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Volume 12. Issue 2
Article 5

Title
Developing Pragmatic Competence: Challenges and Solutions

Author
Mohamed El-Okda
Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Bio Data:
Dr. Mohamed El-Okda, formerly an associate professor of ELT Curriculum and Instruction at Cairo University, currently works as an assistant professor of ELT Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University. He has supervised 22 MA studies and published more than 30 papers. He is currently interested in EFL teacher professional growth, teacher cognition, reflective teaching, postmethod pedagogy, learner and teacher autonomy, and task-based language learning.

Abstract
With all the progress made in pragmatic knowledge description, instruction and assessment, foreign language teachers still face many challenges in teaching it. These have been discussed in the voluminous literature on teaching and assessing pragmatic competence. In this paper an attempt is made to investigate teachers’ perceived challenges related to their pre-service education program, in-service training, textbooks, teacher guides, tests, and opportunities for learners’ exposure to natural language use outside the classroom. Analysis of data reveals that teachers face difficulties related to almost all those dimensions. Suggestions for helping teachers overcome those difficulties are proposed and recommendations for further studies are made.

Keywords: Pragmatic Competence, Developing, Teaching, Testing

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