Abstract
This study deals with the application of the pragmatics research to EFL teaching. The need for language learners to utilize a form of speech acts such as request which involves a series of strategies was significance of the study. Although defining different speech acts has been established since 1960s, recently there has been a shift towards empirical studies which focus on perception and production of various speech acts by EFL or ESL learners. The present article reveals the researcher’s interest in a set of strategies in which native speakers of target language use for performing speech activities. The study intended to enhance EFL learners’ awareness of request speech act by teaching the materials used for speech acts. To achieve the aim, the teacher used some sorts of educational activities such as teacher-fronted discussions; role plays, cooperative grouping, and other pragmatically oriented tasks were used to increase the learning of speech acts. Discourse Completion Test was developed as a pretest and posttest to measure the effects of instruction on the pragmatic awareness of the students. The results revealed a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the use of request speech act in experimental group.
Highlights
The notion of speech act is one of the most compelling notions in the study of language
Speech act theory originated directly from the work of J L Austin, and from William James Lectures delivered at Harvard in 1955, and published later as How To Do Things With Words in 1962
The findings showed that pragmatic competence develops as a result of explicit metapragmatic instruction
Summary
The notion of speech act is one of the most compelling notions in the study of language. It is agreed upon that speech act theory is built on the foundation laid by Wittgenstein and Austin. Speech act theory originated directly from the work of J L Austin, and from William James Lectures delivered at Harvard in 1955, and published later as How To Do Things With Words in 1962. The speech act is an utterance that expresses an intention. The speech act can be a sentence, a word or a phrase. When somebody speaks, they perform an act. Searle believes understanding the speaker’s intention is essential for capturing the meaning. Without the speaker’s intention, it is impossible to understand the words as a speech act
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