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participate in a professional development workshop on instructional prag-
matics and came to believe that pragmatics can be incorporated in a manner
that beginners can benefit, she might change her future curriculum to allow
more time for pragmatics. Of course, if the teacher thought that while teach-
ing pragmatic variation might be important, beginning learners benefit
most from attaining accuracy in one greeting routine, her beliefs would in
14
Brown, H. D. (2001).
15
As indicated in the introduction to the volume, teachers can be seen as creators,
rather than just recipients of knowledge. Teachers’ pedagogical insights gained
through real classroom experience are valuable and can inform further research and
knowledge in the area.

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T E A C H E R S ’ P R A G M A T I C S : K N O W L E D G E , B E L I E F S , A N D P R A C T I C E
2 9
fact be consistent with her classroom practice, and there would not be a
need for action.
While knowledge and beliefs that teachers have with regard to their
teaching may escape conscious attention or analysis, focused critical reflec-
tion can help make the knowledge and beliefs accessible to the teachers
themselves.
16
This explicit awareness can be beneficial to teaching if there 
is a connection between what teachers know, believe, and do in the class-
room. When there is this connection, then teachers are more likely to make
conscious and informed decisions in their instructional contexts. On vari-
ous occasions during the instruction, teachers also send consistent messages
to their students about how language can be learned effectively.
Discussion
Teacher knowledge and beliefs are recognized as a dynamic system that is
subject to change in relation to, for instance, teachers’ professional develop-
ment and experience. Because various events happen simultaneously at
multiple levels in the classroom, much of teachers’ knowledge of their own
teaching may remain below the level of consciousness. Their beliefs may be an
outgrowth of this implicit knowledge or may be traceable to experiences they
have had in their own learning or teaching decades ago. Because teachers’
experience may have occurred unconsciously or subconsciously or may be
buried deeply in the past, their knowledge and beliefs may not be easily
articulated.
For this reason in this chapter we have encouraged teacher readers to
take a close look at their current knowledge and beliefs about L2 pragmatics,
monitor how they may develop while reading this book, and examine how
the knowledge and beliefs relate to their classroom practice by engaging in a
reflective activity such as the one offered in this chapter (Activity 2.1). An
explicit awareness of teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practice makes what
is tacit in their knowledge base more accessible to themselves and facilitates
its analysis, modification, or refinement. We recommend that teachers 
routinely engage in reflective practice for further reasoning
17
of their own
teaching. Because learning through reflection can be enriched, supported,
and furthered by dialoguing with oneself or with colleagues,
18
teachers are
encouraged to use written reflections and interactive discussions as much as
possible. In working with this book, teacher readers can independently 
16
See Lazaraton and Ishihara (2005) for an example of the benefits of collaborative
and focused teacher reflection.
17
Teachers’ reasoning refers to the complex ways in which they understand, explain,
and respond to their experience in and outside of the classroom ( Johnson 1999).
18
Vygotsky (1978).

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