Using conversation analysis to enhance the pragmatic skills of senior high school students at Unidad Educativa Particular Nuestra Familia

Abstract

This research study is based on the theory of Pragmatics, and its aim is to develop communicative competence. Pragmatics helps us understand that all students are able to learn a foreign language. This study has demonstrated that studying pragmatics is a must for people who want to gain communicative competence in both linguistic and cultural contexts. Teachers can develop activities which will facilitate the students’ learning. In this project, I have gathered some information that has helped us provide general evidence of the topic. The target group was twenty-two students that belong to the senior year at UnidadEducativaNuestraFamilia high school. A Discourse Completion Test was held with the purpose of knowing about this topic in a giving situation and a questionnaire was administered to the target students in order to determine their knowledge of Pragmatics. In addition, a pre-test and a post-test about Pragmatics comprehension were also administered. The material that was created for this project was applied during four sessions of forty-five minutes each.A pre-test and a post-test determined differences in the scores. These differences were statistically analyzed and show a significant increase in their knowledge of Pragmatics. The results of the research have demonstrated that the theory of Pragmatics can be a promising method for improving students’ performance.