Poor knowledge and proficiency in the English language has been shown to be a major issue of many migrants, refugees and new settlers in Australia. This can have wide-ranging negative consequences and challenges in various aspects in life for these people including employment, healthcare, social life, academic pursuits, and community engagement. Understanding the complex effects of language barriers on immigration populations is key to creating better support systems and integrating immigrant communities more fully.

While learning the phonology, morphology, syntax and semantic meanings of vocabulary of a language are indeed necessary, knowledge of pragmatics is essential for cross-cultural communication. Pragmatics refer to non-literal meanings of certain words or phrases, which differ depending on the context in which the word or phrase is uttered. Learning the pragmatics of English could allow these new settlers to understand the culture of the local population when they interact with them when such words or phrases are uttered during social interactions.

This study will determine the impact of a concrete educational intervention on the English abilities and proficiency of a group of migrants, refugees and new settlers residing at Whyalla. They will be asked to play a card game titled Mind You, which was designed for them to practise forming sentences with English pragmatic markers while answering hypothetical questions.

A descriptive qualitative approach will be adopted to analyse the learning experiences of these migrants, refugees and new settlers. Following the game, the participants will be queried in a survey about their experiences with the speaking practise and how the game improved their English verbal communication skills or otherwise. Our paper will provide the results and discussion on how other educators and policy makers can foster and facilitate a welcoming language learning experiences for new settlers for increased opportunities in academic, employment, social and other services. In turn, this can potentially improve the ability for these new settlers to integrate into their new communities.

Keywords: Pragmatics, games, education, immigration, integration, communication, language, English.