Abstract The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using pragmatic-based activities to develop preparatory stage students' EFL speaking skills. The instruments of the study were a speaking checklist, speaking test and scoring rubric. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design using two groups; the first was experimental, and the second was the control group comprising the sample of the study (n=30). The results showed that the experimental group students exceeded their counterparts of the control group students on the posttest. In addition, the experimental group showed a significant improvement in the posttest when comparing students' pre-scores to their post-scores. Also, using pragmatic activities in EFL classrooms developed students' speaking skills. Keywords: Pragmatic competence, speech acts, authentic situations