Pragmatic Competence in Action

How Primary Learners Engage in an L2 English ‘Spot the Difference’ Task

Abstract

This article explores primary school learners’ pragmatic productions during an English ‘Spot the Difference’ task. Drawing on CEFR Companion Volume descriptors, the study analyses peer interactions among 6th-grade students in German-speaking Switzerland, focusing on three speech acts: describing, agreeing, and disagreeing. Learners often relied on formulaic expressions to sustain interaction, with some exploring more flexible and spontaneous ways of expressing themselves. Whichever strategy they employed, they displayed considerable variation in grammatical accuracy. The article highlights the potential of interaction-rich tasks to support foreign language (L2) pragmatic competence development and offers practical implications for classroom teaching at the primary school level.