JUSTIFICATION FOR APPLICATION OF CONTRASTIVE PRAGMATICS IN EFL SETTINGS

Abstract

Most teachers would agree that boredom is the main enemy of effective learning and that students and teachers are not a special breed of individuals who delight in being bored. Yet in most cases, the EFL materials do not generally reflect a concern for lively and entertaining lessons in non-English speaking countries. Perhaps the main reason is that it is felt that only topics with some kind of second language (ESL) orientation can be necessarily interesting and relevant for EFL students. The point is debatable and worth considering in detail. In fact, the teacher will need to decide, within the context of local conditions, just how limited or extensive a command of the language his particular students require. There would be a radical difference between the courses we design for students require. There would be a radical difference beteeen the courses we design for EFL students who need the language for some very limited task like reading for comprehension and those designed for ESL students who need to acquire a great deal of basic academic training through the medium of English. In this article, it is argued that because of the restricted views concerning EFL instruction, even the best of ESL programmes are not adequate to account for the language acquisition of EFL students, no matter how they are applied.