The Effect of Natural and Classroom Settings on Iranian Learners Pragmatic Competence: Length of Residence versus Intervention

The present investigation sought to comparatively explore the effect of length of residence and intervention on the pragmatic competence of Iranian learners. The participants of the current study were 45 EFL learners in Iran and 45 learners in Canada selected based on snowball sampling. The 45 participants in each group were divided into three sub-groups based on the years they had been learning English in an EFL or a natural setting. The instrument used to collect data was a Pragmatic Test developed by Roever (2006) consisting of three subtests i.e. an implicature section, a routines section, and a speech act section, each containing12 items. Initially, the participants in classroom settings in Iran were asked to complete the Pragmatic Test. As for the learners in the natural setting, the participants were requested to complete the test, which was sent by a link, and then they were asked to submit it. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between natural and classroom settings in developing Iranian learners’ pragmatic competence with the participants in the natural setting outperforming those learning English in an EFL setting. Moreover, the findings of the study revealed that the length of residence also had a significant positive effect on developing Iranian learners’ pragmatic competence.