<![CDATA[Pragmatic competence occupies a crucial position in communicative ability in EFL context, despite its limited conceptual and instructional development. This study examines whether Indonesian English major students’ pragmatic competence is associated with motivation, exposure to English, previous educational background, and gender. The aim is to determine whether pragmatic ability develops alongside commonly recognized predictors of language achievement or functions as an independent dimension of communicative competence. A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional design was employed with ninety-seven first year undergraduate university students. A Discourse Completion Test was used to assess pragmatic competence, a self-determination motivation questionnaire, and an English exposure scale containing demographic information. Spearman rank-order correlation and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze relationships and group differences. The results show no significant relationships between pragmatic competence and most dimensions of motivation, all types of English exposure, previous educational background, or gender. A small negative correlation was observed only with intrinsic stimulation. These findings indicate that general motivation and frequent exposure do not necessarily foster context-sensitive pragmatic ability. Instead, pragmatic competence appears to depend more on sociocultural awareness and interactional experience than on linguistic engagement alone. The study highlights the need for explicit pragmatic instruction and context-based interaction in EFL curricula and contributes to interlanguage pragmatics by clarifying the conditions under which pragmatic competence develops.]]>
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