Investigating the importance of sociolinguistic competence in teaching English to Algerian university learners : teachers' views and classroom practices

Abstract EN

Sociolinguistic competence refers to learners' ability to perceive and produce appropriate language in various contexts.

It is one major component of communicative competence along with strategic, discourse and grammatical.

EFL learners need to develop this competence both to ensure successful communication and understand cultural values underlying speech to interpret meaning accurately, especially that inappropriate use of language may lead to prejudice.

However, little empirical research on Algerian English language teachers' views on the importance of promoting sociolinguistic competence was conducted.

Accordingly, this paper provides a detailed discussion of this concept and gets insights into teachers' perceptions and classroom practices trough conducting a survey questionnaire.

Findings showed that teachers perceive sociolinguistic competence important in terms of pragmatic-oriented perspective.

They also confirmed that dealing with its aspects in EFL contexts is challenging because of lack of access to native speakers, and the tendency to use English for academic rather than socializing purposes.