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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 15. Number 3, September 2024 Pp. 31-47
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Dhar Mehraz, Sidi Mohamed
Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Dhar Mehraz, Sidi Mohamed
Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco
In the last few decades, pragmatic competence has become one of the issues that captured academic attention in education settings. Yet, teachers’ perceptions of pragmatics and teaching pragmatics has yet to be closely investigated in the context of Moroccan higher education and therefore remains uncharted in literature. To address these gaps, the present study explored how Moroccan university professors view pragmatics and pragmatic teaching. It also explored how they use their pragmatic knowledge in the classroom. A total of 10 university professors (6 males and 4 females) from two public universities (Moulay Ismail and Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah) in Morocco participated in the current study. Quantitative data were collected by completing an anonymous questionnaire, while qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Participants expressed their perceptions and described experiences of the importance of teaching pragmatics, issues related to culture and identity in teaching English as a Foreign Language, and materials and tasks in teaching pragmatics. The findings yielded that linguistic knowledge is as essential as pragmatic knowledge. Thus, striking a balance between pragmatic and grammatical competence and teaching them simultaneously is crucial. Learners with advanced grammatical knowledge may fail to use the target language appropriately. As such, the results indicated that some teachers are unaware of the importance of introducing pragmatics to students in the early stages of learning English. Their skills are enough to be good at transmitting cultural knowledge and suitable language competence to students. Practical implications for future research and practice are also discussed.
ABOULGHAZI, M., AMIRI, E., & El KARFA, A. (2024). Teachers’ Perceptions Towards Pragmatics and Pragmatic Teaching. Arab World English Journal, 15(2): 31-47
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Maryam Aboulghazi is an English high school teacher. She is a Ph. D candidate conducting her research on the importance of integrating soft skills in higher education institutions. She attended and participated in various conferences and workshops nationwide. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9937-7833
El Makki Amiri is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco. He conducted his Ph. D research on emotional contagion in educational settings. He also contributed and participated in different conferences and workshops on a wide range of topics. He was one of the researchers in the international research project “Gender-ing ELT [English Language Teaching]: International perspectives, practices, policies”, which encompassed ten different countries, including Morocco. He does research on emotional and psychological variables in education context. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-5285
Abderrahim El KARFA is a full professor of Applied Linguistics and Leadership, Department
of English Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Dhar Mehraz Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah
University, Fez, Morocco. He is a member of the University Council. He is also a member of the
Faculty Council. As such, he is a former Director of the Research Laboratory: Language,
Literature and Communication. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5927-2575