Improving Pragmatic Competence in IT Students: Challenges and Strategies Mamajonova Manzura

Аннотация

Pragmatic competence plays crucial role in improving communication process in English. Especially, in ESP (English for specific purposes) students need awareness of pragmatic competence as they communicate with native speakers. Thus, demand for specialists who master English language like native speakers is rising. They gain more opportunity in achieving success in any sphere. Pragmatic competence the ability to use language appropriately in context is crucial for IT professionals, yet often overlooked in technical education. This study explores the improvement of pragmatic competence in first-year IT students at technical universities, focusing on their communication skills in team meetings. In order to conduct survey researcher used mixed-method approach which includes qualitative and quantitative data collection. 4-week observation was conducted to explore syllabus, process of lesson, challenges and strength of students. To check their level placement test was taken from students at the beginning of experiment. Placement test was taken online through Englishradar.com. 20 questions were created in a test form for the pre-test and post-test to find out differences in results before and after experiment. Questions were in an open ended test format and focused to assess how students handle turn- taking, disagreement strategies, politeness markers, and clarity in technical communication. Students were asked to fill dialogue in different situations. Answers of students were assessed according to rubric which was designed by researcher basing on CEFR. T-test was used to calculate results of pre-test and post test. According to findings researcher could find challenges and strategies of students in improving pragmatic competence in English lessons. Keywords: Pragmatic competence, context, communicate, intercultural pragmatics, ESP (English for specific purposes), sociocultural norms, speech, setting, language, interlocutor. sentences and utterances and provides a structural Introduction: Pragmatic competence is not often conception of language. implemented in the English classrooms. Although recent researches show how it is crucial in Understanding how common social norms and rules communicative competence, teachers do not apply it in across cultures affect how we describe things, objects, their methodology. David L. Kiesa, U. Azizov, S. Khan, K. and processes in society is known as sociolinguistic Nazmutdinova, and K. Tangirova, in their book competence. It aims to help students comprehend how "Reconceptualizing language teaching: an in-service different cultures use different grammar, syntax, teacher education course in Uzbekistan," define semantics, and stylistics when describing the same "communicative competence" as the capacity and things, subjects, and processes. understanding of a language user of what, how, and A lack of knowledge like translating a message from where to talk in a way that respects customs, culture, one language to another using a method distinct from and basic laws and standards. The capacity to both other competences can be addressed with strategic comprehend and be understood in a social setting. competence. Certain words are not always understood They divide it up into: The capacity to apply while speaking with various individuals in a foreign grammatical, lexical, syntactic, and stylistic norms to language; therefore, the capacity to explain the written and spoken language is known as linguistic or meaning of these unfamiliar phrases without actually grammatical competence. It describes the structure of saying them suggests the possession of strategic International Journal of Pedagogics 323 https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijp International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281) competence. sufficient to imply pragmatics into learning process in ESP. Showing real situations, culture, manner of native The capacity to comprehend and communicate speakers make the learning process easier for ESP meaning in a social setting is known as pragmatic learners rather than to learners of English language as competence. Beyond what is stated, there is more to a main specification because they are familiar with the intended meaning. It is possible for dialogue to be some situations and culture of native speakers. They correct in terms of pragmatic meaning yet incorrect in partly come across with pragmatics during lessons. terms of form, structure, and semantics. Even when the interlocutors use grammatically erroneous sentences, According to Kecskes (2014) Intercultural Pragmatics the dialogue is still successful as long as they both grasp examines how language is used in social interactions each other’s intended meaning. between individuals with various first languages, communicating in a common language, and Teaching English for ESP can be more complicated as representing diverse cultures. In these encounters, their specification is not English and most of the current pragmatic norms and d