The Importance of Utilizing Pragmatics in EFL/ESL Context

Abstract Pragmatics research in the last few years has gained eminence under the impact of Soler and the succeeding paradigms of Communicative Competence. Amid the diverse components of communicative competence, a great number of L2 studies have attended to the concept of pragmatic competence, that deals with both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge. Hence, pragmatics interlanguage research is concerned with the pragmatic competence and pragmatic performance of L2 learners; though, teaching pragmatics to Non-native Speakers, particularly EFL learners, is a prickly subject. Hence, pragmatic competence has been noticeably absent from ELT curricula, notwithstanding the fact that it has been guaranteed a place in diverse models of Communicative competence. This is mainly due to the hindrances of teaching and learning pragmatics in the ESL/EFL classes. Hence, the study primarily aims at discoursing challenges and lacunas in teaching and learning pragmatics within the confines of EFL classrooms drawing on the existing published literature and proffers recommendations to overcome these problems. Thus, the paper concentrates on these central and prominent fields: the EFL/ESL setting, ELT materials, and available to teach learners, teacher competence, and evaluating pragmatic ability.