The Relationship Between Grammatical Knowledge and Pragmatic Knowledge of Speech Act of Request in Iranian EFL Learners

The purpose of the current study was, to investigate the relationship between grammatical knowledge and pragmatic knowledge of speech act of request among Iranian EFL learners. This study is an attempt to examine whether there is a significant relationship between grammatical knowledge and pragmatic knowledge of speech acts. The total data were obtained from a 90 university students majoring in English Translation in Rasht Azad University. In order to achieve this goal, the researcher first administered an OPT test; this test was supposed to determine the degree of language proficiency of each individual. After that the researcher divided the learners into 3 groups of pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced group. Then for measuring grammatical knowledge of these selected subjects a validated 30 items grammar test administered. Then a discourse completion test (DCT) questionnaire as a pragmatic test had been taken. in the present study the speech act of request investigated .The calculated data were analyzed through an inferential statistics. The findings of the study obtained through statistical analyses indicated that there is significant relationship between grammatical knowledge and pragmatic competence in pre-intermediate and intermediate level students. But those who were in advanced level and have more grammatical knowledge performed better both in grammatical knowledge and pragmatic competence.