Teaching Pragmatic Competence

Pragmatic competence is one of the aspects of language that involves knowledge beyond level of the grammar; therefore it could be taught in the class to increase students' capacity in using language in different social situations. The instructors and the students focus on linguistic knowledge rather than sociopragmatic knowledge could reduce students' proficiency in social interactions. The study attempts to tackle various issues such as to what extent the EFL instructors know how to teach pragmatic competence alongside other language skills and which approaches the instructors use for teaching pragmatic competence. This study aims at investigating how pragmatic competence is taught in English departments as well as identifying the challenges that the instructors face while teaching pragmatic competence.