Investigating Iraqi EFL Learners' Recognition Of Conversational Implicature At The University Level

Abstract

Conversational implicature assessing has become one of the topics that have gained attention in the field of language teaching as an essential element of language proficiency, especially in the last decades. The ability to understand conversational implicature is an important aspect of EFL learners' competence and therefore essential for mastering English as a foreign language. The present study aims to examine Iraqi EFL learners' recognition of conversational implicature and its impact on their communication ability and language skills therefore its role in their language proficiency level. The study tool included a questionnaire that measures learners' ability to understand and recognize conversational implicature generation. The results showed that the learners' recognition level of implicature generation because of flouting the maxims was low, i.e. the learners are not able to distinguish all the cases of flouting the maxims. That might interpreted due the fact that learners' language proficiency allows them to understand the clear obvious meaning of linguistic expression in better way than the implied meaning of the same expression.