Pragmatic competence in the target language : a study of Iranian learners of English

Taghizadeh, R

Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on the importance of pragmatic competence in the target language as well the introduction of teaching methodologies about the inclusion of pragmatics in language classrooms in last two decades, there are a number of uncertainties which are associated with the concept of pragmatic competence in the target language. This research targets those understudied areas in this field to clarify this notion further, especially its measurability and teachability. This study demonstrates that, while current teaching theories and pedagogies refer to pragmatics as a teachable notion, there are some aspects of pragmatics which are non-linguistic and cannot be taught. Therefore, this study recommends a reconsideration of the existing methodologies on teaching pragmatics in the target language. Moreover, clarifications of the two concepts of pragmatic and communicative competence which are crucial to this subject has been another research objective. While pragmatic and communicative competence have been referred to and defined differently by a number of applied linguists and their views are also reflected in the main theories of communicative competence, like those by Canale and Swain (1980, 1981) and Bachman and Palmer (1996), this study argues that the initial definitions of these two concepts presented by Chomsky (1980) and Hymes (1972) share more similarities rather than differences. Consequently, these models should be approached more cautiously, especially when used as references for communicative competence in the target language. Also, another main focus of this study has been on the data collection methods in pragmatics research. While DCTs which are designed to study speech acts have dominated the realm of pragmatics research, this study develops a new questionnaire to measure the knowledge of conversational implicatures and presuppositions of Farsi learners of English. The results indicate that Iranian learners of English lack the knowledge of conversational implicatures and presuppositions in English.

Citation

Taghizadeh, R. (in press). Pragmatic competence in the target language : a study of Iranian learners of English. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 15, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 15, 2018