Teaching Pragmatics in the Saudi EFL Classroom: An Analysis of Textbooks, Teachers’ Perceptions, and Classroom Practices

Abstract

Pragmatic competence is a crucial component of communicative competence and language knowledge (Cohen, 2012). The Saudi Ministry of Education includes the development of pragmatic skills as a central objective in the EFL school curriculum. However, recent research reports low pragmatic awareness and conversational difficulties among Saudi EFL learners (Almegren, 2022; Alqahtani, 2019). Furthermore, there is limited information available on the pragmatic content covered in English language textbooks, as well as the teachers’ perceptions of and practices in pragmatics in the Saudi context. Consequently, this study analyses the pragmatic content of a textbook series used nationwide in Saudi secondary schools. The study examines the type, frequency and distribution of speech acts, with the metapragmatic information covering topics of politeness, appropriacy, register, usage, illocutionary force, and culture. The study also investigates whether teachers follow or diverge from these textbooks when teaching pragmatics. The teachers’ opinions on pragmatic content and the factors and challenges influencing their practices are also considered. To achieve these aims, a mixed-research methodology is employed, which includes textbook analysis, classroom observations and stimulated-recall interviews. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are employed to analyse the data obtained from textbooks and classrooms. The findings indicate that the textbooks include a wide range of speech act types; that there is limited coverage of contextual and metapragmatic information; that there is a lack of a discernible pattern in the distribution of pragmatic information across textbooks; that teachers mostly rely on textbooks to teach pragmatics, with minor adaptations to speech act activities; and that all teachers are aware of the value of teaching pragmatics, despite having different understandings of the concept. Based on these findings, pedagogical suggestions are proposed to enhance learners’ pragmatic competence through teaching materials and classroom instruction.