Investigating EFL Students’ Pragmatic Errors: Case of First Year EFL Students at the University of Ain Temouchent

Abstract

Culture has always been one of the main irreplaceable, and perpetual pillars in the language acquisition process. Yet, in Algerian educational settings, the status of culture in EFL classrooms alternates to a less prominent position. In this regard, this research seeks to accentuate the importance of culture and pragmatic integration in foreign language learning through the investigation of students’ pragmatic errors in speech acts using the premises of error analysis. A mixed method approach was implemented in which a discourse completion task, students’questionnaire, and observation were the instruments used to collect the data. The sample population was forty-sixfirstyear EFL students from the department of English language at the university of Ain Temouchent. The results have shown that students do not possess the ability to effectively use politeness strategies in various social milieus leading to occurrence of pragmatic errors. The main reason behind this incompetence is the misconception of cultural pragmatic aspects which also result in poor intercultural and interpersonal communication skills. At the end of this study, some implications are proposed to overcome these errors, and enhance the students’ interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills. This research is a great contribution to the field of applied linguistics, pragmatics, curriculum design and cross cultural studie