Pragmatic Competence in Learning Romanian as a Foreign Language: A Case-Study Analysis of Students’ Interpretation of Conversational Implicatures

Abstract

This study examines how international students of Romanian as a foreign language interpret conversational implicatures, with the aim of assessing their developing pragmatic competence. Although Romanian has gained visibility as a target language for academic mobility, little research has explored how learners navigate its pragmatic norms, particularly those involving indirect meaning. The study adopts a case-study methodology and analyzes learner responses to six Romanian conversational scenarios designed to elicit interpretations of Quantity, Relation, Manner, and politeness-based implicatures, alongside two culturally specific forms frequently encountered in everyday interaction. Data was collected from written interpretations and follow-up clarifications, then qualitatively coded for accuracy, partial accuracy, and misinterpretation. The results show consistent difficulty with indirect refusals, deliberate vagueness, and culturally marked irony, while more straightforward Quantity implicatures were interpreted with relative success. Learners with greater exposure to informal Romanian demonstrated clearer sensitivity to speaker intention. This finding suggests that pragmatic development correlates with contact outside formal instruction. The findings highlight the need for explicit pragmatic teaching in Romanian language education and show how targeted scenario-based tasks can support learners in recognizing implicit meaning. The study contributes empirical evidence to the growing literature on pragmatics in less commonly taught languages and offers pedagogical insights for instructors working with international students.