Communication processes in the classroom. A reflection from a pragmatic perspective

Abstract

The article offers a theoretical reflection on communicative processes in the classroom from the perspective of linguistic pragmatics, integrating constructivist educational theory—particularly Piaget’s framework—with speech act theory and Habermas’s concept of communicative action. It argues that meaningful learning occurs when students relate prior conceptions to new information in order to reconstruct them, and that every educational practice is fundamentally a communicative process mediated by language understood not merely as a vehicle for transmitting information but as a system of speech acts through which meanings are socially constructed. Methodologically, the author develops a conceptual analysis drawing on sociocultural psychology and classroom discourse studies to show that understanding arises through dialogic interaction, negotiation of meaning and cooperative interpretation between teachers and learners. The main objective is to demonstrate that the quality of speech acts—explaining, interpreting, justifying, arguing—directly determines the depth of comprehension and the relevance of learning. The study underscores that an educational model oriented toward understanding requires environments in which teachers possess deep conceptual mastery of the subjects they teach and in which students actively participate in constructing meaning. Consequently, educational activity must operate as communicative action aimed at consensus, reflection and intellectual autonomy.