Abstract. Pragmatic competence is being considered as a crucial component of language education, this study is intended to be a review on the value and place of pragmatic competence in general language competence and language education. For the purposes of this review, some core definitions proposed by prominent researchers about the term are presented followed by some studies, especially recent ones, investigating different factors affecting pragmatic competence and the significance of pragmatic competence in language education. There has been analyzed the terms competence and performance as well. Since competence and performance are considered interrelated aspects in language education.

Key words: pragmatic, communicative, competence, performance, language teaching, language education, linguistic knowledge, communicative, context.