Investigating Instructional Strategies and Materials to Enhance Intercultural Pragmatic Competence among Undergraduates in

Abstract

Developing intercultural pragmatic competence (IPC) is essential for achieving communicative skills in English as a lingua franca, as it inherently involves intercultural interaction. This study examined instructional strategies and materials to enhance IPC among undergraduate English students. The study, carried out in Pakistani federal universities, was guided by Celce-Murcia’s communicative competence model in general and Spitzberg and Changnon’s relational model of intercultural competence in particular. It adopted a concurrent mixed-methods research design with triangulation. The quantitative data gathered from teachers and students through questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics via SPSS and the qualitative data collected from teachers’ interviews were analyzed thematically. The study identifies that teachers are not sufficiently aware of BS English objectives as prescribed by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), resulting in the application of diverse strategies in their classes. Many teachers also treat English language and culture as separate entities; therefore, they do not integrate them sufficiently to develop IPC. The teachers’ pedagogical practices also suggest that many lack sufficient training; as a result, they do not conduct classroom activities properly and rarely use audiovisual aids. They deliver lectures conventionally, spending most of the time in a similar pattern. The study therefore suggests implementing HEC’s objectives to harmonise pedagogical practices and holding teacher training workshops to equip teachers to integrate language and culture and conduct activities properly. It also suggests further research to understand the gap between teachers’ beliefs and their classroom practices.

      Keywords: intercultural pragmatic competence, pedagogical practices, BS English, Federal Universities of Pakistan, modern plays.