Pragmatics in the Saudi EFL Classroom: Investigating Textbook Content and Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices

Abstract

Pragmatic competence is a crucial component of communicative competence and language knowledge. It plays a significant role in second language learning and teaching, especially in English as a foreign language (EFL) context (Cohen, 2012). Despite its recognition as a core objective in the EFL curriculum by the Saudi Ministry of Education, recent studies highlight a concerning lack of pragmatic awareness and conversational proficiency among Saudi EFL learners (Almegren, 2022). Furthermore, there is limited information available on the pragmatic content covered in EFL textbooks designed for Saudi students. Consequently, this study analyses the pragmatic content of a textbook series used nationwide in Saudi secondary schools. It specifically examines the type, frequency and distribution of speech acts, with the metapragmatic information covering topics of politeness, appropriacy, register, usage, illocutionary force, and cultural aspects. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses are employed to analyse the textbook data, using checklists based on Searle’s (1979) taxonomy of speech acts and on metapragmatic information, drawing on the framework of Vellenga (2004). Furthermore, the study investigates whether teachers follow or diverge from these textbooks when teaching pragmatics, and their perceptions of the covered pragmatic content. The initial 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; and that teachers mostly rely on textbooks to teach pragmatics; with unanimous dissatisfaction among them regarding the quality, albeit perceived adequacy in quantity, of SA in the textbooks. Based on these findings, pedagogical suggestions are proposed to enhance learners’ pragmatic competence through improved teaching materials and classroom instruction