Knowledge of Multiword Units and Pragmatic Ability of EFL Learners

Multiword chunks are critically significant in facilitating communicative competence and producing fluent speech. EFL learners might need an over-focused on multiword units to include this knowledge as a kind of ability in their English language acquisition process to achieve optimal use of language. To investigate any relation between the non-native speakers’ multiword knowledge and their pragma-linguistic ability in the way they perceive given speech acts, the findings shed light to the point that acquiring the knowledge of chunks can accelerate and foster the rate of pragmatic growth in EFL learners. Providing the opportunities for explicit and systematic teaching of formulaic forms to compensate for their pragmatic incompetence can lead to automatic speech production and consequently can enhance and reinforce the pragmatic development and functions focusing on specific speech acts.