Language teachers have long been aware of the devastating effect of learners' grammatically correct, yet situationally inappropriate spoken or written communication. This volume addresses how to raise learner awareness of pragmatic gaffs through research-based, field-tested activities such as composing e-mail requests, giving advice, making workplace requests, expressing opinions, providing constructive peer-to-peer critical feedback, negotiating refusals, and collaborating through activities enabled by an online tool called Talkpoint. Teachers are given vital support in these activities through extensive worksheets, audio files, transcripts, and answer keys. The chapters in this volume provide information and activities primarily related to the realization of speech acts and the effect of different contexts on their form. The subsequent volume, "Pragmatics: Teaching Natural Conversation" (due off press in early 2011), focuses on the role of formulas in performing speech acts and on the characteristics of longer sequences. This book is divided into four parts: (1) Requests; (2) Indirect Acts; (3) Responding Acts; and (4) Assessment. It also contains 14 chapters. Chapters include: (1) Pragmatics From Research to Practice: Teaching Speech Acts (Donna H. Tatsuki and Noel R. Houck); (2) Misunderstandings: Pragmatic Glitches and Misfires (Virginia LoCastro); (3) It's 8 O'clock in the Morning--Are You Watching Television? Teaching Indirect Requests (Zohreh R. Eslami and Kent D. McLeod); (4) I Want You to Help Me: Learning to Soften English Requests (Carol Rinnert and Chiaki Iwai); (5) Requesting a Letter of Recommendation: Teaching Students to Write E-Mail Requests (Kumiko Akikawa and Noriko Ishihara); (6) Soften Up! Successful Requests in the Workplace (Lynda Yates and Jacky Springall); (7) Teacher, You Should Lose Some Weight: Advice Giving in English (Noel R. Houck and John Fujimori); (8) Moving Beyond "In My Opinion": Teaching the Complexities of Expressing Opinion (Kristin Bouton, Katy Cur and Lawrence Bouton); (9) Teaching Constructive Critical Feedback (Thi Thuy Minh Nguyen and Helen Basturkmen); (10) Indirect Complaints as a Conversational Strategy (Dana Saito-Stehberger); (11) I'm Sorry--Can I Think About It? The Negotiation of Refusals in Academic and Nonacademic Contexts (J. Cesar Felix-Brasdefer and Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig); (12) They Made Me an Invitation I Couldn't Refuse: Teaching Refusal Strategies for Invitations (Emma Archer); (13) Online Collaboration for Pragmatic Development--Talkpoint Project (Emi Yamanaka and Kenneth Fordyce); and (14) Assessing Learners' Pragmatic Ability in the Classroom (Noriko Ishihara). References and index are included.