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C H A P T E R 1 5
Assessment of pragmatics
in the classroom
Noriko Ishihara
Introduction
F
ormal or informal assessment of learners’ pragmatic ability,
both receptive and productive, is an indispensable component
in the teaching of pragmatics. Assessment of learners’ ability gives insights
as to what the students have and have not learned. Assessment also gives
teachers feedback as to how effective their instruction has been, and how
well the assessment itself has been planned out and conducted. It is a rela-
tively recent phenomenon that pragmatics has been incorporated into the
curriculum in a rigorous manner. Since efforts to assess learners’ pragmatic
ability in the classroom setting have appeared to lag behind these instruc-
tional efforts, it is our intention in this book to give greater attention to this
issue.
Chapter 14 focused primarily on principles for constructing tasks that
elicit learner language and possible ways of rating that performance in 
formal and informal settings. In this chapter, we will zero in on means 
for classroom-based assessment of learners’ pragmatic ability, and consider
practical applications of classroom assessment tools, as well as sample
learner language in those assessments and teacher feedback. As the label
suggests, classroom-based assessment (also termed teacher assessment,
teacher-based assessment, alternative assessment, alternative in assessment
1
) is
conducted by the actual instructor of the classroom, not by an outside
researcher or trained rater. Classroom-based assessment is intended to 
facilitate learners’ development within the everyday classroom context.
1
Brown and Hudson (1998); Norris et al. (1998); Rea-Dickins (2008); Shohamy (1996).

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A S S E S S M E N T O F P R A G M A T I C S I N T H E C L A S S R O O M
2 8 7
Teacher-based assessment contrasts with the type of traditional assessment
which sometimes takes the form of standardized multiple-choice items and
measures learners’ knowledge of language in numerical terms for the 
purpose of rank-ordering them.
2
In this chapter, we first discuss the value of using research-based infor-
mation as the basis for assessing pragmatics. Examples of classroom-based
assessment instruments, samples of learner responses, and teacher assess-
ment/feedback will be provided with a focus on linguistic, cultural, or 
analytic (metapragmatic) aspects of L2 pragmatics. These assessments give
teachers an opportunity to evaluate learners’ pragmatic ability and at the
same time function as a way of providing learners feedback about their 
pragmatic use of language. Additionally, we underscore the importance of
learners’ self- and peer-assessments, which are inseparable from classroom
instruction. Also, if we aim to provide culturally sensitive teaching of prag-
matics (see Chapter 6), then it is necessary to take learner intention into
consideration in assessing how effective learners are in their use of L2 
pragmatics.
The examples of different kinds of assessment provided in this chapter
have been piloted with ESL/EFL and JFL learners, and the effectiveness of
these assessments has been researched in an EFL context
3
and in a Japanese-
as-a-foreign-language context.
4
The examples are only preliminary, and
teacher readers are invited to share their ideas and experiences to further
refine classroom-based assessment of pragmatic ability.
Research-based assessment of pragmatic ability
Throughout this book, teacher readers have often been reminded that the
teaching of pragmatics should include material that is informed as much as
possible by research studies, even if teachers are native or fluent speakers of
the target language. While teacher intuition has an important role to play,
language samples collected by researchers, teachers, and students add key
insights to the L2 pragmatics curriculum. Likewise, the assessment of prag-
matics will reflect authentic use of language more closely if there are other
dependable points of reference than a single teacher’s intuition alone.
Teachers (and learners, in the case of self-assessment) can turn to the data
which show how pragmatically competent speakers would respond in the
2
McNamara (2001).
3
Ishihara (2009).
4
Ishihara et al. (2008).

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