How Do Advanced L2 Learners Demonstrate Pragmatic Competence by Aligning Linguistic Choices with Their Interpretation of the Social Context in Oral Discourse?

As more students pursue international education, the ability to communicate effectively in English-speaking environments has become essential. This also includes understanding the social and cultural nuances of language use, or pragmatic competence, which requires effective teaching and assessment methods. Traditional pragmatic assessments often focus on specific speech acts and employ discourse completion tasks. However, these approaches may not fully capture the dynamic and context-dependent nature of pragmatic language use. This research aimed to contribute to the improvement of pragmatic assessment and teaching by examining how pragmatic competence is demonstrated by B2-C2 level language learners when making requests. To achieve this, the research analyzed the relationship between language production and learners’ context analysis in spoken interactions. Thirty international university students at B2-C2 levels participated in two role-play scenarios and subsequent interviews to explore how their language use reflected their understanding of the contexts. A mixed-methods approach was adopted for data analysis. Qualitative analysis was employed to explore the nuances of speech production and interview data, complemented by quantitative analysis of participants’ evaluations of perceived imposition. The findings revealed that as proficiency levels increased, students demonstrated a deeper understanding of the social context and were better able to adapt their speech accordingly.