ADDING PRAGMATIC ACTIVITIESIN A CLASSROOM: AN EFFORT TO SHAPE STUDENTS COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Abstract

Teaching and learning languages involve more than targeting grammatical and lexical knowledge. To achieve communicative competence in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, EFL learners need to develop their pragmatic competence which is better taught by activities. The central point of this article is that pragmatics is deeply rooted in people’s communication ability. Being able to interact and communicate with others in various situations becomes the pivotal goal in teaching English as a foreign language. Yet, little empirical evidence shows how to deploy pragmatics awareness, particularly, among senior highschool graduates. To fill this gap, this special affinity requires the English teachers to explore the activities in speaking classroom in which these help students use appropriate expression and have accurate interpretation to result successful communication. There are three activities listening to passages about complaining in other cultures, presenting L2 strategies for complaining and performing role play with discussion, which fleshed out procedural activities to trigger successful communication. The article contributes a deep insight of pragmatic competence as a yeildful context for building the students’ language competence.