EXPLORING THE UNDERREPRESENTATION OF PRAGMATICCOMPETNECE IN THE L2 CLASSROOMS IN IRAN

Considering theimportance of pragmatic competence as one of the components ofcommunicative language ability, SLA researchers have recently called for theinclusion of L2 pragmatics into the classrooms and teaching materials. Despitesuch calls, it seems to be largely underrepresented in L2 classrooms in Iran. Thisstudy, adopting a multi-method data collection procedure, attempted to investigatehow and why underrepresentation of pragmatic competenceoccurs in L2 teachingmaterials and classrooms in Iran.Two questionnaires were developed based onBachman’s (1990) and Bachman and Palmer’s (1996,2010) models ofcommunicative language ability and administered to the participants. Twenty fiveL2 classroomswere observed andappraised using a checklist developed based onthe above-mentioned models. The results of the study indicated thatL2classrooms did not provide language learners with the required information,instruction, and practice in L2 pragmatics. It was evidenced that EFL teachers inIran generally emphasized theisolated, mechanical aspects of languageas thesehave been given special momentum in theschool curriculum,course books,timelimitation,and the related tests. In contrast, the main focus of the classroomactivities was on developing reading skills, learning new vocabularies, wordformation, and grammar. It was also argued that the present underrepresentationof L2 pragmatics wouldnot lead learners to develop pragmatic competence as acentral objective in developing communicative language abilit