The Effect of Explicit Instruction on Pragmatic Competence Development; Teaching Requests to EFL Learners of English

Abstract

Pragmatic competence is one of the aspects of language that provides many challenges for EFL learners. L2 learners need to develop their pragmatic competence in order to use language appropriately according to the socio-cultural norms of the L2 community. And, this may be achieved through treatment they receive from their teachers. The issue explored in this study was the investigation of the effect of explicit instruction of pragmatic level on appropriate performance of request speech act across two proficiency levels with regard to two social variables of status and distance. To this end, pre-posttest design with experimental and control group was administered. Data were collected using a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The selection of requestive situations in DCT was based on two mentioned social variables. The results revealed that explicit instruction is a facilitative tool to develop L2 learners’ pragmatic competence. Moreover, it was found that L2 proficiency influence on overall appropriateness of speech acts production. The findings of the current study have some implications for teachers, text book writers and curriculum designers.