DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i11.007

Pages: 1588-1593

This study is premised on the notion that boys and girls perform differently in communicative English with girls often outperforming the boys. Generally, pragmatic errors, in particular pragmabehavioral errors, are often cited as direct cause of misunderstanding leading to communication breakdown. Using a descriptive research design and a sample of ninety respondents, the researcher isolated errors in day-to-day communication of the respondents and documented the seriousness of these errors. The main objectives of the study were to identify and describe the types of pragmabehavioral communication and errors, and examine gender differences and individual variations of these pragmatic errors among the Kimeru L1 learners of L2 English. The study was guided by Murcia’s [1] Model of Communicative Competence. The sample was drawn from three selected secondary schools in Central Imenti Sub-county, Meru County, Kenya. The main instruments of data collection were observation schedule and teacher interviews. Results indicate that there were gender differences in the way the female and the male used gestures and facial expressions, spatial distance, oculesics, body posture, artifacts and voice modulation. These results are hoped to raise awareness of gender differences in pragmabehavioral communication and the role pragmabehavioral communication plays in ensuring that a second language learners achieve communicative competence.