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Cultivating Pragmatic Competence of Non-English Majors from the Perspective of Pragmatic Failure

Author: ChiShuo
Tutor: LiuYongBing
School: Northeast Normal University
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: pragmatic failure the cultivation of pragmatic competence college English teaching non-English majors
CLC: H319
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 151
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Abstract

As the international communications speed up, communications and cooperation between all the nations begin to increase, foreign languages, as a tool for communications, play a very important role in modern social life. Language learners are not only required to master some knowledge of foreign language, but also to have pragmatic competence so that they can understand each other’s words exactly and express themselves appropriately according to the context, avoiding pragmatic errors. That is to say, pragmatic competence is one of the abilities that English learners should have and language learners have to know the rules for using languages in all kinds of situations in addition to mastering the grammar and vocabulary.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyze the current situations of non-English majors’pragmatic failure and their pragmatic competence, in order to show the importance of pragmatic competence to non-English majors and help them reduce their pragmatic failure rate, avoid their pragmatic failure and improve their pragmatic competence by enhancing cultural teaching, especially the teaching of cultural differences between China and the West, and the teaching of pragmatic knowledge and pragmatic rules.In this study, the concepts and theories of pragmatics, pragmatic competence and pragmatic failure are reviewed. Then the students majored in maths at a Normal College and some students in other universities and colleges of Jilin province are selected as the subjects and questionnaire surveys are conducted. Through questionnaire one, the students" pragmatic and cultural awareness are investigated; through questionnaire two, their pragmatic failure and pragmatic competence are investigated. Meanwhile, the two classes of a Normal College majored in maths are selected as the experimental and the control classes. In the English classroom teaching of the experimental class, the teaching of cultural background knowledge is enhanced. When teaching vocabulary and grammar, pragmatic knowledge and the relevant pragmatic rules and principles are emphasized so as to improve the students’ pragmatic competence and help them avoid pragmatic failure in practical English communications. On the other hand, traditional methods are used in the control class and the students’ pragmatic competence is not specially treated. In the end, through data collection and analysis, it can be seen whether the cultural and pragmatic teaching can help the students reduce pragmatic failure rate, even avoid it and improve their pragmatic competence.The findings of the present study are as follows:(1) According to the analysis of the statistics, non-English majors’pragmatic competence is not very strong, although they have had six-year English learning or even longer.(2) Non-English majors’pragmatic and cultural awareness is not strong. Although most of them realize the importance of cultural knowledge to English learning, they seldom learn it given in textbooks actively and study the English and American cultures and the cultural differences between China and the West through other means and approaches after class. Moreover, most students know little about pragmatic rules and knowledge. Teachers also seldom mention them in daily English teaching.(3) The rate of non-English majors’pragmatic failure is a little higher. Their pragmatic failure includes both pragmalinguistic errors and sociopragmatic errors. Their pragmatic competence needs improving.(4) Teachers can help their students improve their pragmatic competence, avoid pragmatic failure in English communications or reduce pragmatic failure rate by enhancing cultural and pragmatic teaching and improve their cultural and pragmatic awareness in English classroom teaching.The reasons that cause pragmatic failure is also analyzed in this thesis in order to make teachers and students know about the causes for pragmatic failure and try to avoid it. Several implications and suggestions are put forward to help students reduce and avoid pragmatic failure.Although there still exist limitations in the present study, the findings can reveal the current situations of non-English majors’ pragmatic failure and competence to some extent, and some ideas of how to help students improve their pragmatic competence and avoid pragmatic failure are proposed, which all provide insights and implications for college English pragmatic teaching and are of great directive significance to college English teaching.

Cultivating Pragmatic Competence of Non-English Majors from the Perspective of Pragmatic Failure

Abstract

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