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T H E N U T S A N D B O L T S O F P R A G M A T I C S I N S T R U C T I O N
This chapter first discusses the use of pragmatics as an organizing principle
– the implications of what that means in the development of a pragmatics-
focused curriculum. Then, the chapter introduces several principles that readers
may find important and applicable in the development of a pragmatics-
focused curriculum in their own instructional contexts. In order to provide
illustrations of instructional practice, samples of curricular materials are
taken from a web-based curriculum for teaching Japanese pragmatics. 
Other examples are from a classroom-based, teacher-delivered textbook for
Japanese pragmatics, an adaptation of the web-based curriculum. The chap-
ter illustrates how these principles can be translated into learner exercises
intended to raise learners’ pragmatic awareness and improve their produc-
tive skills related to pragmatics.
Pragmatics as the organizing principle
In developing a curriculum, the curriculum writer’s views, beliefs, and prin-
ciples in language learning and teaching guide the organizational decisions
at multiple levels.
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When a curriculum is developed with pragmatics as the
focus, the issue of appropriateness in the given context becomes a central
concern for the curriculum writer, teachers, and learners alike, and will
receive prominence in language instruction. In this curriculum, features 
of pragmatics may become the organizing principle (or at least given sub-
stantial attention) with meaningful, challenging, and realistic tasks focused
on enhancing pragmatic language use and awareness. The ultimate goal would
be for learners to become able to interpret others’ messages as originally
intended and to use the L2 to successfully communicate their own mes-
sages (as discussed in Chapter 1). Learners’ tasks and assessment should 
be informed by a current theoretical and empirical understanding of 
pragmatics-focused language learning and teaching (e.g., see Chapter 6
for a theoretical discussion).
There are at least two ways in which material on pragmatics can be
incorporated into the formal L2 curriculum: as an add-on to an existing 
curriculum (see Chapter 8 for examples) or as the organizing principle of a
newly developed curriculum (as demonstrated in the curriculum below). In
the first case, presumably the material would be included in the curriculum
to narrow gaps. In this case, curriculum writers would provide extra exer-
cises focusing on pragmatics or incorporate additional pragmatics-related
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Graves (2000); Tomlinson (2003).

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C U R R I C U L U M W R I T I N G F O R L 2 P R A G M A T I C S
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insights into already existing activities.
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Instruction on pragmatics could
involve written as well as spoken discourse (e.g., understanding a nuance of
a business letter, or writing a complaint via an e-mail message) and could be