Effects and Implications of Pragmatic Competence for Enhancing EFL University Students Written Performance

About the Book

The book “Effects and Implications of Pragmatic Competence for Enhancing EFL University Students’ Written Performance” highlights the effects and implications of the Kurd EFL students’ lack of pragmatic competence on their written performance. It includes with the written performance of the students at the recognition level and the production level, and relies on the results achieved from its instruments: the students’ test, the students’ questionnaire, and the lecturers’ questionnaire. Depending on the results obtained from the tools, the study tries to identify and find out the sources of errors in the written performance of the Kurd EFL university students. The book hypothesizes that the inadequacy of the students’ written performance could be attributed to the curricula and/or the students’ dependence on the grammatical aspects of the foreign language neglecting the pragmatic and the socio-cultural dimensions. This gives turn to state that the students’ written performance is better at the recognition level than the production due to the negative interference of their mother tongue. The book concludes that Kurd EFL learners at the university level face serious difficulties when writing in English. The inappropriateness of their written performance can be attributed to the negative effects of their first language, lack of contact with English native speakers and culture as well as the limited opportunities to have been in English speaking communities. Therefore, for enhancing EFL university students’ written performance, it is recommended that they should be introduced to the English culture through adding ‘pragmatics’ and ‘English Culture’ as two separate subject matters to the curricula, and to arrange summer courses for the students in English speaking countries, UK and US in particular.

About the Author

BARHAM SATTAR ABDULRAHMAN is a Kurdish researcher who works in the filed of Applied Linguistics. He taught English language, English Grammar, Composition Skills, and Essay Writing at College of Fine Arts, College of Education, and College of Basic Education. Now, BARHAM is Head of English Department- School of Basic Education- Faculty of Physical and Basic Education at University of Sulaimani- Iraqi Kurdistan Region and a member of the Scientific Committee in the School of Basic Education. He can speak three languages: Kurdish, English and Arabic.