Pragmatic Failures in AI-Mediated Pedagogy: A 2025-2026 Reddit Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The article discusses the Pragmatic Gap of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools within the educational setting in the sense of whether or not syntactic fluency and communicative effectiveness are compatible. Reddit was selected as the main source of data since it is among the three spaces of the digital world where educators and students can engage in free and naturalistic meta-discourse concerning technology. It is a platform which presents uncooked and peer-reviewed evidence of practical failure which is usually softened in official institutional survey questionnaires. The study will get directed at pinpointing particular groups of pragmatic failure and suggest a framework of Pragmatic Calibration. It has been found that AI methodically fails at Illocutionary Sincerity and Temporal Deixis. Although AI will help in the retrieval of information, it can be very catastrophic regarding the Positive Face of the learners with the robotic over-politeness or bald-on-record correctness. The study concludes that the future of AI in education depends on achieving "Pragmatic Plasticity"—the ability to adapt tone and intent to the specific social distance of the classroom.