report

The presentation consists of three major parts starting by an introduction,

followed by major themes and concept related to the topic in hand such as
culture, social norms, traditions in addition a part illustrating a way to teach
pragmatic competence and finished by a conclusion restating the main
objective and idea of the presenation. In the introduction, various definitions of
pragmatic competence were provided. Pragmatic competence refers to the
ability to communicate appropriately in a sociocultural context. A key question
was raised during this presentation : what are some sociocultural factord that
may impact the development of pragamtic competence ? students had
diverese answers in this regard as some of them said that learning in the
foreigner country could help the development of pragmatic competence.
Indeed, those sociocultural factors have their influence on the development of
pragmatic competnce. For instance, our beliefs do not only guide our behavior
but also shape our understanding of certain matter. As muslims, we believe
that speaking in the toilet is inappropriate ; thus, knowing about this behavior
could open the eyes to understand others especialy if the interlocuter is not a
muslim. Therefore, if we succeed in adjusting our language in a accordance
with the sociocultural factors, we can say that we have made a step forward in
the process of developing pragmatic competence. Another idea reoccured
during the presentation is that verbal and non-verbal language. We came to
conclude that non-verbal language is also influential sometimes more the
verbal language itself. For example, some one who does not want to speak with
while he is in the toilet could be considered as ignorant because silence is also
an indicator that people may interpret differently. While we were Speaking of
interpratation, we learned that it is the most fundamental part of exchanging
messages or pieces of information ; inaccurate interpretation of the message
means that the receiver is not acquainted with concept related pragmatics such
as the ideas of John R. Searl or Austin, to name only a few, which allow you
detect the type of the message and the implicature or simply put the unsaid. In
relation to the previous idea, a key question was raised which goes as follows :
why are Moroccan people more indirect in their speech ? for example, if
someone asks another person for money, he or she would violate the maxim of
quantity by telling him or her too much pieces of information than needed
instead of providing their reason directly. An interaction concerning this idea
took place ; some students said that we, as moroccans, tend to be indirect in
our speech in order to be polite, and another student said that it is because we
need to maintain our social relationships or empathize. Still, this idea of being
indirect results in violating the maxim of quantity. However, one student said
the idea of being direct or indirect is relative ; that is, it is dependent on the
person you are talking to, for what purpose, and in what context. The presenter
provided an example of how words can have different meanings if
accompanied with certain gesture . For instance, a student asking his teacher
whether or not he can eat inside the classroom, and the teacher said ‘yes‘ with
head gesture which indicates ‘no’. Firstly, a remark was given to this example
which is that teacher’s job is to educate students not to eat inside the
classroom. But, the idea that ‘no’ does not always mean ‘no’ is clear. the
presentation included other sociocultural factors such as the idea of ‘honorifics’
which refers to some ways of adressing people with heigher status. For
instance, in our moroccan context, we show respect by adding ‘Si’ in the
begenning of someone’s name like ‘ Si Mohamed’. It is important to know
about those honorrifics to understand and interact with people approrpiately.
The presentation also included a way to teach pragmatic competence starting
by letting the students obsereve how people interact differently, then allow
them to dissucus and analyze the situation and finally engage in an action plan
to act appropriately. In the conclusion, he restated the idea that sociocultural
factors are influencial in the development of one’s pragmatic competence.
Finally, a crucial remark was provided by the professor which is that the
presenter needs to add more examples to illustrate and enrich his
presentation.