Mousa Alipour - Department of English Language, Shahr-e- Qods Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Mahnaz Azad - East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

The current study aimed at exploring the effects of using social networks on developing EFL learners’ pragmatic competence through speaking accuracy and fluency. To this purpose, 60 learners out of 97 participants were selected based on their scores on an Oxford placement test and were randomly assigned into one experimental and one control groups each with 30 participants. The experimental group used Telegram to get the special instruction on pragmatics through speaking and the control group received the traditional instruction on pragmatics through speaking. The results statistical analyses revealed that the experimental group out performed the control group significantlyin speaking accuracy and fluency. Also, the results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the pragmatic competence of male and female learners who were exposed to social networks. The findings of the current study have pedagogical implications for teachers, learners, and educators and highlight the need for strategic investment

pragmatic competence, social networks, speaking fluency, speaking accuracy, telegram messenger