Relationship between Acculturation Attitude and Pragmatic Comprehension

Comprehension of target language implicatures requires familiarity with the culture specific conventions encoded in target language expressions which presupposes tendency to learn about the culture of target language community. To this end, a study was conducted over 80 Iranian undergraduates of English in universities in Australia to explore the relationship between acculturation attitude and pragmatic comprehension ability. Data for the study were collected through an acculturation attitude questionnaire and a pragmatic comprehension test. The results of the spearman rank order correlation indicated a strong positive relationship between level of attitude toward target language culture and pragmatic comprehension ability. Pedagogical implications of the findings suggested a high level of interaction with target language speakers and familiarity with culture of target language community for language learners during educational sojourns.