Pragmatics of Teaching Intercultural Communication in EFL Classrooms: An Analysis of Inquiry Patterns among Arab International Students
Keywords:
Arab student, pragmatics, EFL classroom, intercultural communication, interrogative, questioning techniques, vocabularyAbstract
Pakistan welcomes international students from diverse backgrounds, who grapple with navigating English or Urdu for academic and daily interactions. This study focuses on the unique challenges faced by Arab international students in learning English. Employing a mixed-method approach, this study examines the experiences of 30 adolescent participants (20-23 years old) enrolled in a private language institute in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Data collection incorporates role-playing activities, a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, and structured interviews with English teachers. This study uncovers a strong emotional and religious attachment among Arab students towards Arabic, impacting their perception of English as a purely secular language. This impedes their English proficiency development and hinders the teachers' efforts to treat English as just another language. Additionally, structural differences between Arabic and English, coupled with challenges in understanding interrogative sentences, present substantial communication barriers. These findings illuminate the crucial role of employing pragmatic tools and teaching strategies to enhance English acquisition for students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This study concludes by exploring the pedagogical and policy implications of these findings, emphasizing how a pragmatic approach fosters intercultural understanding within language education.
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