PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF THE YEMENI EFL LEARNERS

Authors

  • Ahmed Qasem H. Al-Khadhmi Research Scholar, School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies, People's College, Nanded, India
  • Mirza M. B. Associate Professor, Research Supervisor, School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies, People's College, Nanded, India
  • Abdullah Ali Al-Eryani Assistant Professor, Applied Linguistics, Department of English language, Education Faculty, Thamar, Yemen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v5i3.281

Keywords:

pragmatic competence, EFL learners, Yemen

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the pragmatic competence of the Yemeni Non-Native Speakers of English (YNNSs) through examining their performance in the speech act of refusals. The study followed the qualitative comparative analytic approach. For the purpose of attaining the required data for this study, forty (YNNSs) and forty American Native Speakers (ANSs) of English were involved. The questionnaire used for collecting data from the participants was a written Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which was developed by Beebe et el. (1990), employed for collecting the data related to the use of refusal strategies by the two groups of participants in English. The data collected from DCT was analyzed by using a loading scheme adapted from Beebe et al. (1990). This study revealed that the Yemeni NNSs were not pragmatically competent enough in English. In spite of the similarity between the two groups in their use of refusal strategies, the differences between them were more apparent. The total number of strategies used by the American NSs was almost double those used by the Yemeni NNSs in all refusal situations. This study recommends that instructors should design contextualized, task-based, oral activities and integrating the intercultural aspects of language into ELT textbooks. 

 

Author Biographies

  • Ahmed Qasem H. Al-Khadhmi, Research Scholar, School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies, People's College, Nanded, India
    Ahmed Qasem H Al-Khadhmi is scholar student of PhD at School of literature and languages Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded, he is lecturer in private universities, Yemen, he has lectured as a visiting invited speaker internationally and has delivered numerous talks at international conferences and has conducted seminars with international audiences. He has published articles in journals.
  • Mirza M. B., Associate Professor, Research Supervisor, School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies, People's College, Nanded, India
    Mirza M. B. is an associate professor & head Dept. of English, Indira People's College (IDCO), Nanded, India. He has lectured as professor/invited speaker internationally and has delivered numerous talks at international conferences and has conducted seminars with international audiences. He has published articles in journals.
  • Abdullah Ali Al-Eryani, Assistant Professor, Applied Linguistics, Department of English language, Education Faculty, Thamar, Yemen
    Abdullah Ali Al-Eryani is an assistant professor & head Dept. of English, Thamar university education faculty, Thamar, Yemen. He has lectured as a visiting professor/invited speaker internationally and has delivered numerous talks at international conferences and has conducted seminars with international audiences.

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Published

2021-09-08

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 3 (2021)

Section

Articles