Chatbots and English Pragmatic Development

This research examines how chatbots assist the development of English pragmatics among Mainland Chinese undergraduates and multilingual Malaysian students. The research uses Vygotsky’s sociocultural framework to analyze chatbots as culturally mediated tools instead of neutral tools. The results show that pragmatic competence improved significantly among participants who learned to make requests, refuse, and apologize. The Malaysian students demonstrated better understanding of appropriate context, which led to better performance than their monolingual Chinese peers in pragmatic aspects. The Malaysian participants demonstrated higher metapragmatic awareness, faster adoption of instructor feedback, and better sociocultural cue recognition according to qualitative results. The Chinese participants experienced challenges in understanding implicit sociopragmatic norms during the study. Students reported two main issues with the chatbot system through their reflective statements: (1) the system generated responses that did not match local communication standards, and (2) the tone shifted abruptly, causing students to lose trust in the chatbot’s pragmatic advice. The research findings demonstrate that standard chatbot systems have restrictions, which require developers to include cultural sensitivity features in AI-based learning platforms. The research adds to existing discussions about digital learning agency while advocating for educational models that focus on cultural awareness and fair access for all students. The research indicates that chatbot-mediated instruction needs to base its approach on local communication practices to deliver effective pragmatic fluency support for diverse student populations.