Interlanguage Pragmatics Development: Iranian EFL Learners’ Interpretation and Use of Speech Acts

Aim of this article is to investigate the Iranian EFL learners' interpretation and use of speech acts as a feature of their interlanguage pragmatic knowledge. This article answers two essential questions ١) Is there any role of formal instruction of pragmatic knowledge in the enhancement of Iranian pre Intermediate L٢ learners' interpretation of speech. ٢)Is there any role of formal Instruction in the enhancement of Iranian intermediate L٢ learners’ use of speech acts. For this purpose ٦٠ Iranian intermediate EFL learners were selected In ACCER Institute through a replacement test, two researcher tests of speech acts were used as pre-test before the speech acts were introduced. These Instructions were held for ten sessions. Two posttests of speech acts were then administered and the data were analyzed through calculating ANCOVAs for the pretest and the posttest scores of each participant group independently. The results showed that pre-intermediate Iranian EFL learners indicated a higher progress in the interpretation but there was no significant change in the usage of the speech acts from the conduction of pretest to the posttest of the study.

Keywords:

Interlanguage Pragmatics , Interpretation , Speech Act