Sajjad Zahedi Moghadam - Zabol university
Shiva Sabernezhad - Zabol University
Negar Sayyadi - Alzahra University

The present study brought the concept of pragmatic competence into focus and took up an inquiry to make it clear whether L۲ learners’ ability in using the speech acts of refusals can be developed by explicit instruction. To do so, the study encompassed ۶۰ L۲ learners who were in intermediate level of ability studying English in some language institutes in Ilam. The study was experimental in its approach having both control and experimental groups which were pre- and posttested to see the effect of interventionist approach on their pragmatic ability. In order to include continuous explanatory variables, covariates, ANCOVA was put to service. For the purpose of getting data to evaluate learners’ degree of refusal knowledge, the participants took the discourse completion test prior and after the training course. The findings of the study revealed that leaners’ knowledge of using speech acts of refusals improved significantly by applying the explicit technique of instruction in the classroom. Results in this study suggest equipping the language learners with understanding of both linguistic forms and behavior patterns in refusing strategies of the target language.

Pragmatic competence, speech acts of refusals, explicit instruction, L۲ learners.