THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN DEVELOPING THE PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF ENGLISH STUDENTS

Pham Hoang Ngoc Tram, Phan Nguyen Nhu Ngoc, Lam Hoang Dang, Le Tri Tai, Diec Quoc Binh

Abstract


This study aims to investigate the access and use of social networks by students majoring in English Studies with a high-quality program in developing pragmatic competence. The quantitative research was carried out at Can Tho University (CTU), one of the most prestigious universities in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The participants were 90 English-majored students of the Department of English Studies (courses 44 to 47) who studied Pragmatics. The questionnaire was used to measure students' use of social networks during class and self-study of students majoring in the English Language – a high-quality program for developing pragmatic competence. The findings showed that most participants use social networks to improve and develop their pragmatic abilities. The most commonly used social networks for improving pragmatics were Facebook and Youtube. They also pointed out that the most common pragmatics knowledge on social networks was about conversational implication, speech acts, and politeness. The results of this study were suggested to help English language students understand the context of utterances, convey exactly what they want to say to their listeners, and overcome the barrier of ambiguity based on the manner, position, and time of utterance.

 

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pragmatic competence, social networks, English students, strategies

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v5i2.375

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