The teachability of communicative competence and the acquisition of pragmatic markers – a case study of some widely-used Business English coursebooks (original) (raw)

The appropriate use of pragmatic markers – non-propositional well, you know, of course, etc. – is necessary for successful business communication (which is, for the most part, cross-cultural communication), however, pragmatic markers take a back seat in TEFL, TESL, and most notably, in TESP contexts. In our paper we will, first of all, discuss the major issues related to the concept of communicative competence as well as the role of PMs in shaping EFL and ESL speakers’ communicative competence. Next, some remarks will be made about the possible sources of the difficulties that may hinder the acquisition and/or learning of PMs, finally, the results of a case study will be presented, which aimed at mapping the functional spectrum of PMs as they are used in selected General Business English textbooks.