The Effect Of Explicit Instruction And Implicit Instruction On The Development Of Beginning EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Competence

In recent year,more and more researchers focus on the development of pragmatic competence of EFL learners in the field of ILP. The positive effect of instruction on EFL learners’ pragmatic competence has been proved by researchers. However,the suitable instruction form for the pragmatic competence of EFL learners is still debated by researchers. Notably, few empirical researches are conducted in the Chinese classrooms, and research subjects are English majors. Thus this research can provide some implications for the development of beginning EFL learners’ pragmatic competence.Based on notice hypothesis and output hypothesis, the research attempts to answer three questions. Firstly, what are the effects of explicit and implicit instruction on beginning EFL learners? Secondly, what is the relationship between pragmatic competence and linguistic competence?Thirdly, which factors can influence the development of beginning EFL learners’ pragmatic competence?100 Sixth Grade learners from the Primary School Attached to Shandong Normal University were randomly assigned to two groups which were explicit group and implicit group respectively. The empirical research lasted for 15 weeks. The two groups were exposed to illocutionary act, and the instruction focused on greeting, refusal, apology, the answer of apology,praise and the answer of praise. The explicit group received explicit instruction and the implicit group received implicit instruction. The greatest difference between explicit instruction and implicit instruction is whether explaining the meta-pragmatic rules in class.Three major findings were concluded in the research. Firstly, the pragmatic instruction plays an active role in the development of beginning EFL learners’ pragmatic competence, and the explicit instruction is more effective than implicit instruction on the development of beginning EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. Secondly, learners who own high level of linguistic competence may not have high level of pragmatic competence, and viceversa. Thirdly, factors such as age,gender,interest have no effect on the development of beginning EFL learners’ pragmatic competence.