Enhancing Thai Engineering Students’ Complaints and Apologies through Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Approach (PCR) - Article 8 Issue 6

Oct 15, 2026

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Successful communication requires pragmatic competence: using appropriate language to express needs while maintaining positive relationships with interlocutors. This study investigates Thai engineering students’ pragmatic competence for making complaints and apologies through twelve sessions of a pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) approach, and examines perceptions of the instructional activities. Data were collected from forty-five students using pre-/post written discourse completion tests and a semi-structured interview, with performance scoring by native-speaker raters. Results showed significant gains in pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities, and participants reported benefits across multiple areas, alongside concerns about confidence, grammar development, and roleplay test performance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages8

Reading Time20 min

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Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 [www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au) | Enhancing Thai Engineering Students’Complaints and Apologies through Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Approach (PCR)
Uraiwan Rattanapan Noonkong*, Anamai Damnet, Kanjana Charttrakul Kasetsart University, Kampaeng Saen Campus, Thailand
Corresponding Author: Uraiwan Rattanapan Noonkong, E-mail: [talamod_23@hotmail.com](talamod_23@hotmail.com) | | | --- | --- | | ARTICLE INFO
Article history
Received: September 11, 2017
Accepted: November 17, 2017
Published: December 30, 2017
Volume: 8 Issue: 6
Advance access: December 2017 Conflicts of interest: None
Funding: None
Key words:
Pragmatic Competence, Complaints, Apologies, Appropriateness,
Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising (PCR) | ABSTRACT
Successful communication requires “Pragmatic Competence” or abilities to use appropriate language in transferring one’s needs while maintaining a positive relationship with the interactant (Thomas, 1995; Leech, 1983). This study was an attempt to investigate the pragmatic competence of Thai Engineering students when making complaints and apologies through twelve sessions of a pragmatic consciousness-raising approach (PCR) . Perceptions toward the innovative teaching activities were also examined. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data from forty-five engineering students (n=45) at a university in Thailand. Pre-test and posttest written discourse completion tests (WDCTs) were administered and a semi-structured interview was conducted. Three native speaker raters scored the performances through WDCTs using assessment criteria from Hudson (2001) and Duan (2008) . For data analysis, paired-samplest-test was employed to compare the mean scores of students, while the researcher employed a Grounded Theory’s color coding technique (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to generate the findingson students’ perceptions about the innovative methods implemented. The results revealed significant development of students’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities in both complaints and apologies. Furthermore, participants perceived the PCR class to be beneficial in four areas: having more awareness of the impacts of social factors in language use, realizing the favor of indirect strategies, more understanding of nonverbal communication, and provision of motivating class atmosphere. However, some participants concerned about three aspects: inadequate confidence to use expressions learned in class in real communication, insufficient endeavor to develop grammar knowledge, and the test abilities of the roleplay test. The results confirm the teachability of pragmatic and the benefits of PCR in EFL contexts; whereas, students’concern about learning through the approach might be helpful for further teaching practices. | | This research was supported from graduate scholarship provided by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) as offiscalyear 2017. | | INTRODUCTION The educational policies of the Thai government are in line with proposals of ELT experts who maintain the promotion of pragmatic competence in class (McKay, 2002; LoCastro, 1990) . The competence includes linguistic competence (pragmalinguistics for and abilities to employ those linguistic resources appropriately or sociolinguistic competence (sociopragmatics for Thomas, 2015 and Leech,1983) in each intercultural communication context (Baker, 2011; Cohen, 2010; Pinya & Aksornjarung, 2010; Laopongharn & Sercombe, 2009). However, previous studies revealed that, ELT in Thailand tended to focus exclusively on the mastery of linguistic abilities (Choomtong, 2014; Wongsothorn, Hirunburana, & Chinnawong, 2006) . Similarly, Wichien and Aksornjarung (2011) found both qualitative and quantitative insufficiency of pragmatic information in course books for undergraduate students. This results in the poor English communicative abilities of Thai

FAQs

What is the main focus of the study?

The study focuses on enhancing Thai engineering students’ pragmatic competence when making complaints and apologies using a pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) approach.

How was the PCR approach implemented and evaluated?

The study used twelve PCR sessions and evaluated outcomes with pre-test and posttest written discourse completion tests, scored by native speaker raters, plus a semi-structured interview.

What improvements did students show after the training?

Students demonstrated significant development in both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities for complaints and apologies.

What concerns did some participants report?

Some participants were concerned about inadequate confidence to use learned expressions in real communication, insufficient effort to develop grammar knowledge, and challenges related to roleplay test performance.

Oct 15, 2026

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