Hussen, Gobena HassoWoldemariam, Haileleul Zeleke2020-02-072020-02-072016-06Hussen, G. H., & Woldemariam, H. Z. (2016). An investigation of the pragmatic knowledge of year one students of the School of Humanities and Law at Adama Science And Technology University: A case study. NAWA Journal of Language & Communication, 10(1), 55–94.1993-3835http://ir.nust.na/jspui/handle/10628/680*Lecturer, Arsi University (Ethiopia) ** Deputy director/ Associate Professor, Department of Communication, FHS, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, NamibiaThis research aimed to investigate the pragmatic competence of year one university students in the School of Humanities and Law at Adama Science and Technology University. Pragmatic competence requires being able to speak and behave appropriately, and being able to understand what others say and do according to the socio-cultural context in which they are used. The data were collected from 70 students learning in six departments in the School of Humanities and Law School. Three main instruments were used to produce these results: a discourse completion test, multiple choice discourse completion test and observation. The data gathered were interpreted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The pragmatic competence level of these participants was found to be at a middle level. Generally, from a pragmatic competence viewpoins, first year students in the School of Humanities and Law are better at recognising what is given to them than produce the utterances practically in the case of speech acts, cooperative and politeness principles. The researcher recommends that students should have to practice a variety of activities in English to be pragmatically competent in daily communication.enPragmatic knowledgeDiscourse completion testMultiple choice discourse completion testPragmatic competenceArticle