Concept-based Instruction for EFL Learners' Pragmatic Development: The Case of Compliment and Compliment Response Speech Acts

Grounded in Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory of mind, concept-based instruction (CBI) emphasizes teaching language in context and advocates the development of a conceptual understanding in learners. Despite its great theoretical and practical potential, CBI has received scant attention in language teaching contexts. Using a mixed methods research design, this study investigated the impact of concept-based pragmatics instruction (CBPI) on teaching compliment and compliment response speech acts in an EFL context and, also, participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of CBPI for pragmatic development. In so doing, sixty EFL students from two intact classes were selected to participate in the study and were assigned to one experimental group (n = 30) and control group (n = 30). The experimental group was exposed to the CBPI whereas the control group did not receive any CBPI. The study mainly aimed at tracking changes in EFL learners' appropriation and application of the instructed pragmatic concepts as assessed by discourse completion tests and semi-structured interviews (n = 10) after 10 weeks of instruction. The findings showed that CBPI was highly effective for improving learners’ pragmatic knowledge of compliment and compliment response speech acts. Similarly, results of the interviews indicated that participants of the study had positive perceptions of CBPI. The study have some implications for teachers, teacher education, material developers and curriculum designers in EFL contexts.