Pragmatic Competence: A Meta-Analytic Account of Current Issues and Research into Its Acquisition and Instruction

Abstract

Despite being a component of communicative competence, pragmatic competence has only recently become the focus of attention. This paper addresses the historical evolution and the models of pragmatic competence. Next, it gives an account of the categorization of speech acts. Finally, it provides a review of the studies related to the instruction of pragmatic patterns in conjunction with internal/learner and external/environmental factors underlying the acquisition of pragmatic competence.

Keywords

• pragmatic competence
• speech acts
• language functions
• explicit instruction
• implicit instruction
• learner factors