REVISION OF MITIGATION AS AN EXPRESSION OF PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE

Abstract

In this paper, the pragmatic competence of adolescent students (15-18 years old) is evaluated. The study in issue focuses on the analysis of a corpus formed by written samples that include various communicative situations proposed to teenagers. In order to carry out this evaluation, a system based on the greater or lesser use of the pragmatic strategy of mitigation has been designed with the establishment of three levels of pragmatic adequacy: adequate, inadequate by default and inadequate by excess. This system enables us to judge the pragmatic and, therefore, also the communicative competence of the students. The results of the study state, on the one hand, the suitability of the mitigation as an indicator of the pragmatic competence among students and, on the other hand, the deficiencies and weak points of secondary education students in the development of this pragmatic phenomenon. Based on these results, a didactic proposal has been designed for the development of mitigation strategies and their appropriate use in students attending the level under consideration. It specifically aims to promote its pragmatic competence in terms of the production and interpretation of statements in specific contexts.