Educating For Just Speech: A Didactic And Ethical Approach To Pragmatic Competence In A Foreign Language

Teaching how to speak rightly is not merely about grammatical accuracy; it is about cultivating human fairness in speech. In this paper, we examine pragmatic competence as a point of intersection between language and responsibility, between speaking and being. Our starting point is the well-documented observation that many foreign language learners master linguistic structures but fail to create genuine meaning in interaction. Speech, when it ignores the other, becomes an empty gesture. We propose to view pragmatic competence not as an optional refinement but as a learning process of discursive responsibility, in line with Habermas's idea that authentic communication is rooted in mutual recognition. Based on several sessions of classroom observation and recordings of debates between learners, followed by moments of collective negotiation, we saw our students begin to listen differently, weigh their words, and become aware that every linguistic choice says something about who they are. At that moment, they realize that speaking is no longer a mere instrument, but an ethical act – a space of inhabited otherness.