Teaching English Speech Acts to Sudanese EFL Learners

The present study intends to explore the pivotal role of classroom instruction in promoting pragmatic competence among Sudanese EFL college learners. More specifically, the study tries to investigate the effects of a proposed instructional program on developing pragmatic competence of a group of 60 male Sudanese university learners who are currently pursuing their bachelor degree at five different Sudanese universities. Four types of speech acts were selected by the researcher to be the focus of the program: apology, request, complaint and refusal. The data obtained from both the pre-test and post-test were coded and analyzed by means of the SPSS software. Findings of the study revealed remarkable advancement in the subjects' performance in the four set of the target speech acts.