relevance of pragmatics for language teaching

This paper is a brief reflection about the relevance of pragmatics for language teaching. Therefore, it takes into account the fact that to use a language, a person needs much more than merely the knowledge about language structure. Instead, it is necessary to develop a pragmatic competence, with which it is possible to understand the interlocutor and the meanings behind the words he/she utters and as well as how to behave within specific communicative situations. The pragmatic competence makes someone able to interact in different specific situations, such as how to ask, to complain, to apologize, to compliment etc. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relevance of a language pedagogical practice which provides an atmosphere to the development of the pragmatic competence. The relevance of this reflection is that it draws attention to the fact that language teachers need to know about how to approach pragmatics to teach a language, so that learners can benefit from it, upon achieving, as a result, the pragmatic competence.