Pragmatics in the Classroom (Published)
Structured and systematic study of pragmatics in linguistics has assumed a central dimension since the middle of the century to meet the new vistas opened up for investigation in the field. Pragmatics as language in use views its study from the context-based perspective by real people in real situations, whether spoken or written within a political, social, cultural or religious melieu. But poor pragmatic knowledge, as often observed in ESL learners in discursive events has been unequivocally been devastating as, for example, when such errors are seen as insult on the participant, not grammatical resulting from the learning process. This paper aims at lucidly elucidating the need for pragmatic instructions in the classroom. It also examines pragmatics in actual language use by exemplifying with scalar implicature and the cooperative principles whose firm knowledge all over the world has enhanced communicative events as reality.
Keywords: Conversation, Cooperative Principles, Pragmatics, scalar implicature
EFL PRESENTATIONS- INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF CONFIDENCE AND EXPERIENCE (Published)
In the majority of EFL curricula, students are required to give presentations in the target language. Although fluency might cause difficulty in presenting in English, other factors have shown to affect the students’ performances. This study investigates the effect of confidence on the students’ daily use of English generally, and during presentations more precisely. The study analyses questionnaires distributed to 156 students that aim at motivation, confidence and the amount of FL use. In addition, 36 students participated in group interviews to discuss the problems they face during presentations and the issues that they fear. After analyzing the findings and comments provided by interviews and questionnaires, the researchers found that the lack of confidence causes an enhancement in language mistakes. It was also found that the main reason behind the lack of confidence in presenting in English, among other reasons, was the lack of experience and practice. Hence, this paper recommends practice and constant encouragement by the teacher to improve EFL students’ presentations.
Keywords: Conversation, EFL, English language teaching, Fluency, confidence, practice