The Effect of Grammatical Competence on EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Competence

Pragmatic competence, being a crucial aspect of communicative competence, is among the key competencies necessary for successful communication. The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of EFL learners’ grammatical competence (knowledge of linguistic features such as grammar and vocabulary) and proficiency level on their pragmatic competence. The participants were ۱۶۵ Iranian intermediate and upper intermediate EFL learners. They were freshman and junior students (considered as intermediate and upper intermediate learners) in eight intact classes (four freshman and four junior classes) at some universities in Qom, Iran. Initially, the participants took a general proficiency test (TOEFL Test, ۲۰۰۲) to homogenize the participants at each proficiency level and indicate that the junior students were truly more linguistically proficient than freshman students. Subsequently, they were given a discourse completion test, involving ۱۲ multiple-choice questions assessing learners’ recognition of appropriate speech acts and pragmatic markers. The results were analyzed using some SPSS statistical techniques, which revealed that there was a moderately significant correlation between grammatical and pragmatic competences, and language proficiency has a significant effect on the pragmatic competence of the learners, as the junior students outperformed the freshman students.

کلیدواژه ها:

discourse completion test ، grammatical competence ، Language proficiency ، Pragmatic competence