The Importance of Pragmatics in Writing

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Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, right? It's a bit like cooking a good meal. The piece of writing should somehow manage the relationship you have with that person as well. And again, let's go back to the thing about pragmatics. So in terms of words that you might use in writing or in speaking, it's not about knowing a lot of words either. That helps, of course. But the reason I say that is because some people might judge their English by the number of words they know.

How do we know when someone's English is good? Is it just about having a "British accent", knowing lots of big words, or speaking with no errors? In fact, there is a lot more to it than that. IELTS can show us how someone's level of English is assessed by looking at a wide range of skills and sub-skills and there is a lot more to it than making no errors while speaking with a "British accent". This episode should help you consider your own level of English level, get some perspective on what language competence really means, and hopefully cause people to think twice when making snap judgements about other people's English.

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