Engaging with pragmatics in the classroom. Exploring L1, L2 and FL primary and secondary school teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and practices

Despite its crucial contribution to communicative competence, pragmatics has not yet gained a permanent place in the language classroom or in teacher education. To address this gap, the present work illustrates initial findings of an online survey designed to explore how practitioners in Italian mainstream education engage with pragmatics in the classroom. Twenty-eight teachers of Italian as L1 and L2, as well as forty teachers of German and Spanish as FL in primary and secondary schools, participated in the study. The analysis of the data offers an initial overview of the current state of pragmatics in language education within the Italian school context, highlighting both similarities and differences in L1, L2, and FL teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. Additionally, the study identifies perceived challenges, providing essential insights for the design and implementation of teacher training interventions.