DEVELOPING THE PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF FOREIGN LEARNERS - GUIDELINES TO USING CONSTATIVES IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE

Oct 15, 2026

Foreign language education in linguistic universities is examined through the lens of pragmatic competence development among EFL learners, focusing on whether learners can use language appropriately in specific communicative situations. The study evaluates experimental teaching based on descriptive, pragmatic, and performative analyses, applying divergent learning forms connected to the modal perspective of constatives in discourse. Findings indicate learners may reach only elementary pragmatic competence without targeted training, leading to a recommended procedure for training communicative skills to support social interaction goals.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Pragmatic competence and communicative effectiveness

Contextual and interpersonal factors in utterance interpretation

Components and formation of pragmatic competence

Communicative syntax and pragmatics

DEVELOPING THE PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF FOREIGN LEARNERS: GUIDELINES TO USING CONSTATIVES IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE Viktoriia Berezenko Kyiv National Linguistic University, Ukraine [berezenkovika@bigmir.net](berezenkovika@bigmir.net) The article is devoted to the problems of foreign language education in linguistic universities, namely to acquiring the pragmatic competence by students. The research questions whether EFL learners are pragmatically competent in using language in a certain communicative situation. The experimental teaching session proves that the special research methods (descriptive, pragmatic, performative analyses) and divergent forms of learning the modal perspective of constatives in discourse can provide students with the appropriate knowledge base. The main conclusions drawn from this research are that EFL learners can have only elementary pragmatic competence without a special training session. Therefore the current study suggests the procedure of training the communicative skills in the appropriate use of constatives in the process of social interaction with the aim of developing the pragmatic competence of students and helping them acquire their proficiency in achieving certain goals in communication. Keywords: pragmatic competence; foreign language education; constative; modality; verification; teaching strategies/methods. Introduction The pivotal message of the contemporary multiperspective studies presumes that language production, comprehension and variation are the most intricate and intriguing discussion matters being determined by many challenges in the process of foreign language learning (Aldhahi, Fernández-Parra, Davies, 2018) . The difficulties arise from the fact that the basic verbal contents in an utterance can have variety of interpretations caused by nonverbal concomitant properties including the speaker’s characteristics (age, gender, social rank, emotional and physical state, individual features, mentality, nationality, knowledge base, cultural background etc.) as well as the contextual demands (place, time, style, topical unity, structural identity and pragmatic correlation of information), supported by different deictic markers in discourse. Therefore, the acquisition of a foreign language is a complicated process, in which one of the most urgent tasks is to develop the pragmatic competence as a complement to the grammatical competence for achieving communicatively effective language use. The current tendency in Applied linguistics is connected with instructing foreign language learners in the process of their speech interaction how to communicate effectively regarding the psychological type, gender, age and social status of their partners of communication (Altinsoy, Okan, 2017) . The manner of categorising the world is displayed by verbal and nonverbal means, which are the cues for students in understanding the partner’s personality as well as the reliability of the event depicted in their utterance. Hence, the utterance can vary greatly in its realisation, with all the parameters important for a particular conversation within social interaction (Hyland, 2000) . Only the unity of both contextual and personal data can supply а profound understanding of the speech situation. The study of the formation of the pragmatic competence of foreign language learners is mostly concerned with the analysis of the interpersonal level of the utterance reflecting both situation and personal features (sociolinguistic knowledge as the first part of pragmatic knowledge) . It is also the level that deals with formal aspects of a language unit that reflect the interaction between communicants (functional knowledge as a second constituent of pragmatic knowledge) . Each communicant acts with a particular purpose in mind. In some cases, that aim may be very prominent (as in a job interview); in others, it may be merely to sustain social relationships (as in phatic communication). The spee

FAQs

What problem does the study address in foreign language education?

The study focuses on developing pragmatic competence in foreign language learners and on whether EFL learners can use language pragmatically in specific communicative situations.

How does the research evaluate ways to improve pragmatic competence?

It relies on special research methods, including descriptive, pragmatic, and performative analyses, and uses experimental teaching with divergent learning forms linked to the modal perspective of constatives.

What conclusion is drawn about EFL learners without special training?

Without a special training session, EFL learners are suggested to develop only elementary pragmatic competence.

Oct 15, 2026

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