The Effect of Task-Based Language Teaching on EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Production, Metapragmatic Awareness, and Pragmatic Self-Assessment

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of task-based language teaching (TBLT) on EFL learners’ pragmatic production, metapragmatic awareness, and pragmatic self-assessment. To this end, 75 homogeneous intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned to three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. The 27 participants in the pre-task, post-task pragmatic focus group (experimental group one) received pragmatic focus on five speech acts in pre-task and the post-task phases. The 26 participants in the scaffolded while-task group (experimental group two) only received pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic feedback and scaffolding during task completion. However, the 22 participants in the mainstream task-based group (control group) were not provided with any sort of pragmatic focus. The EFL learners’ pragmatic production, metapragmatic awareness, and pragmatic self-assessment were measured using a written discourse completion task (WDCT), a metapragmatic awareness questionnaire, and a pragmatic self-assessment questionnaire. The findings showed that the three groups enhanced their pragmatic production to almost the same degree at the end of the treatment. Furthermore, the results revealed the development of metapragmatic awareness among the EFL learners in the two experimental groups only. In addition, the two experimental groups managed to develop their pragmatic self-assessment more than the control group. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of tasks within the framework of TBLT, with or without pragmatic focus in any of the three phases, helps EFL learners develop pragmatic production, while the development of metapragmatic awareness and pragmatic self-assessment can be attributed to pragmatic focus and feedback.