The Effect of Developing the Pragmatic Competence of Kurdish EFL Students on Their Conversational Interaction Ability

Abstract

Language is the most powerful means of communication we have- but only if it isused well. Otherwise, it can be just as much as a barrier for the communication. Ourlanguage is probably the most sensitive side of us.Moreover, in order to help the students to master the English language it is notenough to have a broad vocabulary, errorless pronunciation and a profoundknowledge of grammatical structures. Students need to be able to make judgments interms of what is socially appropriate in a particular situation where one iscommunicating with a particular interlocutor and performing a specific type ofspeech act. Thus, to be successful in this area of language use one needs to havedeveloped pragmatic competenceAs a matter of fact, through many years of teaching college students in differentgrades, it has been proved that they often lack necessary pragmatic competence; thatis, they are not aware of the social, cultural, and discourse conventions that have to befollowed in various situations. Relatively, less attention has been paid to howclassroom-based instruction can contribute to the pragmatic development of foreignlanguage learners. Thus, the present research paper aimed at investigating the effectof developing students' pragmatic competence through the focusing on two speechacts, greeting and invitation. In addition, this research attempts to find out whetherthere will be any effective influence after developing students' pragmatic competenceon their conversational interaction ability.In order to achieve the aims of this research and test its hypotheses, the researcher hasconstructed an achievement pre-test and post-test. The sample of the present researchwill be students of English department in college of languages and Human Sciencesat Garmian University.