Thus looking for reasonable and applicable methodologies in order to equip nonnative English teachers with appropriate tools for teaching English speech acts in the classroom has become a quintessentially important issue in recent years. Feng (2016) recognizes the importance of the issue by concluding that speech act theory has an important part in Pragmatics and Applied Linguistics and teachers should not neglect the teaching of speech acts through appropriate methodologies in EFL classrooms.

Indubitably, EFL students need to acquire the necessary abilities to communicate in various communicative events; however, such needs should be critically specified for boosting the practicality of existing teaching paradigms (Brown, 2016). Speech acts, which constitute the major part of conversations in daily communications (Taguchi, 2015), are an important part of everyday language use (Chiang, 2011) and EFL teachers should employ carefully designed instruction tasks to satisfy students’ real needs by enabling them to overcome their communication fears (Long, 2015; Taguchi & Kim, 2018).

Needs analysis research addressing EFL students’ awareness of using pragmatic features has revealed that EFL students are greatly concerned with appropriately conveying their messages when they are interacting in different sociocultural situations (Belcher, 2006). As a result, EFL teachers need to have sufficient insights regarding the theoretical and practical developments in teaching speech acts by using functionally credible methodologies in order to meet EFL students’ pragmatic needs (Wang, 2014).

In order to acquire native-like competence, EFL learners must first develop their linguistic competence in the target language (TL) as well as the rules of language use and ways of speaking in various social contexts of the English speech community. In other words, they should develop and internalize the basics of interlanguage sociopragmatic knowledge. Despite their proved pedagogical utility, the input-related factors that may affect sociopragmatic knowledge development in terms of most frequently used speech acts across different cultures have received far too little attention, and there is still insufficient research data dealing with the relationship between language proficiency, authentic input, and sociopragmatic knowledge. The studies addressing the effect of L2 proficiency on pragmatic competence development in light of explicit instruction have often presented conflicting findings (e.g., Bardovi‐Harlig, 1999; Hill, 1997; Maeshiba et al., 1996). Surprisingly, there exists a lack of agreement over the correlation between learners’ L2 proficiency, input-based instruction and verbal fluency in different communicative events occurring in target language situations.

In view of the prevailing controversy described above, some researchers have emphasized the need for further research (e.g., Bardovi‐Harlig, 1999; Kasper & Rose, 1999). As such, the principle aim of the present study was to approach the issue from a different angle trying to investigate the pedagogical utility of using particular methodologies which cater to specific styles of teaching and learning. Unlike traditional methodologies, such styles of teaching engage and activate the full domain of the learners’ cognition by making a more extensive use of their auditory and visual modes of learning which can be made accessible to the learners via different forms of authentic input such as short stories and video clips.

Therefore, this study aimed to address and investigate three distinct but complementary questions:

1. Does the using of short stories have any statistically significant impact on the upper intermediate EFL students’ oral production of speech acts?

2. Does the using of video clips have any statistically significant impact on the upper intermediate EFL learners’ oral production of speech acts?

3. Is there any statistically significant difference between the impacts of using short stories versus video clips on the upper intermediate EFL students’ oral production of speech acts?

To answer these questions, this paper seeks to provide an in-depth review of the literature concerning certain key issues such as the connection between instruction and sociopragmatic knowledge development, benefits of authentic input for consciousness raising, role of input in L2 language use, and studies that have empirically investigated the utility of authentic forms of input including video clips and short stories for improving the oral production of most common types of L2 speech acts across different cultures. It will then go on describing the methodological design by which the research questions can be operationalized. Subsequently, the results section would highlight and report the obtained data on different research variables. This section is then followed by a thorough discussion of the findings in light of the results presented and reported by other studies with common goals and areas of interest. Finally, the conclusion section would bring the paper to its final touch down recapitulating the major issues, enumerating possible implications, limitations, and the need for further research.

2. Literature review

Second Language Acquisition (SLA), as one of the sub-disciplines of applied linguistics has long been concerned with theoretical and empirical issues of interest related to the effects of instruction on language learning (DeKeyser, 1998; Long, 1996; VanPatten, 2002). the research findings addressing the pedagogical utility of instructed language learning have not been uniform and researchers have been divided on the exact nature of instruction. In particular, there has been a lack of agreement as to whether instruction should follow the aims and principles of traditional focus-on-forms approaches, solely concentrating on grammatical features and formal structures of language, or focus-on-form approaches, paying attention to linguistic features involved in the communication processes. As Ellis (1994) states, controversies the efficacy of teaching explicit knowledge or about what type of corrective feedback to provide or even when explicit grammar teaching should commence reflect the degree of complexity overshadowing instructed language acquisition.

Focus on form is conceptually distinct from focus on forms; however, they both refer to differing instructional practices in the second language classroom. While the former involves primarily meaning‐focused interactions whereby linguistic forms are used for handling instances of communication spontaneously, the latter places a primary emphasis on linguistic structures, often presented as discrete grammar rules or other kinds of metalinguistic information. Focus on forms teaching approaches utilize a present, practice, produce (PPP) cycle for teaching language content and emphasize the role of explicit knowledge in the acquisition process. By contrast, Focus on form approaches to language teaching assume that language learning occurs best when learners’ attention is drawn to language items when they are needed for communication. There are also language Instructional methods which hybridize aspects of both types of instruction placing a high premium on variables like consciousness‐raising activities and input‐based instruction (Ellis et al., 2006).

A considerable amount of literature has been published on the importance of consciousness in foreign language teaching and learning. These studies suggest that consciousness raising activities can help language learners to integrate rules of usage and rules of use to attain appropriate communicative outcomes in various target language contexts (Clarke, 2001; Ellis, 1993; Schmidt, 1995). The term consciousness-raising as used by Rutherford and Sharwood Smith (1985), refers to a “deliberate attempt to draw the learner’s attention specifically to the formal properties of the target language” (p. 274). Schmidt (1995) maintains that the concept is described based on three distinct levels in SLA theories: levels of perception, noticing, and understanding. While levels of perception are defined as the levels that are related to obtaining and processing information, noticing refers to those levels involved in the processes of rehearsal in short-term memory. The levels of understanding, however, facilitate rule understanding by helping language learners grasp the proper meaning of rules and become thoroughly familiar with them. He then argues that consciousness of input at these levels is a necessary requirement for L2 development.

A number of studies (e.g., Ellis, 1993; Fotos & Ellis, 1991; Rutherford, 1987; Sharwood Smith, 1993) have found out that consciousness- raising and type of input are significant factors involved in directing learners’ attention to L2 forms helping them internalize the target language. These researchers admit that teachers should provide language learners with appropriate opportunities helping them to focus on form and consciously notice features of the L2 which are crucial in successfully managing various communicative encounters.

Consciousness raising characteristically involves two types of knowledge: explicit and implicit. According to Ellis (1997) explicit knowledge refers to the “ L2 knowledge of which a learner is aware and can verbalize on request”, while the implicit knowledge is the “L2 knowledge of which a learner is unaware and therefore cannot verbalize.” (p. 139).

This kind of knowledge, is similar to a priori knowledge in that it is more formal or perhaps more reliable. It is that knowledge that can be articulated in formal language and easily transmitted among individuals (Koulopoulos & Frappaolo, 1999). Hulstijn and De Graaff (1994) have demonstrated that the acquisition of implicit knowledge can be assisted by explicit learning (instruction). They further add that learning occurs through spontaneous discovery by a learner or by explicit instructions by a teacher. In fact, a considerable portion of explicit knowledge is converted into implicit knowledge through persistent practice. Therefore, before reaching native-like fluency in L2, language teachers can be helped by explicit instruction. Ellis (1993) suggests that when learners are ready for new knowledge, their conscious knowledge will become implicit and the application of implicit knowledge can merely be improved through explicit instruction.

In addition to consciousness raising, input also plays a key role in language learning, since L2 grammar acquisition originates in input and the ability to produce output will only come, after learners comprehend input correctly. VanPatten (2004) asserts that while output practice might help learners in the development of their interlanguage, input alone is functionally adequate for L2 learning if and only if language teachers could alter and optimize the way learners process input. When learners are able to process input accurately by paying attention to linguistic forms which carry meanings, they will improve both their comprehension and production skills (Van Patten & Benati, 2010). Since one of the main goals of language learning is to communicate, explicit instruction can engage L2 learners in communicative production learning activities.

Therefore, explicit instruction can also provide feedback so that when errors occur in producing target forms, teachers can use it as an additional input for the learners. Pienemann (1985) suggests that input-based instruction can certainly benefit language learners if they are not developmentally ready to produce them. Notably, as DeKeyser (2005) rightly observes one of the principal goals of input based instruction is to help language learners circumvent their ineffective input processing strategies so that they can make better connections between linguistic forms and their meanings (VanPatten, 2004). According to Botana (2013), proper mapping of forms into their respective meanings requires specific instruction that can help learners to deploy a new and optimal strategy in order for the interlanguage system to develop appropriately.

Generally speaking, three components have been proposed to facilitate form-meaning interconnection: explicit information on the target form, information on an effective processing strategy, and structured input activities. Explicit information is simply the explicit explanation of the target forms being taught. Here, the learners are told about the interrelationship between the form and its function (VanPatten, 1996). Next, learners are engaged with structured-input activities making them focus on the target forms attentively. Such activities involve both referential and affective tasks. In doing referential tasks, learners are guided to pay attention to the target form and process it so that they can complete the task at hand.

On the other hand, affective activities ask learners to express their opinions to choose those options that contain the targeted L2 forms. Unlike referential tasks, this kind of activity does not require right or wrong answers. These two types of structured input activities help reinforce learners’ knowledge of the target forms and improve their knowledge of form-meaning connections. VanPatten and Cadierno (1993) argue that explicit input based instruction assist learners to process input correctly and equips learners with the ability to produce the required output outcomes adroitly. Overall, the results of the studies reviewed above confirming that altering learners’ ways of processing input based on explicit instruction can positively influence affect the developing interlanguage system.

Several studies have evaluated and highlighted the limitations and inadequate effectiveness of EFL Course books for teaching L2 speech acts (e.g., Boxer & Pickering, 1995; Delen & Tavil, 2010; Grant & Starks, 2001; Ishihara & Cohen, 2010). The results of these studies using content analysis totally reflect that L2 learners cannot improve their pragmatic competence because the pragmatic information and frequency by which targeted speech acts are presented are very low (Vellenga, 2004).

Daskalos and Ling (2005) use several criteria for describing non-authentic input. First, non-authentic materials characteristically use a kind of language content which presents a prefabricated, artificial language. Second, these materials contain a simplified form of language which reflects an unrealistic picture of life realities. Finally, non-authentic content ignores and eliminates L2 socio- cultural norms and values to reduce the complexities that can otherwise slow down the pace of teaching in language classrooms. Widdowson (1978) suggests that without creating opportunities for social interaction, teaching materials cannot be regarded as authentic.

Authentic language input has also been considered a major source of data for language learners to develop and improve their knowledge of the target language (Van Patten & Benati, 2010). Language learning processes are dependent upon the availability of appropriate input because they promote language learning and have the potential to be utilized as sources of authentic language input for foreign language learning. According to Taylor (1994), authentic language materials are those materials in English which have not been specifically designed and produced for the purpose of language teaching. Likewise, Nunan (1999) defines authentic language materials as spoken or written forms of language content that manifest real instances of communication and that are not specifically produced for teaching languages. The features of real life, authentic input can be found in such resources as video clips and short stories, among many others.

Notably, it has been demonstrated that video clips are functionally effective sources of authentic language input (Alver-Yücel, 2017). Among various sources advocated for the teaching of speech acts, video clips have been considered very useful tools for language instructors because they have an authentic nature. The reason is that video clips provide language learners with opportunities by which they can experience the real language uttered in authentic settings (Stempleski, 1992). The spoken language of video clips often includes various life-like and interactional features (e.g., accents, dialects, etc.) that can enhance language learners’ awareness of the connection between forms and functions (Kaiser, 2011).

The review of the related literature on the use of video clips in teaching speech acts reveals that, as a source of authentic language input, video clips are pedagogically valuable and motivational (Alver-Yücel, 2017; Feng, 2016; Shirazi et al., 2016).

Evaluating the effectiveness of consciousness-raising video-driven prompts on the development of two-commonly used speech acts of apology and request, Derakhshan and Eslami (2015) have shown that upper-intermediate Persian EFL learners who watched video clips could utilize apology and request speech acts compared to the participants who had only been exposed to the course book materials. In another study conducted by Abrams (2014), German beginner level EFL learners in the experimental group,who watched and analyzed the contented presented through the video clips during a seven-session period, were able to appropriately use the speech act of apology accurately observing the felicity conditions and sociopragmatic features underlying it .

Likewise, Derakhshan and Arabmofrad (2018) did a study on the effect of video -based instruction on the pragmatic comprehension of speech acts like apology, request, and refusal among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Using 20 video clips for each speech act taken from different episodes of Friends and Seinfeld sitcoms and Annie Hall movie, they found out that the video mediated instruction treatment groups outperformed the samples who were only exposed to form-search or interactive translation activities. It was argued that video clips provided the participants in the treatment groups with explicit sociopragmatic awareness-raising facilitating the appropriate use of speech acts under scrutiny.

In 2013, Bagherkazemi published a paper in which he examined the effects of the immediate and delayed, explicit video-driven instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ oral production of English speech acts including apologies, requests, and refusals. The experimental groups were exposed to video input presentation, a video transcript-based speech act recognition, and a reasoning task. The analysis of the results obtained from a twenty four item Discourse Completion Test (DCT) which is a data collection instrument commonly used in linguistic and pragmatic research to elicit particular speech acts. This method of data collection involves a one-sided role play in which a participant will read a number of situational prompts carefully before providing appropriate responses to them. The results on the pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test obtained by DCT revealed that although there was no significant improvement from the immediate to delayed post-test conditions, the participants in the experimental groups demonstrated a higher ability in producing the targeted speech acts compared to those in the control group.

In a different study, investigating the efficacy of explicit versus implicit instruction on learners’ knowledge and ability of using request strategies, Alco´n Soler (2005) employed different episodes of the TV series Stargate as input for the treatment group. While direct awareness-raising tasks and direct feedback were used for the explicit group, the implicit group received implicit instruction on typographical tools of request strategies as well as a set of implicit awareness-raising tasks. The findings demonstrated that both experimental groups emulated the control group which was taught by the conventional method of present, practice, produce (PPP). However, it was the explicit group which showed better results than the implicit group.

These empirical studies are only typical examples of a considerably large body of research on video based instruction of L2 speech acts. Stempleski (1987) maintains that rich and exciting video clips can serve as appropriate authentic materials for EFL classes. In fact, authentic video materials, especially those which represent life events in a non-English language Teaching (ELT) environment, can result in the learners’ sociopragmatic consciousness raising and enhance their awareness of unique conditions that govern the production of speech acts in different communicative settings.

In addition to video clips, Short stories as a typical literary genre are another type of authentic input often used in language teaching contexts because they represent real life events and manifest the true beliefs of the targeted cultures. According to Ghosn (1998), in comparison with non-literary texts, literature is considered a very rich source of authentic input. Essentially, learners’ interaction with real events and characters is a crucial motivational asset which encourages them to create a meaningful context for new types of learning.

Using authentic materials in general and short stories in particular, specifically in English language classes, has a positive impact on students’ performance (Butler, 2002; Goldberg, 2006; Waters, 2009). The proponents of using short stories in language classes (e.g., Brumfit & Carter, 1986, as cited in Pathan, 2012) suggest that incorporation of such materials as pedagogical tools offers several advantages. It is generally argued that integrating short stories into language classes may improve students’ knowledge and skills of using L2 speech acts more efficiently. Various studies have also attested that reading short stories has a positive effect on the learners’ use of speech acts because reading such texts can “nurture[s] all the other language skills” (Alderson, 1984, as cited in Saidi & Al-Mahrooqi, 2012, p. 25).

There are several advantages to the use of short stories for teaching speech acts. First and foremost, short stories provide learners with a positive motive to engage in meaningful conversations in L2 contexts because they are “intrinsically more interesting” (Peacock, 1997, p. 144). Second, good and true short stories not only absorb learners’ attention and increase their focus on task, but they also provide them with insight into the target culture by helping them gain a real knowledge of the world (Goldberg, 2006). Third, short stories as authentic materials enable learners to mentally observe the way lexical items are used in real contexts, allowing learners “to gain an understanding of how words lexis function in real-world environments” (Willis, 1993, as cited in Friedman, 2011, p. 126). Fourth, short stories expose students to “the formation and function of sentences, the diversity of possible structures and the different ways of linking ideas” (Collie & Slater, 1987, as cited in Rashid et al., 2010, p. 89). As Butler (2002) states, short stories include authentic models that help students use various words and structures naturally and improve their pragmatic competence considerably. Finally, students’ interaction with the short stories provides good opportunities to enhance their communication skills (Tomlinson, 2004, as cited in Butler, 2002). From a theoretical viewpoint, therefore, using short stories in language teaching contexts is very advantageous for it offers specific merits like authentic input, cultural enrichment, language advancement, and personal growth (Collie & Slater, 1991).

Different studies addressing the pedagogical utility of short stories in EFL classes have produced interesting results proving their methodological benefits (Cameron, 2001; Ghosn, 2002; Pardede, 2011; Shrestah, 2008). These writers have tried to fathom out the instructional efficacy of short stories through carefully planned research designs. However, the main goal of these studies has merely been focused on proving the authentic nature of short stories. In fact, these studies follow an evaluative approach in which content analysis is utilized to identify the number and frequency of different speech acts used in various short stories (Altikriti, 2011; Mudzakir, 2013; Santoso et al., 2014; Susanti et al., 2019). However, to the best of our knowledge, far too little attention has been paid to the use of short stories for teaching speech acts so far. Abu Zahra and Farrah (2016), investigating 135 male and female university students’ attitudes on the use of speech acts in EFL classes using a questioner, showed that these students held positive attitudes towards using short stories in language classrooms because of their realistic nature. Notably, using short stories for teaching speech acts is quite a new trend exclusively used for demonstrating the extent to which short stories are a suitable medium for teaching speech acts.

The paradigm shift from traditional, structural based language teaching methodologies to teaching approaches with a communicative nature where functions of the language are more prominent than its forms was motivated and triggered by the ever-growing need for effective communication skills in English and a considerable demand for English teaching around the world. As such, various forms of teaching styles have been created ranging from formal instruction, travel, and study abroad, to the media and the Internet. This worldwide demand for English has greatly increased the number of efforts regarding quality language teaching as well as language teaching materials and resources. Consequently, teachers as facilitators and avant garde practitioners do their best to help language learners to master communicative aspects of language use in everyday life (Richards, 2005).

Clearly, natural activation of appropriate communicative behaviors in different sociocultural interactions is monitored by the learners’ sociopragmatic competence. In other words, the use of language in certain contexts is mainly linked with language appropriateness, which “depends on sufficient linguistic and pragmatic knowledge, as well as on overall strategic capacities to implement the knowledge in communicative interaction” (Taguchi, 2006, p. 514). In EFL classes, therefore, providing information about the context of the target language, such as sociocultural norms and values, should be considered a central task throughout the language teaching and learning processes (Leung, 2005).

As a result, EFL/ESL teachers should be aware of different aspects of perlocutionary effects including consciousness rising, knowledge building, and productive development. As Fujimori and Houck (2004) maintain, the goals of teaching speech acts in the classroom should be focused on activities that can cater to the actualization of the aspects determining the goals of communication. Therefore, teaching methods utilizing short stories and/or video clips are useful tools of consciousness rising since they expose learners to authentic language helping EFL learners’ development of the related pragmatic knowledge for appropriate language use.

Various studies investigating the pedagogical utility of explicit instruction of speech acts have been carried out utilizing simulated real life methods of presenting content in carefully designed communication settings among others (Bardovi-Harlig, 1996; Kasper & Rose, 2002; Martínez-Flor & Fukuya, 2005; Trosborg, 2003). As an important part of pragmatics, a growing body of research addressing speech acts investigates language learners’ pragmatic competence which stands at the heart of our understanding of the way successful communication works. Pragmatics, as Woodfield (2008) points out, is the knowledge of appropriate use of speech acts which plays a pivotal role in language teaching and learning processes. These studies have been focused on the explicit instruction of speech acts highlighting the problems that hinder natural communication in L2 situations.

In a study conducted by Takahashi (2001), Japanese university students were exposed to different types of input enhancement including meaning-focused, form-search, form comparison, and explicit teaching for learning the proper production of request speech acts. To assess the production of request speech acts, a researcher developed Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was used as pre- and post-tests. The findings revealed that explicit teaching of request speech acts could help learners to produce target-like utterances in the targeted L2 situations. In addition, the learners who received the instruction of form comparison outperformed those who underwent form-search and meaning-focused treatments. It was strongly recommended that input enhancement techniques can be positively used by language teachers to motivate language students to scrutinize the functional aspects of speech act requests.

Schauer (2009) investigated how German learners’ studying abroad could raise their pragmatic awareness in producing apology speech acts. The results demonstrated that these students were able to eventually detect the felicity conditions underlying apology utterances. In other words, the findings indicated how real life authentic situations positively influence learners’ awareness of pragmatic conventions materializing the apologies.

Similarly, in an Arabic language context, Jebahi (2011) explored the influence of apology strategies on students’ production of apology speech acts. One hundred Arab university students formed the participants of the study and DCT was used as the main instrument to elicit apology strategies from them. It was reported that the use of speech acts and apology strategies were greatly influenced by the learners’ native cultures. It was argued that the participants’ use of apologies after the treatment became more similar to L2 speakers; however, the frequency of use was different because of L1 cultural influences such as the addressee’s age, social position, and power.

In a different but related study, Allami (2012) did a study to identify the strategies Iranian EFL learners employ to produce offering speech acts. Using a DCT as an instrument for collecting the required data from 36 target situations, he found out that the participants had different preferences and strategies in using different types of speech acts. It was also reported that the variables like relative power, social distance, type of the offer, gender, and age, did not significantly contribute to the learners’ use of such strategies.

In a non-experimental research to investigate whether bilingualism could affect the Turkish/Persian EFL learners’ pragmatic awareness and development, Rahimi Domakani et al. (2013) used a standard Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) to measure the participants’ oral production in ten communicative situations involving the request speech acts. The analysis of the data revealed that bilingual learners’ ability in producing the targeted tasks was superior to that of monolingual learners; however, neither of the two groups showed any superiority in their evaluation, justification, politeness-dependent reasons, and realization strategies concerning the use of English request acts. The researchers further argued that cultural awareness, literary skills, and sufficient pragmatic input should be seriously taken into consideration in order to raise the learners’ pragmatic awareness of speech acts.

In 2014, Hashemian applied a comparative approach to examine the use of request speech acts by Canadian native speakers (NSs) and Iranian nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English in order to measure the significance of the situational factors such as distance, power, context familiarity, and L1 possible influence on the use of request speech acts. Four groups took part in the study including Canadian NSs of English, Persian NNSs, Iranian hotel staff, and Iranian English learners. DCT was used to collect the data within 12 situations and was translated into Persian language for better elicitation of request by the Persian NNSs. The results revealed that the participants’ cultural norms affected the use of request speech acts in that the Persian groups used more direct and positively oriented politeness whereas the Canadian participants employed indirect and negatively oriented request making strategies.

In 2015, in a different study, Ebadi and Seidi aimed at investigating the role of pragmatic speech acts like requests, apologies, suggestions, refusals, and invitations in the learners’ communicative competence. The research purpose was to explore the interaction between gender and Iranian students’ preference for using request speech acts. Thirty four English language students learning English in a language institute participated in the study. For collecting the required data, a proficiency test and DCT were used with 15 request conditions translated into Persian. The findings indicated that gender and the level of linguistic proficiency level could partial out learners’ ability in selecting request speech acts strategies. Notably, unlike female learners who preferred to use indirect requests, the male learners liked to use more direct strategies. In addition, the issue of directness in using request speech acts was negatively correlated with the learners’ linguistic proficiency.

Adopting a comparative approach, Allami and Boustani (2017) also investigated the use of suggestion speech act among Iranian EFL students and Native Americans. The main objective was to determine how participants differed from one another in terms of the application of suggestion semantic formulae, the employment of appropriate supportive moves, as well as polite and impolite mannerism. For this purpose, 60 EFL participants and 10 native American speakers were asked to select the suggestion strategies on a DCT whereby the situations were designed in terms of different power statuses (i.e., lower, equal, and higher,) and social distances (i.e. strange and intimate). The results revealed that the Iranian learners and American speakers’ used different semantic formulae, attitudinal appropriateness, and (im) politeness mannerism in applying the suggestion speech act.

Likewise, Cuza and Czerwionka (2017), used a computerized oral DCT to probe the use of request speech acts produced by English-speaking learners of Spanish and native English speakers. The analysis of the data indicated that personal deictic orientation and degree of directness were had a higher frequency in certain contexts compared with the others.

Clearly, it was observed that many theories have been proposed to explain how speech acts may be taught in EFL classrooms. Although the literature covers a wide variety of such theories, this study focused on those major themes which had an important part in teaching and learning of speech acts. These themes were: explicit instruction, consciousness raising, sociopragmatic knowledge improvement, and the type of input and their effect on learners’ oral production of speech acts. Although the literature presents these themes in a variety of contexts, this paper will primarily focus on their application in speech act learning.

The study of both theoretical and empirical views mentioned above reflect the significance of studying speech acts in different communicative contexts. However, it seems that teaching speech acts to upper intermediate proficiency learners has not sufficiently been taken into consideration in terms of presenting the teaching content through short stories and video clips as productive tools with an authentic nature to help learners enhance their pragmatic knowledge. Moreover, this study employed a wide range of speech acts such as disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking which are very common among different languages to assess the targeted learners’ awareness of the felicity conditions underlying the use of speech acts that were not apparently investigated via explicit instruction. In the next section, the specific techniques adopted in the research process for collecting, assembling, and evaluating the relevant information on the major variables in this research, will be explained.

3. Methodology

3.1. Design

One of the subcategories of true experimental design; namely, pretest—posttest control group design was employed in order to test and evaluate the targeted hypotheses. While the participants in the two experimental samples were exposed to direct instruction of pre-specified speech acts presented through short stories and video clips respectively, those in the control group were taught by pre- selected, printed texts using the traditional present, practice, and produce (PPP) approach. A researcher developed Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was then utilized as the pre-test and post-test in order to determine whether EFL learners’ Oral production of target speech acts had improved as the result of the treatment methods under scrutiny.

3.2. Participants

Using a Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT), 75 participants with an upper intermediate English proficiency were selected from the target population of 230 students learning English during a summer semester at Isfahan University Language Center, which is an academic establishment offering different services in computer and language programs from 4 to 9 p.m. To set the ground for testing the specified hypotheses, the participants were divided into two experimental groups and one control group, 25 each. While one of the experimental samples received its instruction through short stories, the other was exposed to video clips. The control group, however, acted as the no treatment sample receiving their instruction of the same speech acts by carefully selected print passages.

Table 1 demonstrates the demographic background data of the experimental and control groups reflecting such factors as the number of participants, their gender, native language and proficiency level. As can be seen, the age range of the participants, both male and female, was between 18 and 25; their native language was Persian, and their language proficiency was at an upper intermediate level.

Table 1. Demographic background of the participants

No. of Students	75
Gender	39 Females & 36 Males
Native Language	Persian
Level of Proficiency	Upper Intermediate

Concerning the ethical issues in this study, a word of caution deems necessary here. According to the guidelines provided by the university institutional review board (IRB), the research conducted by non-faculty members and part time English teachers, the necessary ethical considerations dictated by the board are not generally required. However, the researchers had a short debriefing session with the center training supervisor for planning a collaborative framework on how the three classes related to the study should be conducted. Besides, the participants in the sample groups were informed about the confidentiality of their personal information prior to launching the research project.

3.3. Instruments

Several instruments were used to assess the predicted outcomes of the study. First, a QOPT (Allan, 2004) was utilized to ensure the homogeneity of the selected samples and their language proficiency level. This test consists of 60 questions aiming to examine the students’ knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and reading. Only those at the upper intermediate level were selected from the target population. Second, an Oral English Discourse Completion Test was designed and used as the pre-test in order to determine the participants’ knowledge of targeted speech acts in the beginning of the treatment. The students were instructed to read the sample situations carefully before providing a relevant answer to each situation orally. The test comprised a total number of 24 situations focusing on five types of speech acts most commonly used across all languages and cultures; namely, disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking. To determine the students’ knowledge of speech acts, four raters rated their responses using a four point appropriacy scale adopted from Ebsworth et al. (1995).

Third, to avoid any likelihood of practice effect, the communicative situations in the pretest were reshuffled and used as the posttest. This test was administered after the treatment, which lasted for twelve sessions held on alternate days of the week for both experimental and control groups. The respondents’ oral productions of targeted speech acts based on the contrived situations were once again rated based on the same procedures utilized for the pretest.

3.4. Procedures

Specific steps were taken to collect the required data for testing the hypotheses under scrutiny. Initially, after ensuring the homogeneity of the learners by administering QOPT, only 75 students at the upper intermediate level were selected and randomly divided into three equal groups serving as treatment and control group samples. Subsequently, for measuring the reliability and validity of the Oral English Discourse Completion Test serving as pre and post-tests, a pilot study was conducted whereby EFL students who possessed the same characteristics as those participating in the study responded to the prompts of the test. The average pool of the ratings provided by the four raters for each student’s response on the four point appropriacy scale was considered for estimating the reliability of the instrument.

As such, Guttman Split-Half Coefficient was used and the estimated reliability value acceptable and was equal to 0.83. The validity of the test, however, was consulted and confirmed with three experts of the field. It is also noteworthy to mention that that the pre- and post-test reliability coefficients were calculated through the same procedures as the pilot study and the results were 0.79 and 0.84, respectively. It is interesting to note that for keeping the secondary variables in the study constant and neutralizing any possible confounding effects, which are not of primary interest, the time interval for teaching speech acts was 12 for all groups and the same teacher taught them on various days of the week.

One of the experimental groups was provided with selected short stories to develop their knowledge of pre-specified target speech acts within 12 sessions. The selected short stories included: “Acme” by Colin Galsworthy, “Post Haste” by Colin Howard, and “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wild, which were supplemented with related exercises reflecting the speech acts under investigation.

Every short story was covered in four sessions whereby the teacher tried to direct the participants’ attention to the situations in which speech acts were used by the characters in the short story. The meaning of each utterance was explained and several other similar examples were used to provide adequate input for the learners. Students were also encouraged to go through the short stories to discover and identify speech acts. Any ambiguities in the meaning of the sentences in the short story were clarified by the teacher. In the end, the teacher presented additional situations and asked the students to produce the target speech acts best fitting the socio-cultural contexts dominating them. This encouraged the learners discuss the situations and the related speech acts orally. Teacher’s support was also provided in order to monitor their classroom discussions.

The second experimental group received direct instruction of speech acts by being exposed to two carefully selected video clips containing various examples of the focused speech acts. The purpose was to expose the learners to different real-life contexts in which speech acts were used by native speakers. These video clips were extracted from two movies; namely, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy directed by Garth Jennings and The Happy Prince directed by Rupert Everett. Six sessions were used for teaching target speech acts related to each movie. The movies, serving as the medium of instruction, were practiced and explained by the teacher to help learners figure out the meaning of the speech acts as well as their functions. Like the first experimental group, the teacher identified and described the speech acts used in the movies. Then, the students were asked to produce their own utterances imitating the teacher’s modeling. The teacher also tried to evaluate the students’ understanding of speech acts by asking them relevant questions. Additionally, students were encouraged to share their thoughts concerning the use of speech acts in different episodes of the video clips. By providing more supplementary situations, the students were provided with further opportunities to produce speech acts and discuss them with their peers as well as the teacher.

Obviously, no short stories or video clips were used for the students in the control group. They were only given six reading passages containing the target speech acts. Each reading passage was covered in two sessions. Again, the teacher explained the target speech acts and their functions. Subsequently, the teacher provided specific examples for each speech act on the whiteboard, and then students were asked to practice the target speech acts based on the situations written on the board. There were also discussions among the students on the use of each speech act regarding the given situations, and the teacher provided corrective feedback when necessary. In short, the control group only received deductive intervention-that is, the students were only exposed to explicit definition of each speech act along with its specific functions.

After the treatment, a period of twelve sessions, the students in all groups took an alternate form of the same Oral Discourse Completion Test, which was previously used as the pre-test. The objective was to examine the effect of various methods of instruction on EFL learners’ development of oral production of speech acts. Ultimately, the obtained data was carefully analyzed by using such relevant statistical techniques as Condescriptive task, Independent samples t-test and the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), the details of which will be demonstrated in the next section.

4. Results

The pages that follow will indicate the results of the study associated with the predicted outcomes. The conditions defined by the selected research design could be appropriately estimated by using a statistical technique known as analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The technique is a general linear model integrating the computing mechanisms of both ANOVA and regression analyses. Technically, ANCOVA estimates to what extent the means of a particular dependent variable are equal across different levels of a categorical independent variable or a treatment, while statistically controlling for the effects of other continuous variables called covariates that are not really important. In other words, ANCOVA decomposes the variance in the expected outcomes into the variance explained by the treatment and the residual variance. Notably, the technique is based on several assumptions including the normal distribution of data, the homogeneity of groups, and the equality of variance values across the groups. These conditions necessitate the application of particular statistical tools for testing the pre-specified predictions of the study. As such, relevant normalcy tests were first applied to estimate the normality of the distributions of the data regarding the samples participating in the study. The test, also known as normality test, is usually utilized to examine the extent to which a data set is well-modeled by a normal distribution and to determine how likely it is for a random variable underlying the samples data to be normally distributed.

As shown in Table 2, the sample participants—henceforth labeled as Experimental Group 1 (EG1), Experimental Group 2 (EG2), and Control Group (CG)—enjoyed a normal distribution both on pre and posttests respectively.

Table 2. Test of normal distribution for EG1, EG2, and CG samples

	Group	Kolmogorov-Smirnov^a			Shapiro-Wilk
		Statistic	df	Sig.	Statistic	df	Sig.
Pre.EG1	Exprimental	.161	25	.094	.956	25	.345
	Control	.092	25	.200*	.979	25	.862
Post.EG1	Exprimental	.118	25	.200*	.948	25	.223
	Control	.116	25	.200*	.953	25	.293
Pre.EG2	Exprimental	.114	25	.200*	.958	25	.371
	Control	.092	25	.200*	.979	25	.862
Post.EG2	Exprimental	.122	25	.200*	.968	25	.601
	Control	.116	25	.200*	.953	25	.293

As it can be seen from the table, Kolmogorov-Simorov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used to determine the normal distribution of data. In measuring the normalcy of distributions, these tests complement each other simply because the Shapiro-Wilk test is a specific test for computing normality, while the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is more general, but it tends to confirm a false hypothesis when it is actually true. Consequently, it is logical to use them together to be on the safe side. Clearly, the p-values related to different samples participating in the study were all above the alpha level (0.05) on both pre and posttests indicating the normal distributions of the samples data.

Regarding the first research question, which was concerned with the effect of short stories on upper intermediate EFL students’ oral production of speech acts, a Condescriptive task was utilized to find the descriptive statistics for the samples involved in the study. The task simply provides the average mean and standard of deviation values for the tree samples involved in the study. Table 3 demonstrates the mean differences between control and experimental groups on the pretest.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for EG1, EG2, and CG on pretest

	Group	N	Mean	Std. Deviation
Pre.EG1	Exprimental	25	80.6000	3.91578
	Control	25	80.6400	3.80657
Pre.EG2	Exprimental	25	78.8400	4.66976
	Control	25	80.6400	3.80657

As shown in Table 3, except for the experimental group undergoing video clips treatment with an average value of 78.84, the other samples had a similar performance profile on the pretest prior to the treatment phase.

Subsequently, running an independent samples t-test which is an inferential statistical test whose main purpose is to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between the means in two or more unrelated groups. This test further attested the equality of variance values across groups satisfying the presence of another assumption necessary in applying ANCOVA.

As demonstrated by Table 4, the experimental groups (i.e., EG1 and EG2) had equal variance values reflecting similar average performance profiles since their alpha levels (0.971 and 0.142) were far above the 0.05 p value.

Table 4. Independent samples t-test

		t-test for Equality of Means
		t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
					Lower	Upper
Pre.EG1	Equal variances assumed	−.037	48	.971	−2.23605	2.15605
	Equal variances not assumed	−.037	47.962	.971	−2.23609	2.15609
Pre.EG2	Equal variances assumed	−1.494	48	.142	−4.22268	.62268
	Equal variances not assumed	−1.494	46.126	.142	−4.22523	.62523

To compare the participants exposed to short stories (EG1) and their performance on the posttest with those in the control group, a new descriptive statistics was obtained. Table 5 presents the comparison between the experimental data related to students’ treated by short stories and that of the control group on discourse completion test (DCT) administered as posttest.

Table 5. Descriptive statistics for EG1 on posttest

Dependent Variable: Post.EG1
Group	Mean	Std. Deviation	N
Experimental	84.3600	4.07104	25
Control	80.8400	3.84794	25
Total	82.6000	4.30472	50

It is clearly observed from the data in Table 5 that the students receiving short story treatment had a much higher average mean value (X = 84.36) compared to those in the control group (X = 80.84).

To measure how meaningful such a difference is, after running a Leven’s test, which is an inferential statistic used to evaluate the equality of variances for a given variable calculated for two or more groups. Differently stated, it assesses the assumption that the variances of the populations from which the study samples are drawn are equal. Table 6 indicates the information concerning the Leven’s test.

Table 6. Levene’s test of equality of error variances for EG1

Dependent Variable: Post.EG1
F	df1	df2	Sig.
.552	1	48	.461

According to the results of the Levene’s test of equality of variances, as another assumption underlying ANCOVA, the EG1 and CG groups were homogeneous: F (1, 48) = 0.552, at P = 0.461.

Now the conditions were ready for running an ANCOVA test in order to determine the effect of short stories on the oral production of target speech acts by the upper intermediate learners (i.e., the EG1 sample). Table 7 below illustrates the pedagogical influence of short stories on the learners’ oral production of the targeted speech acts.

Table 7. Tests of between-subjects effects

Dependent Variable: Post.EG1
Source	Type III Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.	Partial Eta Squared
Corrected Model	664.840^a	2	332.420	64.253	.000	.732
Intercept	23.263	1	23.263	4.496	.039	.087
Pre.EG1	509.960	1	509.960	98.570	.000	.677
Group	157.861	1	157.861	30.513	.000	.394
Error	243.160	47	5.174
Total	342,046.000	50
Corrected Total	908.000	49

a. R Squared = .732 (Adjusted R Squared = .721)

It can be observed from the data in Table 7 that the between subjects effects concerning the use of short stories was significant: F (1, 47) = 30.513 at p = 0. 000. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the application of short stories greatly enhanced the upper intermediate learners’ (EG1) proficiency in using speech acts orally.

Alternatively, for answering the second research question, which was concerned with the effect of using video clips on upper intermediate language learners’ oral production of speech acts, the same statistical procedures used for testing the first research question were employed once again. First, a Condescriptive task was run to compare the average mean values of the EG2 participants on the posttest.

Table 8 provides the performance profile of the learners exposed to video clips with those in the non-treatment group. It is clearly observed that there is a considerable difference between EG2 and control group participants. While the mean value for the experimental group is 85.96 that of the control group is 80.84.

Table 8. Descriptive statistic for EG2 on posttest

Dependent Variable: Post.EG2
Group	Mean	Std. Deviation	N
Experimental	85.9600	4.76515	25
Control	80.8400	3.84794	25
Total	83.4000	5.00612	50

Second, Leven’s test of equality of variances was applied to find whether the error variances for the dependent variable is equal across groups. As shown in Table 9, the EG2 and CG groups were homogeneous: F (1, 48) = 3.230, at P = 0.079.

Table 9. Levene’s test of equality of error variances

Dependent Variable: Post.EG2
F	df1	df2	Sig.
3.230	1	48	.079

After calculating the homogeneity assumption required for estimating the effect of using video clips on the learners’ oral production of speech acts, an ANCOVA test was applied for the second time. Table 10 illustrates the tests of between subject effects for answering the second question of this study.

Table 10. Tests of between-subjects effects

Dependent Variable: Post.EG2
Source	Type III Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.	Partial Eta Squared
Corrected Model	913.555^a	2	456.777	68.274	.000	.744
Intercept	44.295	1	44.295	6.621	.013	.123
Pre.EG2	585.875	1	585.875	87.571	.000	.651
Group	519.706	1	519.706	77.680	.000	.623
Error	314.445	47	6.690
Total	349,006.000	50
Corrected Total	1228.000	49

a. R Squared = .744 (Adjusted R Squared = .733)

According to the data in Table 10, the between subject effects concerning the use of video clips was statistically meaningful: F (1, 47) = 77.680 at p = 0. 000. Therefore, it can be stated that the application of video clips had greatly enhanced upper intermediate learners’ oral production of the targeted speech acts. Comparing the data in Table 7 with those of Table 10 yielded interesting results revealing that video clips were, from a pedagogical viewpoint, more effective than short stories in improving the oral production of speech acts by upper intermediate EFL students.

To further determine the credibility of the statistically significant differences among the different input- based instructional modes of teaching speech acts, estimating the effect size was also necessary. This statistical concept provides a simple way of quantifying the difference between the groups under investigation emphasizing the strength of the relationship between two independent and dependent variables on a numeric scale. In fact, a greater effect size indicates a greater difference between the two variables.

It is clearly seen from Tables 7 and 10 that partial Eta squared values for short story and video clip variables are equal to 0.723 and 0.744 respectively. These Eta values demonstrate that the strength between the independent and dependent variables is statistically significant. However, the strength of effect size for video clips is higher than that of the short story.

5. Discussion

This study set out with the aim of assessing the role of explicit instruction and the importance of input in the teaching and learning of English speech acts. The results of this comparative study revealed that compared to traditional printed texts, short stories and video clips can be considered better alternatives for teaching speech acts because they enjoy a higher degree of authenticity in reflecting life-like, communicative events happening in the world. Since speech acts are characteristically a vital part of communication process in our daily lives, this study sought to investigate the effect of using short stories versus video clips on upper intermediate students’ oral production of speech acts such as disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking, which are more commonly used across different cultures.

It was found that short stories and video clips had a greater bearing on providing an authentic real-life learning environment for the oral production of the speech acts under scrutiny. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that pragmatic aspects of oral encounters are teachable (Ishihara & Cohen, 2010). In other words, the medium of instruction seems to play an integral role in learners’ acquisition of speech acts (Webb, 2013). Essentially, the results confirmed that for the developing the knowledge of using speech acts, language teachers’ main focus should be on the appropriacy of the contexts whereby the targeted teaching content is presented. Differently stated, the context of interaction materialized by proper input can provide interlocutors with practical opportunities by which they can recognize the illocutionary forces of the utterances they produce for exploiting various speech acts.

Notably, the most interesting finding of the study was related to the fact that the type of input is a prerequisite to the particular needs and personal interests of language learners, because the explicit instruction of the teaching materials with an authentic nature can satisfy one of the most crucial language learning needs which can help language learners experience instances of language used by native speakers of English. For one thing, authentic language input brings language learners closer to verbal communications that instantiate the exact replica of the actual speech produced by users of that language. For instance, authentic materials are a promising alternative in preparing the students to meet words and constructions that they will probably never see in contrived, non-authentic texts. Another thing is that authentic input content enable learners to understand and use English in real life situations. Nunan (1999) maintains that the use of authentic sources can enhance the learners’ scope of attention helping them use language more meaningfully such materials are not pragmatically at odds with the L2 expectations and norms of behavior.

Another equally important finding of the present study was the facilitative role of explicit instruction in teaching L2 pragmatic conventions and rules of language use to foreign language learners helping them take the best advantage of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic resources required for producing speech acts. It was further found out that the language learning settings especially in EFL classrooms require carefully selected teaching methods of input presentation which necessitates teacher’s pedagogical intervention to enhance learners’ consciousness raising in regard with the plethora factors domination L2 interactional processes (El Okda, 2011). In point of fact, pragmatic intervention employing explicit methods of instruction seems to be effective particularly directing language leaners’ noticing to the target pragmatic features facilitating the use of speech acts in different communicative events.

In addition, the findings related to the third research question revealed that the traditional present, practice, produce(PPP) approach relying merely on non-authentic, printed texts lacks the vital characteristics necessary for teaching speech acts in comparison with authentic, input- mediated instructional methods using short stories and video clips. Berado (2006) has identified several factors for appropriate selection of content; namely, suitability, exploitability, readability, and input authenticity. These characteristics, which enhance learning motivation and improve learners’ consciousness raising and noticing, are practically absent in the majority of English course books, especially those used for teaching L2 speech acts and conversation skills.

The results of the present study corroborate the findings of a great deal of previous works in the field. To begin with, the results of the current study were in line with the studies conducted by Rahimi Domakani et al. (2013), Jebahi (2011), and Cuza and Czerwionka (2017) emphasizing the need for further related studies concerning the learners’ sociopragmatic development in general and the production of different speech acts in particular. Additionally, the results presented by this study were also consistent with the works accomplished by other researchers such as Allami (2012), Ebadi and Seidi (2015), and Allami and Boustani (2017) who sought to investigate the EFL learners’ development of speech acts by using appropriate discourse completion (DCT) tests.

The results obtained in the current research are also in line with other studies focusing on the explicit instruction of speech acts via video driven input. As such, the findings concerning the use of video clips supported the results of the similar studies reported by other writers (e.g., Abrams, 2014; Alcon Soler, 2015; Bagherkazemi, 2014; Derakhshan & Arabmofrad, 2018; Derakhshan & Eslami, 2015; Shirazi et al., 2016). One possible explanation for such consistency might be the fact that video clips provide a psychological capital that triggers positive reactions among L2 learners by fostering self-awareness and facilitating deliberately reflective practices (Feng, 2016).

However, what distinguishes the findings of this study from other related research is due to its unique way of utilizing short stories for teaching speech acts. The main reason is that short stories have often been used as a discourse analytic tool and as a medium for identifying speech acts rather than as an effective input for teaching them (Cameron, 2001; Ghosn, 2002; Pardede, 2011; Shrestah, 2008). However, as Zahra and Farrah (2016) demonstrated in their study, EFL learners hold a positive opinion about the use of short stories for teaching speech acts.

All in all, it can be said the findings of the current study seem to be generally consistent with the ideas of those writers which greatly emphasize the significance of developing sociopragmatic competence through explicit instruction, conscious raising, and noticing in promoting EFL learners’ oral production of speech acts (Ishihara & Cohen, 2010; VanPatten, 2007).

6. Conclusion

This study has given an account of and the reasons for the widespread use of explicit instruction in enhancing language learners’ sociopragmatic knowledge. By adopting an experimental design, it aimed to quantitatively investigate the improvement of upper intermediate EFL learners’ oral production of speech acts through using short stories and video clips. It was demonstrated that there was a significant improvement in the oral production of speech acts like disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking by utilizing an explicit instruction approach involving short stories and video clips. It was revealed that the experimental groups benefiting from authentic input offered by short stories and video clips were comparatively better than the control group which was treated by conventional reading passages enjoying lower degrees of input authenticity.

Furthermore, the evidence from this study suggests that employing explicit instruction and providing more life-like contexts have a great bearing on the oral production of speech acts. Taken together, these results have important implications for EFL teachers and second and foreign language course designers who play a pivotal role in advancing the quality of language instruction. In general, therefore, it seems that the results can also be beneficial for the language learners who might feel that learning speech acts might be far-fetched and boring. Consequently, the current findings add to a growing body of literature that help our understanding of the relationship between pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge.

A number of caveats need to be noted regarding the present study. Firstly, the current study only focused on specific variables such as input authenticity and explicit instruction. It is recommended that further experimental investigations are needed to estimate the full range of factors influencing the development of sociopragmatic knowledge. Secondly, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to similar L2 teaching contexts. Thirdly, future trials should also employ a wider sampling regimen involving various nationality groups and cultures. Finally, the findings cannot be extrapolated to all students with different proficiency levels. This study involved only upper intermediate learners. For moving the present debate forward, samples with different language proficiency levels need to be considered in future studies. Therefore, as things stand right now, sociopragmatic knowledge is an intriguing issue with a plethora interwoven factors requiring further research by highly professional experts who relentlessly pursue a perpetual journey towards truth and enlightment.

correction

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Afroozeh Heidari

Afroozeh Heidari is a Ph.D. candidate in TEFL at the Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch. Her main research interests include sociolinguistics, foreign/second language teaching and learning and e-learning.

Hossein Heidari Tabrizi

Hossein Heidari Tabrizi is an associate professor of TEFL at the Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch. His research works mainly include foreign/second language assessment and translation studies.

Azizeh Chalak

Azizeh Chalak is an associate professor of TEFL at the Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch. Her research works mainly include discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, E-mail communications and CMC.