Teach ability of pragmatic competence : the impact of explicit instruction on the development of Iraqi freshmen EFL learners’ pragmatic competence

Abstract EN

Teaching pragmatic competence is one of the neglected aspects in English language teaching in Iraq.

This paper is intended to : propose a pragmatic program involving two activities for teaching two speech acts, namely requests and refusals, and to investigate the effectiveness of such program in developing students’ pragmatic competence.

A total of twenty freshmen students at the Dept.

of English, College of Education, University of Basrah, were chosen randomly to participate in the study as an experimental group.

They were explicitly instructed in the pragmatics of the speech acts of requests and refusals.

Another group of twenty freshmen students at the Dept.

of English, College of Education, University of Basrah, were also chosen randomly to participate in the study as a control group.

This group received no instruction in the pragmatics of the speech acts of requests and refusals.

The results of the pre-test showed that both groups (experimental and control) were unable to produce the speech acts of requests and refusals in the same way as native speakers of English do.

However, the results of the post-test showed that the experimental group (after having been explicitly instructed in the pragmatics of the speech acts of requests and refusals) generated significantly better responses than the control group.