EFL teachers’ pragmatic awareness and classroom practices influenced by an in-service training course of meta-pragmatics

Subject Areas : Curriculum Design and Development

Behnood Samani ¹ , Mehrdad Amiri ² , Naser Ghafouri ³

1 - PhD Student in TEFL, English Department, Sarab Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sarab, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of English Language Teaching, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, English Department, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

Received: 2024-01-05 Accepted : 2024-04-03 Published : 2024-04-10

Keywords: Classroom pragmatic practices, In-service training course, Meta-pragmatics, Iranian EFL teachers, Pragmatic awareness, Teaching pragmatics,

Abstract :

The present study focused on the effect of an in-service meta-pragmatics training course on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ pragmatic awareness and classroom pragmatic practices. A mixed methods design was used to achieve the objectives of the study. In the quantitative phase of the study, 300 EFL teachers were selected through convenience sampling and filled out the Pragmatic Awareness Questionnaire. In the qualitative phase, 60 of those teachers participated in a pragmatic training course. They were divided into experimental and control groups and underwent the processes of pretesting, intervention, and post-testing. Furthermore, 30 of these teachers were observed in terms of their teaching inter-language pragmatics both before and after the training course of meta-pragmatics. The results of the multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) revealed that EFL teacher’s pragmatic awareness was relatively low. In addition, the findings unveiled a statistically significant difference between the EFL teachers’ meta-pragmatic awareness and their practices in terms of the 'language teacher' component. Moreover, the findings showed a statistically significant improvement in the EFL teachers’ pragmatic practices regarding teaching pragmatic features after receiving the instructions. The results of this study have some implications for stakeholders, namely EFL teacher trainers, EFL teachers, and EFL students.

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