The Study of Iranian Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions Towards Implicit and Explicit form - Focused Instruction of Speech Acts

Abstract

Pragmatic competence is an essential component in communicative competence (Bachman & Palmer, 2010; Canale, 1983). Therefore, teaching pragmatic knowledge plays an important role in a foreign language curriculum, particularly in teaching English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL). However, there exists a lack of literature about the teaching of pragmatics with little empirical research on teachers’ and learners’ perceptions in Iran. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of focus-on-form instruction (FFI) speech acts on Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. Cooperative grouping, role plays, and other pragmatically oriented tasks were used to promote the learning of the intended speech acts. To come up with conclusive and persuasive findings, 132 Iranian male and female learners, intermediate- above, served as the subjects. The Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used to evaluate the participants’ language proficiency level. Teachers’ and students’ questionnaires about the instructions and teachers’ interview were used as the instruments in this study. Data collected by different instruments were analyzed and compared by way of a mixed method and. then was triangulated to enhance its validity and reliability. The finding of the study showed that explicitness leads to better pragmatic knowledge development than the implicit knowledge. This study showed that consciousness-raising at the metapragmatic level improved EFL learners’ pragmatic performance and variety of form-strategy use substantially; thus, it should be taken more seriously in L2 instruction and material development.