Review of Data Elicitation Methods

This chapter will explore the data elicitation methods used in the study of cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics, by examining different methods including discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and role-plays. Understanding the characteristics of chosen data elicitation methods is important because they can shape the quality of the data. Data elicitation methods constrain L2 (second language) learners’ performance significantly more than target native speakers due to the learners’ unstable linguistic competence. Therefore, it is important for researchers to have an understanding about L2 learners’ possible deployment of ‘communication strategies’ before interpreting their performance in relation to their L1 (first language) pragmatic transfer. Also researchers need to be informed about L2 learners’ L2 and their sociocultural norms in order to understand the learners’ L2 performance accurately.