The Effects of Planned Instruction on Iranian L2 Learnersʹʹ Interlanguage Pragmatic Development

The most compelling evidence that instruction in L2 pragmatics is necessary comes from learners whose language proficiency is advanced but their communicative acts frequently contain pragmatic errors. The current study evaluated the impact of explicit instruction on EFL learnerʹs awareness and production of three speech acts of request, apology, and complaint. It also probed whether learners’ language proficiency plays any role in incorporating pragmatic instruction into the L2 classroom. The instruction lasted for about 12 weeks. Achievement in L2 pragmatics was assessed based on a pretest-posttest plan using Multiple-Choice Discourse Comprehension Test (MDCT) and Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT). The significant gains made by the experimental groups receiving instruction support the claim recently made by instructional pragmatics that explicit instruction does facilitate the development of pragmatically appropriate use of language. Yet, learners’ level of language proficiency had no significant role in the incorporation of the instruction. Further theoretical issues are also discussed.