The development of sociolinguistic competence in EFL textbooks

The article reveals the multi-dimensionality of linguistic competence, highlighting the synthesis of the structural and pragmatic competencies of language. Special attention is paid to sociolinguistics and its components: sociopragmatics and pragmalinguistics. Sociopragmatics studies the assumptions and situations in which communication takes place, while the object of study in pragmalinguistics is the linguistic apparatus and communication strategies that produce the conditions for successful communication in a foreign language. The article raises the issue of whether pragmatic competence can or should be taught. Alternative views on this issue are discussed. The authors of the article are of the opinion that the educational environment is a suitable place to learn and to teach pragmatism, because foreigners may tolerate grammatical or structural errors, whereas they are sensitive to a lack of pragmatic competence […]. The authors of the article have chosen two popular textbooks: Headway Upper-Intermediate and Landmark Upper-Intermediate […]. The comparison of these two textbooks and the statistical analysis method helped the authors to identify the amount and quality of sociopragmatics and pragmalinguistics exercises. Empirical observation showed that these elements are fragmentary in the Headway textbook, while in the Landmark textbook there are 36 pages devoted to training in pragmatic competence. The authors are of the opinion that the people who write and publish textbooks should keep in mind the multi-dimensionality of linguistic competence and should therefore provide an appropriate balance of exercises for structural-grammatical competence training on the one hand and pragmatic competence training on the other hand […]