A DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION of EFL STUDENTS’ COMPETENCE in COMMUNICATION and the NEED of INTEGRATING PRAGMATIC INSIGHTS to DEVELOP ORAL PERFORMANCE The case study of third year students of the English Department of the University of Biskra

Abstract

This work focuses on the acquisition of pragmatic competence by advanced EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. This is achieved thought two complementary stages: First, a survey via a questionnaire is conducted on how do oral expression teachers of the English department of the University of Biskra perceive their students’ level of competence in communication. The data gathered reveal that our respondents, by and large, are not satisfied with the oral communicative level their students manifest. They attribute this mainly to the lack of knowledge about situationally appropriate utterances their students display. Second, we carry out an experiment in which we try to suggest a remedy for what teachers think is the source of underachievement .i.e. pragmatic incompetence. And this by suggesting a number of activities to an experimental group and then evaluating their new level of competence in communication. Comparing the final results of the experimental and the control group allow us to test the validity of our suggested hypothesis, and to conclude that, indeed, pragmatic instruction does have a positive impact over our sample population oral performance. By the end, we culminate the enquiry by a set of recommendations and suggestions to oral expression teachers to help their students benefit the development of pragmatic competence, and consequently, attain a more advanced level of oral proficiency.