Developing Pakistani ESL Learners’ Pragmatic Competence: A Case Study of English Refusals

Abstract

This study investigated the development of pragmatic competence of Pakistani ESL learners through classroom teaching. The quasi-experimental research design was employed. The sample was twenty-five undergraduate Pakistani ESL learners. The impact of teaching pragmatic competence and the retention effects of learning were investigated. The experimental process comprised the intervention of teaching American English Refusals to Pakistani ESL students. The Written Discourse Completion tests were used at three stages for evaluation and data collection. The mixed method was used for data analysis. The qualitative analysis of the responses was conducted by the performances of learners in four stimulus types of the refusals (invitations, suggestions, offers & requests) and four aspects of accuracies (correct expression, quality of information, strategies of choices & level of formality) in the pre-test, post-test and the delayed post-test (Hudson et al. 1992, 1995). The qualitative analysis helped to elaborate the further explanation of the quantitative data. The mean scores of the students in DCTs were the quantitative data. The comparison of post-test scores showed that the pragmatic competence of Pakistani English language learners could be developed through teaching. Furthermore, the study showed that Pakistani ESL students could retain their pragmatic competence in learning English refusals after two months of academic instruction in a classroom setting. The results and findings of
the study supported rich implications for future researchers in interlanguage pragmatics, and further, it carried pedagogical implications related to ESL learning, teaching and course designing.