Effect of Pragmatic Awareness on Comprehension and Production of Conventional Expressions

Abstract

Mastery of target language conventional expressions seems to require awareness of the differences between native language and target language pragmatic features. To test the effect of awareness of target language pragmatic features on comprehension and production of target language conventional expressions, the current study was conducted over 60 learners of English in an intensive English program in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Pragmatic awareness, comprehension, and production were respectively assessed through a contextualized pragmatic judgment task, a multiple choice pragmatic listening comprehension test, and an oral discourse completion task. The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient revealed that awareness of target language pragmatic features is a predictor of appropriate comprehension and production of target language conventional expressions. The pedagogical implications of the findings suggested the development of awareness of target language pragmatic features in English as Foreign Language learners.