Reading Literature within a Pragmatic Stance: Convergences and divergences of pragmatics and literary text interpretation

This paper gives an account of the findings of a study inspecting the relevance of pragmatics within literature sessions. It considers Algerian English language students’ perceptions of the value of pragmatic instruction, the ways to develop pragmatic ability, and the effect of these two factors on literary text interpretation in the EFL learning context in Algeria. A total of 53 Algerian EFL first-year university students took part in the study. A structured interview and a five-point Likert scale questionnaire were used to collect data about students’ perceptiveness of integrating pragmatic knowledge in view of understanding and interpreting English literary texts. The results of the study have offered practical proof for English instructors in Algeria signaling the import of pragmatic instruction and the upshot of training students to view the literary text from a pragmatic stance. The statistical analysis gives evidence for the positive association between pragmatic teaching and literary text understanding. The findings indicate as well that students’ self-made ways to attain pragmatic knowledge are not efficient without a structured course that would be integrated within their syllabus.