Abstract
Pragmatic competence is an essential dimension of second-language communication because learners must interpret intended meaning and select expressions that fit social context, not merely produce grammatically accurate sentences. This study examines reported pragmatic competence among Pakistani undergraduates learning English as a foreign language (EFL), focusing on conversational implicature, situational routines, and speech acts, alongside gender and university context. The source manuscript describes a quantitative cross-sectional assessment of 170 second-year students from Ghazi University and Education University. Participants completed a Discourse Completion Task (DCT), and responses were scored as correct or incorrect before statistical analysis. The source reports a total mean score of 7.44 out of a possible 31 points, suggesting substantial difficulty on the assessment. It also reports no statistically significant gender difference for implicature (p = .60) and suggests possible differences between universities in selected domains. However, several values and interpretations in the original tables and narrative conflict. This revised version therefore preserves reported figures where identifiable and explicitly marks results that require verification rather than inventing corrected statistics. The findings support explicit attention to implied meaning, conventional interactional routines, and context-sensitive speech-act choices in EFL curricula. The study is limited by its two-institution sample, cross-sectional design, dependence on a DCT, and incomplete statistical reporting. Further research should verify the original dataset, publish a transparent scoring rubric, and combine written tasks with observed interaction.
