A scoping review of EFL learners' interlanguage pragmatic development

Area of Science:

• Second Language Acquisition
• Applied Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• The shift to digital English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction post-2020 impacts interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) development.
• Existing research reviews predate this shift, offering fragmented insights into new learning ecologies.
• There is a need for synthesized evidence on EFL learners' ILP development and assessment in contemporary digital environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide the first integrative synthesis of research on EFL learners' ILP development published since 2020.
• To consolidate dispersed evidence to identify key developmental patterns and contextual moderators.
• To offer evidence-informed design principles for ILP-oriented instruction and assessment.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review methodology following PRISMA-ScR guidelines.
• Systematic searches across four databases (Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, ERIC) for publications from 2021-2025.
• Thematic analysis of 56 eligible studies using ATLAS.ti 23, with independent double-screening and coding.

Main Results:

• Identified seven thematic categories spanning learner competencies, pedagogical, and computer-mediated contexts.
• Observed that pragmalinguistic gains often outpace sociopragmatic appropriateness, following nonlinear trajectories.
• Found that explicit instruction, multimodal modeling, and data-driven feedback are more effective than mere exposure.

Conclusions:

• Highlights the need for longitudinal, interaction-sensitive research designs to capture learner and situational dynamics.
• Suggests a divergence between pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic development in EFL learners.
• Provides evidence-based design principles to align ILP instruction and assessment with learners' needs in digital contexts.