Pragmatics In Learning English

Pragmatics is one of the elements contained in the Branches of Linguistics. Pragmatics can be defined as a systematic way of explaining language use in context. It differentiates two intents or meanings in each utterance or communicative act of verbal communication. According to Thomas (1995), pragmatics considers the negotiation of meaning between speaker and listener; the context of the utterance and the meaning of an utterance. According to Crystal (2008), English is currently spoken by over a third of the world’s population and is spoken by more non-native speakers than native speakers of the language. This progressive growth makes English as means of global communication that can help people from all over the world to communicate. As English

These differences in pragmatics will eventually show up regardless of learners’ first language proficiency. This means that a learner with high grammatical proficiency does not necessarily show good pragmatic development but they will somehow show a wide range of pragmatic competence which refers to the ability to comprehend, construct and convey meanings that are both accurate and appropriate for the social and cultural circumstances in which communication occurs. Pragmatic incompetency may hinder effective communication or make speaker appear brusque in social interaction. It may also resulted in speakers being misunderstood of being rude or impolite. This is because Gallow (1995) suggests that to maintain a conversation in English, speakers need to show understanding, support and strong emotional response, indicate agreement, add or correct speaker’s information or ask for more information. Hence, pragmatics should be given attention in learning English so that learners will be able to communicate effectively in any

According to Deda (2013), this however can help learners to participate fully in English with more control over intended force and outcome of their contributions. When learners are used to the range of pragmatic devices, they will be able to communicate effectively. Harlow (1990) states that both teachers and textbook alike need to emphasise to the learner that language is composed of not just linguistic and lexical elements, rather, language reflects also the social contexts, taking into account situational and social factors in the act of communication. Pragmatic competence is a combination of these factors and the development of the pragmatics ability should be given emphasis. Consequently, learners will be able to act different communicative patterns and they will find themselves confident and involve fully in language activity. Most importantly, pragmatic competence will ensure good levels of grammatical and functional competence or interactional competence as well as develop critical