On Cultivating the Pragmatic Competence of College Students in English Teaching
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发生巨大变化 to undergo yet more changes中国将更加遵循……原则 china will bring its own practices in linewith ……拉动世界经济 to provide/give/lend substantial impetus to the world economyrequire 这个词很重要比如“这都需要在国际合作的环境中才能实现”allof the above requires an environment of international cooperation给一个比较叼的说法“中国以敞开大门,张开双手”china has thrown its door wide open, and reached out with open arms 看起来比较还不多的哦,但是一个句子利用了两个open。
表示对下一步工作的继续进行,用continue 什么工作就好了。
有利于推动……的发展 be conductive to the development of sth做到……的统一 strike the balance of ……我们应该清楚地意识到 it is clear to us that保持经济的长盛不衰 perpetuate an economic boom……是有目共睹的 be there for all to see经济形势不是economic situation 而是economic climate国企改革问题、大量失业待业问题、生态环境破坏问题、金融风险问题、腐败问题等需要重点记住,这里不列英语了需要尽快找到解决方法 to require our immediate attention and effective solutions in the shortest time possible盲目发展 blind development调控 regulate这是一个把握分寸的问题 this is an issue of maintaining the right balance上市 seek listing on the stock market在金融全球化的潮流中急流勇进 to ride the wave of financial globalization表示数量很多的 a handful of省级银行 provincial level banks 重点看省级的即是怎么表示出来的法人在林超伦的翻译中是legal person,而经过我的查找,corporation和artificial person比较正确而且常见。
pragmatic 词根Pragmatism: A Philosophy for Practical SolutionsIntroductionPragmatism is a philosophical theory that emphasizes the practical approach to solving problems. Derived from the Greek word "pragma," which means "action," pragmatism is centered around the belief that an idea or action should be evaluated based on its practical consequences and usefulness. This school of thought has played a significant role in shaping various fields, including politics, education, and ethics. In this article, we will delve into the core principles of pragmatism, its origins, prominent philosophers who advocated for it, and its influence on different aspects of society.Origins of PragmatismAlthough pragmatism emerged as a distinct philosophical movement in the late 19th century, its roots can be traced back to earlier philosophical traditions. The concept of practicality was present in the works of ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. However, it was American intellectuals who developed and popularized this notion in the modern context.The Birth of PragmatismThe founding fathers of pragmatism are Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. Peirce, an American philosopher and scientist, is often credited as the founder of pragmatism. Hebelieved that truth is not static but constantly evolving through scientific inquiry and experimentation. Peirce introduced the idea of "pragmatic maxim," which states that the meaning of a concept can be understood through the practical consequences it has for our actions.Contributions of William JamesWilliam James, an American psychologist and philosopher, further expanded upon the ideas of pragmatism. He argued that truth should be evaluated based on its practical value and relevance to human experience. James believed that beliefs should be viewed as instruments that help us navigate the world and achieve desired outcomes. This concept, known as "instrumentalism," became a cornerstone of pragmatism.John Dewey's ImpactJohn Dewey, an American philosopher and educator, made significant contributions to pragmatism's practical applications in the field of education. He believed that education should not only focus on transmitting knowledge but also on developing practical skills and problem-solving abilities. Dewey's ideas paved the way for progressive education, which emphasizes learning through real-life experiences and hands-on activities.Key Principles of PragmatismPragmatism is characterized by several key principles that distinguish it from other philosophical theories:1. Practical Consequences: The primary criterion for evaluating the truth or value of an idea is its practical consequences. Pragmatists argue that ideas that lead to desirable outcomes are more valid and useful.2. Instrumentalism: Beliefs are seen as tools that help us achieve desired ends. Pragmatism rejects absolute truths and focuses on the usefulness of beliefs in guiding our actions and decisions.3. Experimental Approach: Pragmatism values experimentation and observation as methods for uncovering truth. It prioritizes practical experience over speculation and abstract reasoning.4. Fallibilism: Pragmatists acknowledge that human knowledge is fallible and subject to revision. They believe that truth is constantly evolving and can change based on new evidence and experiences.Applications of PragmatismPragmatism has had a profound impact on various fields and aspects of society:1. Politics: Pragmatism has influenced political thought by emphasizing the need for practical solutions rather than adhering to rigid ideologies. Pragmatist politicians prioritize the well-being of their constituents and seek pragmatic policies that address practical problems.2. Education: Pragmatism has significantly shaped moderneducation methods, particularly through the progressive education movement. This approach focuses on hands-on learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.3. Ethics: Pragmatism offers a pragmatic approach to ethical dilemmas. It argues that moral principles should be evaluated based on their practical consequences, rather than relying on abstract theories.4. Science: Pragmatism has made notable contributions to the philosophy of science. It emphasizes the importance of experimentation and observation in developing scientific theories and rejecting or revising them based on practical outcomes.Critiques of PragmatismLike any philosophical theory, pragmatism has faced criticism from various quarters. Some argue that pragmatism overly focuses on practicality and neglects the importance of abstract reasoning and moral principles. Others claim that pragmatism can lead to relativism, where truth becomes subjective and dependent on personal experiences and preferences.ConclusionPragmatism, with its emphasis on practical consequences and problem-solving, has provided valuable insights into various fields of study. From politics to education, pragmatism has influenced the way we approach and tackle challenges in our daily lives. While it has its critics, pragmatism continues to offer a frameworkfor practical solutions and encourages a more pragmatic and flexible approach to understanding and addressing complex issues.。
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics that studies how context and social factors contribute to meaning in language. It looks at how language is used in real-life situations and how it can be interpreted beyond its literal or grammatical meaning. Pragmatics also examines howmunicative acts are performed and understood, including the role of speaker intentions, assumptions, and presuppositions inmunication.1. Definition of PragmaticsPragmatics is the study of how context influences the interpretation of language. It focuses on the use of language inmunication, taking into account the speaker's intentions, the context of the conversation, and the social and cultural factors that may impact meaning. Unlike semantics, which deals with the literal meaning of words and sentences, pragmatics looks at the implied or inferred meaning of language in use.2. Key Concepts in Pragmaticsa. Speech ActsOne of the central concepts in pragmatics is speech acts, whichrefers to the actions performed by speakers through their utterances. These actions can include making requests, giving orders, making promises, or expressing opinions. Speech acts are not just about the words themselves, but also the intentions and effects behind them.b. Grice's MaximsGrice's conversational maxims are another important concept in pragmatics. These maxims, proposed by philosopher H.P. Grice, outline the principles that guide cooperativemunication. They include the maxims of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner, which suggest that speakers should be informative, truthful, relevant, and clear in theirmunication.c. ImplicatureImplicature refers to the inferred meaning that arises from an utterance, beyond its literal meaning. The study of implicature is central to the understanding of how context and pragmatic principles affect the interpretation of language. For example, when someone says "It's cold in here," the implicature might be a request to close a window or turn up the heat.3. Applications of PragmaticsPragmatics has implications for various areas of language use, including language teaching, cross-culturalmunication, and discourse analysis.a. Language TeachingIn language teaching, an understanding of pragmatics is crucial for learners to effectively use language in real-world situations. Teaching pragmatics involves helping learners understand the appropriate use of language in different contexts and how to interpret the implied meanings and intentions inmunication.b. Cross-Cultural CommunicationPragmatics also plays a significant role in cross-culturalmunication. Different languages and cultures may have varying pragmatic norms and conventions, leading to potential misunderstandings or mimunications. By understanding the pragmatic differences between languages, individuals can navigate cross-cultural interactions more effectively.c. Discourse AnalysisIn discourse analysis, pragmatics is used to examine how language is used to achievemunicative goals in different contexts. This includes studying the patterns of interaction, power dynamics, and politeness strategies in discourse, as well as how context influences the interpretation of language in specific settings.4. Challenges and Controversies in PragmaticsDespite its importance, pragmatics also faces several challenges and controversies in its study. These include issues related to the cultural and context-specific nature of pragmatic meaning, the difficulty of establishing universal pragmatic principles, and the role of pragmatics in language processing and understanding.a. Cultural and Context-Specific NatureOne challenge in pragmatics is the recognition of the cultural and context-specific nature of pragmatic meaning. Differentcultures may have unique norms and conventions formunication, leading to variations in pragmatic interpretation. This makes it difficult to establish universal rules for pragmatic understanding.b. Universal Pragmatic PrinciplesAnother controversial issue is the search for universal pragmatic principles. While some scholars argue for the existence of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural pragmatic principles, others emphasize the diversity and variability of pragmatic norms across languages and cultures. This ongoing debate reflects theplexity of studying pragmatics on a global scale.c. Pragmatics and Language ProcessingThe relationship between pragmatics and language processing is another area of contention. Some researchers argue that pragmatics is an essentialponent of language understanding, while others m本人nt本人n that it is secondary to the processing of grammatical and semantic information. Resolving this issue has implications for the study ofmunication disorders and the development of natural language processing systems.5. ConclusionIn conclusion, pragmatics offers valuable insights into theplex nature of language use and interpretation. By examining the role of context, social factors, and speaker intentions inmunication, pragmatics enhances our understanding of how language works in the real world. Despite the challenges and controversies it faces, the study of pragmatics continues to be an important and dynamic field within linguistics, with implications for language teaching, cross-culturalmunication, and discourse analysis. As we strive to better understand the multifaceted nature of language andmunication, pragmatics rem本人ns a crucial area of investigation.。
A Study of Cultivating Pragmatic Competencein Primary School English Teaching1.IntroductionIn the modern world, with the globalization, English Teaching is more and more popular in our country. With the new curriculum reform, English teaching in primary school has made a great progress. However, in the current classroom of primary school, teachers pay too much attention to the learners’learning of knowledge and accumulation of knowledge, relatively neglecting to train the students' ability to communicate in English. Language is a carrier. The ultimate goal of language learning is to make the use of the carrier to communicate with others. As an important way to learn oral English, the classroom English teaching in primary school should be paid sufficient attention. However, in China, a number of English teachers just simply impart knowledge to students, ignoring the English pragmatic problems, leading to a serious problem that most of the students do not understand what they have been taught and can not read and write, which is called the deaf and dumb English. Language learning is a complex process that cannot be accomplished at one stroke, hence how to use the limited classroom time to improve the students’ pragmatic competence of English becomes the main problem of the reform of English classroom.According to the observation of the actual primary school English classroom teaching, combining the primary school students’ learning psychology and learning characteristics, this paper discusses existing problems in the process of English Teaching in primary school, and according to the “ Primary School English Curriculum Standard ” , this paper also gives the corresponding solution strategies, making the students transform English knowledge into the ability to speak English and achieve the target to cultivate students’English pragmatic competence in meaningful communicative activities.。
The Cultivation of Pragmatic Competence in College EnglishTeaching1.IntroductionWith the acceleration of globalization and internationalization, more and more cross-cultural communication occurs. English as a universal communicative tool, is used most commonly. Therefore, to understand the language and to use it appropriately is becoming crucial important. Successful communication requires not just a high level of linguistic competence, but also a corresponding level of pragmatic competence. However, in many colleges, the students are short of pragmatic competence, they often commit pragmatic errors in communication or use too much Chinglish. Teachers’ instruction concentrates much on the content of textbooks and skills training, while the development of st udents’ pragmatic competence is almost completely ignored. Thi s kind of language teaching can’t meet the need of modernization and cross-cultural communication. Thus, it is of great necessity to draw a clear picture about the current level of English pragmatic competence of Chinese college students. This study intends to explore the main causes of college students’ low pragmatic competence and feasible ways to the cultivation of pragmatic competence, so as to achieve the goal of College English Teaching.2.The Current Situation of College English TeachingCollege English teaching reached its height in the late 1990s for three major reasons. The first reason is, of course, the importance and necessity of English in communication and work because of the increasing opportunities of international interaction. With the rapid development of Chinese economy, more and more world-famous companies set up their branches in China. English got the first place in the college courses for students who wished to seize the chances of working in those companies and joint ventures. The second reason is the issue of the nation-wide College English Test (CET 4 and CET 6). Many companies and working units took the certificates as the language proficiency and many universities relate the certificates to the requirement for graduation. Some students even paid more attention to English than to their majors. The third reason is the English examination for postgraduates. Due to the pressure of good working opportunities, more and more college students took the examination and English became the key factor of their success in the examination. For whatever reasons, there appeared a nation-wide “English Rush”.It has been accepted that language is more than simply a system of rules. Language is now generally seen as a dynamic resource for the creation of meaning. In terms of teaching, it is generally accepted that teachers need to distinguish between students’ knowing various grammar rules and being able to use the rules effectively and appropriately when communicating. But most teachers fail to do so. It seems that college English teachers and textbook compilers ignore the introduction of the pragmatic knowledge related to linguistic form. Consequently, college English students lack the due alertness when it comes to choosing and applying the linguistic form. In an English classroom, the teacher may list various sentence patterns for the students to practice making a request like “Would /Could/Will you please...?”; “I wonder if you could...”; “Would you mind...?” Without giving many instructions on how these sentences are used in different context and which one is more polite than the other, the students may take it for granted that all these expressions are more or less the same, they may firmly remember one strategy of making the request, and use it in any situation when needed. Similarly, when a college student hears a foreigner say, “Don’t y ou think it is a bit cold here?”, he understands the utterance as a question by instinct then makes affirmative or negative res ponse, “Yes, I think so; No, I don’t think so.”. The reason for misunderstanding is that the student is unaware of the underlying meaning in the utterance, which is request “Wou ld you please close the window?”The reason why this failure occurs is that the textbook has not covered communicative strategy on making an indirect request and the teachers make no relevant introduction. The only thing the students learn about is to practice the sentence patterns, the traditional method and teaching principles focus mainly on lexical items and syntactic structures, which can not suit the trend now. We must learn when to use them, under what circumstances they are appropriate, if we want to truly understand what they mean. Students are required to acquire not only linguistic competence but also pragmatic competence. Hence more efforts should be made to further foster students’ pragmatic competence while developing their linguistic competence.3. Significance of Teaching Pragmatics in College English TeachingBecause of the current situation and problems of college English teaching in China, It is of great significance of teaching pragmatics in college English teaching.As is known to most of us, pragmatics is a branch of general linguistics, There are many definitions of pragmatics around. According to David Crystal: “Pragmatics is the study of language from the point of view of users, especially of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction and the effects their use of language has on other participants in the act of communication” (Crystal 1985:240). In other words, pragmatics is the study of communicative action in its sociocultural context. Leech (1983) focuses on pragmatics as interpersonal rhetoric—the way speakers and writers accomplish goals as social actors who do not just need to get things done but attend to their interpersonal relationships with other participants at the same time.Here, the central element is: pragmatics is the scientific study of how to understand and convey meanings appropriately in different contexts.It is most recognized that the ultimate goal of foreign language learning is to communicate effectively. As English learners, they certainly wish to acquire the same communicative competence as native speakers have. So Thomas (1986, Qt in Jiang, 2003) summarizes the points why pragmatics should be taught as follows:A.Sensitizing learners to pragmalinguistic issues demands new (cognitive) approaches tothe study of language.B.Sensitizing learners to sociopragmatic issues demands different approaches to the studyof language.C.Sociopragmatic “errors” are often not identified as such.D.Sociopragmatic differences are often attributed to rudeness on the part of learners.E.Sensitizing people to sociopragmatic issues is a way of challenging ethnic and nationalstereotype.From Thomas’ summarization, it’s obviously why we should teach students pragmatics during their learning process. The following are the significant meaning of teaching pragmatics.To help them understand fully the potential of illocutionary force of utterances in the target language.To help them make explicit the embedded cultural information which will not be noticed unless taught.To help them perform not only grammatically correct but contextually appropriate linguistic actions.To help them make full use of the range of strategies of certain speech act in various situations so as to enhance both communication an interpersonal relationships, andthis is the ultimate goal of many language learners.To help them to avoid pragmatic failure with the above four aims fully realized.After knowing the significance of teaching pragmatics, now the issue will turn to how to cultivate the students’ pragmatic competence.4. The Methodology of Cultivating Pragmatic Competence in CollegeEnglish TeachingBy now, Language teachers should have realized that pragmatic appropriateness has become an aspect that should not be neglected in language teaching. In addition, they should under stand the importance of developing students’ pragmatic competence along with teaching English language in order to build a bridge over the cross-cultural gap between Chinese and English. So far, there has been no systematic way of developing students’ pragmatic competence, but some possible methods could be worked out. The following are some suggestions on cultivating college students’ pragmatic competence.4.1 Context teachingContext is dynamic and closely related to language use. Drawing the students’ at tention to context contributes to their pragmatic competence. In the college English teaching, teachers should combine the teaching of the linguistic form with that of its linguistic function and make students aware of the importance of the flexible use of language in accordance with different context. Teachers are also suggested to help the students to go beyond the mastery of language structures, to the point where they can use them to communicate meanings in real situation. Therefore, the introduction and analysis of context should be carried out in college English teaching and learning.In the teaching of intonation, teachers should let students know that a sentence may have different intonations in different situations that convey different meanings. For example: the sentence “I beg your pardon” can be spoken in either falling tone or rising tone in different situation contexts: when one speaker does not understand the other speaker, he uses the rising tone to make a request “Could you say it again?”, bu t when one speaker wants to make an apology to the other, he uses the falling tone meaning “I am so sorry knocking you down.” While in the actual use, most of the students have no knowledge of the second situation.In the teaching of written and spoken discourse, helping students to understand thesituation and cultural context is beneficial. When teaching a text, an analysis of the individual sentences is not enough, the author’s writing style, the intention that the author writes the text and the cultural background when the author writes should also be taken into consideration.Teachers should also invite students to analyze the various situational contexts of a spoken discourse to make better understanding of speaker’s meaning and develop strategic competence. For example: teachers may invite students to observe the following conversations:Situation l:Speaker A: The hostess is an awful bore, don’t you think?Speake r B: The roses are lovely, aren’t they?Spe aker B did not answer speaker A’s question. Instead, he mentions something irrel evant that indirectly means, “Let’s not talk about the hostess.” This communicative strategy not only expresses his reluctance in talking about the topic but also makes no offense to speaker A.Situation 2:Speaker A: That’s the phone.Speaker B: I am in the bathroom.Speaker A: Okay.In this situation, both speaker A and speaker B have a good understanding of each other’s intention. Speaker B uses “I am in the bathroom.”indicating a refusal discourse meaning “I can not answer the phone now.” And the speaker A uses “okay”indicating “I know it, maybe I will answer the phone.”Language use is always situated against a complex background with which it is related in a variety of ways. So college English teachers should help the students grasp the skills including both mastery of language structures and the pragmatic competence, to the point, which they can use them to communicate meanings in real situations. As mentioned above, college English teachers should have context awareness, then what problems should be paid attention to in practical teaching? Let`s look at the following principles of context teaching.1)Principle one: present the foreign language in contextThe presentation of meaning and use of a foreign language should take place in some context, either by the materials the class is using or created by the teacher. The context should have a number of characteristics. It should, for example, show what the new language means and how it is used. A lot of useful contexts, therefore, show the new language being used in written materials. The students can thus see or hear the new language at the same time as they understand what it means and how it is used.Ideally the context in which the language is introduced will be a reasonable model for students to imitate and then use as the basis for making their own utterances.In short, teachers should promote communication in genuine sense, that is, to prepare learners for the negotiation of meaning and creation of interpretations within concrete sociocultural contexts.2)Principle two: Give a good contextA good context should be interesting and useful to the students. By “interesting”, it doesn’t mean that all the contexts that the students see have to be wildly funny or incrediblyinventive, but the students should at least want or s ee or hear the information. By “useful”, it indicates the learners’ own perception of the usefulness of the language they are learning can be a powerful motivating force that will foster the development of language proficiency and encourage communication.3)Principle three: The whole is more than the sum of the partsOne of the most significant features of communication is that it is a dynamic and developing phenomenon. In other words it cannot easily be analyzed into component features without its nature being destroyed in the process. It is of course possible to identify various formal features of the way language is used communicatively and they can be studied individually. But this ability to handle this element in isolation is no indication of ability to communicate. What is needed is the ability to deal with strings of sentences and ideas and in the oral modes (speaking and listening) these strings must be processed in what is called “real” time. What is needed is the ability to work in the context of the whole. We should emphasize on the “whole” rather than the sum of the parts.4)Principle four: A mistake is not always a mistakeTraditional CET teaching methods aim at eradicating mistakes by tightly controlling what the learner is allowed to say. When we remove these controls and encourage the learner actually to start using the language to communicate, then from a certain point of view, problems are bound to arise. There are certain factors, which may account for this. One factor, which is often neglected, is that the students may be forced into activities for which he has not been prepared, and in an effort to deal with them he makes mistakes. Trying to express something you are not quite sure how to say is a vital feature of using a foreign language. A learner who makes mistakes because he is trying to do something he has not been told or shown how to do, or which he has not yet mastered, is not really making a mistake at all. Communicating involves using appropriate forms in appropriate ways, and the use of inappropriate or inaccurate forms militates against communication even when it does not totally prevent it. But, if the students occupy a permanent position of inferiority before a critical audience, with little opportunity for asserting their own individuality, they are likely to feel drawn out to communicate with those around them to develop positive attitudes towards their learning environment.In a foreign language class, the teaching and learning activities involve not only the context of situation for a given teaching task, but also the context of culture which is embedded in the task. So culture teaching is also important in CET.4.2 Culture teachingIt is now commonly accepted that language teaching should focus not only on the form of the language, but also on its social rules, the knowledge of when, how and to whom it is appropriate to use these forms. It is also now realized that successful communication involves cross-cultural understanding which among other things, means avoiding pragmatic failure. Language is inextricably tied to culture. Therefore, language teaching should include culture teaching. The fact is, however, in the process of college English teaching, little emphasis has been put on the de velopment of students’cultural awareness and communicative competence. Although some English teachers admit that culture teaching is an important part of language teaching, they insist on putting emphasis on linguistic forms and give only passing attention to cultural components. As a result, although the studentshave received several years of formal English teaching, they frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use the language, and to understand its use in normal communication, whether in the spoken or written mode. Many a student with good grades in school performs poorly in social situations. Wolfsan points out, “In interacting with foreigners, native speakers tend to be rather tolerant of errors in pronunciation or syntax. In contrast, violations of rules of speaking are often interpreted as bad manners since the native speaker is unlikely to be aware of sociolinguistic relativity (1983:62).So Culture teaching attracts more and more attention from CET researchers. It becomes an inseparable part of college English teaching. So courses about target culture should be included, textbook materials should be approached from a cultural perspective. Language teachers and learners should take greater effort with culture teaching and learning. Next, a brief discussion will be held about how to teach culture both in and out of class.Firstly, we may teach culture by introducing and explaining cultural background knowledge in teaching materials.These cultural points mainly refer to those culturally loaded words, phrases, expressions, idioms, structures or texts. This technique is one of the most widely used techniques in culture teaching and it can be used very well in CET. For instance, the text A Miserable, Merry Christmas in V olume I of College English tells of a happening on Christmas day. In studying this text, the teacher can introduce to students the origin of Christmas, the ways of celebration in Western countries, the related Customs, etc. When explaining subjunctive mood used to show politeness in English, the teacher can at the same time talk about the Politeness Principle in Western cultures. In this way, cultural knowledge is closely linked with language study on one hand, and the students can obtain much useful information about cultural differences between English and Chinese. On the other hand, introduction of cultural background knowledge, as a useful technique, can be best used in learning vocabulary, grammar or texts in Intensive Reading, Extensive Reading or Listening.Secondly, comparison is another widely used technique in culture teaching in class.We Chinese comment, “There can be no differentiation without contrast.”Through comparing native culture with target culture, students can easily make clear the differences and similarities between them and then rapidly develop intercultural awareness. For example, when dealing with the text Profits of Praise in College English, we can take the opportunity to compare people’s different reactions or replies to compliments in China and in western countries. When studying The Present and Big Bucks the Easy Way we can compare the different attitudes to the old and the young and conceptions of independence in families in Chinese culture and in western culture, through comparison, students will have a clear idea about the different beliefs, different value systems, different concepts of the Chinese and the westerners. Such kind of comparison not only makes culture teaching possible in language learning but also helps students to have a better understanding of the articles they read.Thirdly, emphasis on culturally loaded words or expressions is a good and effective way of teaching culture.Word is the primary unit of a language, it links phonetics and grammar. Wilkins points out that without grammar, we cannot express well, but without words we cannot express at all. So word study constitutes the cornerstone of language teaching, it deserves great attention. Furthermore, words are the chief carriers of culture, many words are culturallyloaded, they have their denotations and at the same time they have their connotations or associations, which are closely related to their culture. Thus culturally loaded words always block students in learning English and trap students in communication.Therefore, it is essential that students of a foreign language know not only the denotation of words, but also the connotations, the associations and the communicative value. In English, such kind of culturally loaded words mainly include single words, phrases or allusions, idioms, etc. For some, we can’t find direct equivalent words in Chinese, such as cowboy, hippie, individualism, gold rush, baby-sister, etc. For others, the seemingly equivalent words in Chinese are actually different. For example, peasant in English vs. nong min in Chinese; comrade vs. gan bu, landlord vs. di zhu; yellow vs. huang se, lover vs. ai ren, boyfriend vs. nan peng you, etc. There are too many such words to be covered at one time. All these pairs are not really equivalent in their connotations and associations. Some animal words, such as dog, drago nand color words, such as yellow, red, white and blue etc. are also culturally loaded. As to some allusions or idioms, unless one knows the stories related to them, he or she really cannot capture their real meaning. For example: Uncle Tom, Achilles’heel, boycott, Edsel, volkswgon, Catch-22 or Catch-23.These culturally loaded words really f orm an obstacle to our students’reading and understanding. So it is quite necessary for teachers to pay special attention to these “trap”words. As Will Cadeton suggests, “Careful with fire”, is good advice, we know, “careful with words”, is ten times doubly so.Learning a foreign language doesn’t only mean mastering the correct linguistic forms. As Deng Yanchang proposes, learning a foreign language means “seeing the world as native speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, and learning to understand their language of the mind. Learning a language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.” So we can safely conclude that learning a foreign language should involve the training of communicative competence, and pragmatic competence in particular, to avoid pragmatic failure.5. ConclusionIt has been well documented that successful communication requires not only just a high level of linguistic competence, but also a corresponding level of pragmatic competence. This paper tries to discuss the current situation of pragmatic competence in college English teaching and the significance of teaching pragmatics in CET. However, in the current college English teaching, language is still regarded as a system of rules. What the students mastered is only the linguistic forms not the pragmatic function in which they perform. In China, college English teachers have not paid enough attention to the training of communicative competence in college students, whose cultural awareness of the target language is still relatively low, even though much has been done in recent years. What many Chinese college students master is only linguistic competence, so communication breakdown occurs at all levels on their pragmatic use of language. Therefore, the development of college students’ pragmatic competence is not only a necessary but also an urgent task in college English teaching. In response to it, in this paper, several tentative suggestions are proposed on how to help students to cultivate their pragmatic competence from context teaching and culture teaching two aspects.This is the mainly part of this paper.The study on pragmatics and foreign language teaching shows that pragmatic competence of the English language, as a foreign language may not be improved naturally with the enlargement of vocabulary idiomatic usage and sentence patterns, which fall into the category of linguistic competence. The knowledge of pragmatics should be purposely taught. To cultivate pragmatic competence calls for the use of pragmatic knowledge in the practice of college English teaching and learning. If all the foreign language educators involved in college English teaching make concerted efforts to become an explorer, there will be a promising prospect of college English teaching in the near future.Bibliography[1] Bardovi-Harlig, K & R. Mahan-Taylor. Teaching Pragmatics[M]. Washington DC: U.S.Department of State Office of English Language Programs, 2003.[2] Brown, H. D. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching[M]. Beijing: ForeignLanguage Teaching and Research Press, 2002.[3] Crystal, D. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics[M]. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,1985.[4] Diane Larsen-Freeman & Michael H. Long. An Introduction to second LanguageAcquisition Research[J]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.[5] Dianel Blackmore. Understanding Utterance[M]. Blackwell Publishers, 1992.[6] Eli Hinkel. Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning[M]. CambridgeUniversity Press, 1999.[7] Grundy, P. Doing Pragmatics[M]. London: Edward Arnold, 1995.[8] Kramsch, C. Context and Culture in Language Teaching[M]. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1993.[9] Leech, G. The principles of pragmatics[M]. London: Longman, 1983.[10] Rose, K. R. & G, Kasper. Pragmatics in Language Teaching[M]. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2001.[11]T’homas, J. Cross-culture Pragmatic failure[J]. Applied Lingustics, 1983.[12] Wolfson, N. Perspectives: Sociolingustics and TESOL[M]. Rowley, MA: NewburvHouse Publishers, 1989.[9] 白解红. 语境与语义[J]. 外语与外语教学,2000(4).[10] 陈治安, 刘家荣, 文旭. 英汉对比语用学与英语教学[J]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社,2002.[11] 戈玲玲. 教学语用学[M]. 长沙:国防科技大学出版社,2002.[12] 何自然. 语用学与英语学习[M]. 上海:上海外语教育出版社,1997.[13] 胡壮麟. 语言学教程[J]. 北京大学出版社,2001.[14] 姜望琪. 语用学:理论及应用[M]. 北京:北京大学出版社,2000.[15] 徐桂丽. 谈学生语用能力的培养[J]. 石家庄:河北师范大学学报,1996(5).。
《英语语言学概论》课程教学大纲一、课程说明:《语言学概论》课程是英语专业本科阶段的一门必修课。
《语言学概论》研究始于20世纪初,其目的是揭示人类深层结构,对语言和语言交际作出客观、科学描述。
现已形成了语音学、音系学、形态学、句法学、语义学、语用学等一系分支学科。
语言学研究社会学等人文学科的结合逐步形成了社会语言学这样的交叉学科。
对于主修语言学的学生来说,了解语言学的知识和语言理论是完全必要和有益的。
本课程的对象是英语专业高年级学生,在本科阶段第6学期和第7学期开设。
其中第一、二、三、四、五、七、八、十一章为必修,其余章节为选修。
二、教学目的及要求:本课程的具体要求是:比较全面,系统地了解《语言学概论》这一领域的研究成果,以及一些最主要、最有影响的语言理论和原则,从而加深对人类语言这一人类社会普遍现象的理性认识,并具备一定的运用语言学理论解释语言现象、解决具体语言问题的能力。
本课程是一门知识性比较强的课程。
在教学过程中,应重点讲授主要理论、原则、和研究方法,使学生着重掌握基本概念和基本理论,在理解消化的基础上记忆。
本课程的对象是英语专业学生,在讲解过程中原则上采用英语范例,但不排除一些有助于学习者理解的、针对性强的汉语例子。
应鼓励学生结合自己的语言实践提供更多的例子来解释相关理论,以达到理论和实践相结合的目的。
三、教学重点与难点:本课程的教学重点是语言学的基本知识和基本理论,语音学、词汇学、句法学、语义学和语用学这些语言学的核心内容。
本课程的教学难点是音韵学理论、句法结构和各个语言学流派的理论观点及其局限性。
四、与其它课程的关系:本课程是一门主干性课程。
与其相关的课程,如语法学、词汇学和语体学等都是语言学的分支,属于选修课程。
五、学时与学分:学时:72学时学分:4学分六、教学内容:第一章绪论本章主要教学内容:1.语言学习的意义。
2.语言的定义。
3.语言的定义特征。
4.语言的起源。
5.语言的功能。
6.语言学的定义。
672019年23期总第463期高等教育研究ENGLISH ON CAMPUSCultivating Pragmatic Competence of EFL Education in China From Sociolinguistic Perspective文/Niyan Zhang【Abstract】This paper focuses on cultivating Pragmatic Competence of EFL education in China. First it discusses the nature of EFL education in China, then defines basic two terms: Pragmatic Competence (PC) and Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising (PCR). Thirdly proposes a model on teaching pragmatic competence in China’s EFL context which aims to cultivate EFL learners’ PC. Lastly it draws a brief conclusion on pedagogical implications in China’s EFL educational context.【Key words】Pragmatic Competence (PC); Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising (PCR); a Model on teaching PC; Pedagogical Implications 【作者简介】Niyan Zhang, Department of Foreign Language Teaching, Guilin Tourism University.interact with native speakers which is perhaps the biggest obstacle in teaching EFL in China.3. PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE AND PCRPragmatic competence: Leech (1983, p 10-11) pointsout that there are two elements of pragmatic competence: Pragma-linguistics and socio-pragmatics. Pragma-linguistics is related to grammar and is concerned with “the particular resources which a given language provides for conveying particular illocutions.” Socio-pragmatics, on the other hand, is related more to sociology, and is what Leech has called the“sociological interface of pragmatics”.Pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR): proposed bySharwood-Smith (1981), it is basically an inductive approach to developing awareness of how language forms are used appropriately in context. The aim is not to teach explicitly the various means of performing a given speech act (eg, request, apology, compliment, etc), but, to explore learners to the pragmatic aspects of languages and provide them with theanalytical tools they need to arrive at their own generalizations concerning contextually appropriate language use.4. A MODEL ON HOW TO TEACH PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE IN EFL CONTEXTPCR aiming at developing language learners’ awarenessof pragmatic competence in foreign language use is usefulin teaching EFL in China. Then the question comes to how to teach pragmatic competence in EFL classroom? There is a model proposed by Scarcella (1990) for teaching foreign language learners’ pragmatic competence. This model is divided into five components: (1) Teacher analysis of speech acts. (2) Cognitive awareness skills. (3) Receptive/integrative1. INTRODUCTIONIt is now broadly accepted in most parts of the worldthat learning a foreign language is not simply masteringan object of academic study but is more appropriatelyfocused on learning a means of communication (Paulston 1975). Actually, foreign language learning is regarded as a process of pragmatic competence development. The goal of foreign language teaching is more than knowing theappropriate syntax and lexicon, it is also a matter of pragmatic competence.2. The NATURE OF EFL EDUCATION IN CHINAEFL education now in China, based on the theories ofintercultural communicative competence, focuses not only on the teaching of 4 skills, also on the teaching of English cultures. Acculturation is at the core of foreign language teaching which aims at improving the learners’ pragmatic competence.Foreign language education is a process of interculturalcommunication. If the EFL teachers in China do not paymuch attention to the English language cultures and lack ofawareness of the learners’ mother-tongue transfer, but just focus on the pure linguistic structures of English with teaching the learners the 4 skills, usually the language learners will just become “masters of language structure” or grammarians rather than “masters of language use’ or active language users.Considering both advantages and disadvantages of EFL education in China, the EFL settings do present certain challenges in cultivating pragmatic competence development. Such challenges require cultivating pragmatic competence in situations where learners have little or no opportunity to682019年23期总第463期高等教育研究ENGLISH ON CAMPUSskills. (4) Controlled productive skills. (5) Free, integrated practice.Application of the ModelStep Application Teacher analysis of speech acts the classroom teacher must first determine exactly what is to be taught and under what circumstances Cognitive awareness skills Presenting the materials to the language learners so that they can develop an understanding of pragmatic feature Receptive/integrativeskillsintegrate the language learners’ cognitiveknowledge with actually use(4) Controlledproductiveskills stimulate or motivate the foreign languagelearners to produce appropriate language(5) Free,integratedpracticeintegrate pragmatic usage into natural languagepatterns, without language teachers’ guidanceAbove, this model used for the teaching of sociolinguistic and pragmatic skills offers practical suggestions on how to cultivate pragmatic competence of EFL education in China. 5. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF EFL EDUCATION IN CHINAIn China, English as a foreign language, teachingpragmatic competence of English should be added into the teaching curriculum and syllabus. Here are some pedagogicalsuggestions which language teachers can follow by to cultivatetheir foreign language learners’ pragmatic competence.5.1 Verbal CommunicationsThe target of verbal communications is using Englishappropriately, main issue of pragmatic competence. So, when language teachers give introductions, they should not only introduce the general structures and rules of English sentences, also let learners grasp the sociocultural rules andhabits of the English uses to help them interact successfully.5.2 Grammar TeachingThe goal of teaching grammars is to improve languagelearners’ abilities of using English. Take teaching the English tense for example, English tense is a grammar category that doesn’t express equally in Chinese. Thus, it is far from enough if language teachers only present the English tensesto their language learners without telling them each tense do have some different illocutions and presuppositions. If language teachers could combine the pragmatic properties into the tense teaching, language learners could probably improve their language proficiency and use it appropriately,achieve the target of grammar teaching efficiently.5.3 Vocabulary/Lexicon TeachingLanguage teachers should pay great attention to the word meanings, collaborations and the structures of combining into whole sentences. Using situational teaching method perhaps can get effective results on learning. Experiences prove thatcombining teaching vocabulary with pragmatic principles would improve language learners grasp the vocabulary and use it appropriately in various situations.5.4 Other ways of cultivating Pragmatic Competence of the language learnersBesides classroom formal instructions on introducingand integrating the pragmatic principles to language learners, language teachers can use other approaches to cultivate learners’ pragmatic competence, such as watching films, videos, reading modern literature works, making full use of native English speakers, etc. Also, language teachers can make some lectures on introducing English cultures and customsand make some relevant contrastive studies between Chinese and English cultures to improve their language learners’pragmatic competence in real cross-cultural communications.6. CONCLUSIONLanguage teachers need to be experts of cross-culturalcommunications, and pragmatic consciousness-raising approaches such as the model of teaching pragmatic competence presented previously and language teachers should apply the model into various kinds of teaching classes,including grammar or vocabulary teaching, etc. Giving language learners some pragmatic awareness and knowledge, in spite of the limitations of classroom teaching, we can effectively cultivate and develop the pragmatic competence of EFL contexts in China. Thus, we can conclude that such EFL education is efficient in and out of China.References:[1]Byram, M. (1993b). Criteria for textbook evaluation[M]. In M.Byram (Ed.), Germany, its representation in textbooks for teaching German in Great Britain,1993b:pp.87-101.[2]Claire Kramsch, Language and Culture(2004)[M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.[3]Frankfurt am Main: Diesterweg Cripper C. & Widdowson, H.G., 1975, “Sociolinguistics and Teaching ” in Allen, J.P.B. and Corder, S.P. (eds.) Papers in Applied Linguistics[J]. V ol.2, Oxford University Press.[4]Leech, G.N., “Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure ” in Applied Linguistics[J]. V ol. 4, No.2, Oxford University Press,1983.[5]Paulston, C. Linguistic and communicative competence in the ESOL classroom[J]. TESOL Quarterly,1975,8/3:347-362.[6]Scarcella, R. Communication difficulties in second language production, development, and production. In R. Scarcella, E., Anderson, & S. Krashen (Eds.), Developing communicative competence in a second language[M]. (pp.337-352). New York: Newbury House,1990.[7]Sharwood-Smith, M. Consciousness-raising and the second language learner[J]. Applied linguistics,1981,7(3):239-256.。
COMPETENC E AND PERFORMANCE. In LINGUISTICS, the distinction between a person's knowledge of language (competence) and use of it (performance). Performance contains slips of the tongue and false starts, and represents only a small sample of possible utterances: I own two-thirds of an emu is a good English sentence, but is unlikely to occur in any collected sample. The terms were proposed by Noam CHOMSKY in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, when he stressed the need for a GENERATIVE GRAMMAR that mirrors a speaker's competence and captures the creative aspect of linguistic ability. In Knowledge of Language (1986), Chomsky replaced the terms with I-language (internalized language) and E-language (externalized language). A similar dichotomy, LA NGUE and PAROLE, was proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure (1915), who stressed the social aspects of langue, regarding it as shared knowledge, whereas Chomsky stressed the individual nature of competence. See COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE, MISTAKE.COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. [Coined by the US anthropologist Dell Hymes]. A term in SOCIOLINGUISTICS for a speaker's underlying knowledge of the rules of GRAMMA R (understood in its widest sense to include phonology, orthography, syntax, lexicon, and semantics) and rules for their use in socially appropriate circumstances. The notion is intended to replace Noam CHOMSKY'S dichotomy of competence and performance. Competence is the knowledge of rules of grammar, performance, how the rules are used. Speakers draw on their competence in putting together grammatical sentences, but not all such sentences can be used in the same circumstances: Close the window and Would you mind closing the window, please? are both grammat ical, but they differ in their appropriateness for use in particular situations. Speakers use their communicative competence to choose what to say, as well as how and when to say it. See COMPETENCE AND PERFORMA NCE, LA NGUA GE TEA CHING.TRANSFORMATIONAL-GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, short form TG. In theoretical LINGUISTICS, a type of generative grammar first advocated by Noam CHOMSKY in SyntacticStructures (1957). Since then, there have been many changes in the descriptive apparatus of TG. Common to all versions is the view that some rules are transformational: that is, they change one structure into another according to such prescribed conventions as moving, inserting, deleting, and replacing items. From an early stage of its history, TG has stipulated two levels of syntactic structure: deep structure (an abstract underlying structure that incorporates all the syntactic information required for the interpretation of a given sentence) and surface structure (a structure that incorporates all the syntactic features of a sentence required to convert the sentence into a spoken or written version). Transformations link deep with surface structure. A typical transformation is the rule for forming questions, which requires that th e normal subject—verb order is inverted so that the surface structure of Can I see you later? differs in order of elements from that of I can see you later. The theory postulates that the two sentences have the same order in deep structure, but the question transformation changes the order to that in surface structure. Sentences that are syntactically ambiguous have the same surface structures but different deep structures: for example, the sentence Visiting relatives can be a nuisance is ambiguous in that the subject Visiting relatives may correspond to To visit relatives or to Relatives that visit. The ambiguity is dissolved if the modal verb can is omitted, since the clausal subject requires a singular verb (Visiting relatives is a nuisance), whereas the phrasal subject requires the plural (Visiting relatives are a nuisance).。
Language is the most important tool for humans to communicate. Speech communication came into being with the starting of human society due to the needs of humansurviving and developing. At the same time, speech communication plays a very important role in the maintaining and developing of human society. With the development of society and advancement of science and technology, speech communication will play a more and more important role in the course of human communication.Communication by language is our basic ability for living as well as social activity. In this thesis, I clarify my point of view based on cooperative principle, From the speech communication of daily life,I link these communication phenomena of oral or written language to the theories of linguists such as Grice and Leech and their relative theories. I discuss the application of these theories to the speech communication of daily life.Cooperative Principle Theory proposed by Grice is a very important theory in pragmatics. It has a powerful explanatory power on the speech communication. The CP can be widely used. It can explain various pragmatics phenomena in language understanding. From the CP perspective, I discuss the speech communication and its application in real speech communication. First, this thesis elaborates the main points of the theory: definition of the CP and its maxims. Then the thesis deals with the application of CP in speech communication from two aspects: successful speech communication and pragmatic failure. Then it deals with the principles we must follow in successful communication and the violation of polite principle and tact principles that causes pragmatics failure. A further study of the nature and cause of pragmatic failure will make us more aware of the importance of sensitivity to cross-culture pragmatics difference and urgency of developing pragmatic competence. Thus this thesis can help us avoid the pragmatic failure and communicate successfully.1 Cooperative PrincipleCooperative Principle Theory proposed by Grice is a very important theory in Pragmatics. It has a powerful explanatory power on the speech communication. The CP can be widely used. It can explain various pragmatics phenomena in language understanding.Obviously, language users must share certain rules and conventions which enable them to understand one another in the many instances where the meaning and the intent, i.e. the illocutionary force of utterances are not explicitly stated. In his text "Logic and conversation" Grice suggests four conversational maxims and the Cooperative Principle (CP) to explain the mechanisms through which people interpret implicature.1.1 Cooperative Principle And Its MaximsPragmatics is concerned with non-natural meaning,especially implicature. According to Grice,meaning can be natrual or non-natural. People can understand the natrual meaning by the literal meaning.Unlike the natural meaning,getting the non-natrualmeaning needs people to calculate the real meaning by the literal meaning.A sentence may be conventionally used to mean something .Grice proposed that speakers frequently and blatantly fail to observe any of above conversational maxims to prompt the hearer to look for a meaning which is different from, or in addition to, the expressed meaning. However, a second language learner, even if s/he is quite fluent in English, may not necessarily arrive at the same conclusion. This conventional meaning is aiso what we may call the literal meaning or linguistic meaning of the sentence.However,the sentence may be used to convey some special meaning which we term "implicature".It is the type of meaning that deviates from the conventional or linguistic meaning of an utterance. Securing the intention of the speaker behind the use of a sentence is of great importance. People talk with the intention of communicating something to someone else, this is the basis of all linguistic behavior. Grice noticed that in daily conversation people do not usually say things directly but tend to imply them. In our daily conversation, we seem to follow some principles like the following"Make your conversational contribution such as is required;at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged."And this principle is known as the cooperative priciple or CP for short.To specify the CP futher,Grice introduced four categories of maxims as follows.Quantity:1.Make your contribution as informative as is reqired(for the current purposed of theexchange.)2.Do not make your contribution more informative than is required .Quality:Try to make your contribution one that is true.1.Do not say what you believe to be false.2.Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.Relation:Be relavant.Manner:Be perspicuous.1.Avoid obscurity of expression.2.Avoid ambiguity3.Be brief(avoid prolixity)4.Be orderly.The use of term such as "principle"and "maxim" does not mean that the CP and its maxims will be followed by everyone all the time.People do violate them and tell lies.For example:A:Where does C live?B:Somewhere in the south of France.Obviously,the answer of B does not offer adequate information for A.It shows that B does not know the exact address of C .If he does not answer ,it shows that he does not cooperate.If he speaks more,he will violate the Quantity maxim.Thus he will be confronted with the conflict of Quantity and Quality maxims.So he can only answer in this way.This example is like a joke in our daily life as follows:A:Where is you home?B:It is in China.In fact,both A and B live in China.B violates the Quantity maxim,because he did not offer the adequate information.The proper explain is that B does not want to tell A where his home is.Another explain is that B violated the CP by design to create an unexpected effect and convey a sence of humor.In the conversation implicature theory,the hearer can realize that speaker does not follow the CP by design.Thus he need to calculate the real intention of the speaker. It is not easy for the hearer to calculate the real meaning of the speaker. Because the real meaning hides behind the literal meaning. The hearer must consider all the factors such as information shared by them and the specific context in this process.In nature, conversation implicature theory is about how people use lanuage.Its starting point of study is the use of language in the context instead of language structure. It helps to explain the real meaning of the utterance from the specific context. For example:A:Do you want to go to the cinema with me?B:Oh,it is raining outside.Maybe B does not want to go to the cinema with A .We should understand the real intention of the speaker by the literal meaning based on the context.Grice divides the conversation implicature into two kinds:general and specific implicature.The former refers to meaning calculated by no specific context,the latter needs specific context to be calculated.For example,the utterance"You are so clever."In fact, the real meaning of the speaker is to scold the stupidity of the hearer.1.2 The Importance of Cooperative Principle in Speech CommunicationThe CP plays a very important role in study of language.As a principle in speech communication,it offers some principles to help the communication go on smoothly and effectively beyond the conventional language rules.The CP plays a very instructive role inthe speech communication.The four maxims and its component maxims have no strong restriction.Violating these principles do not affect the result of speech communication.For example:Father:How about your grade in the recent English exam?Son:Dad,my teacher told us that we were going out for a trip next Sunday.The son may do poor in the exam, so he avoides answering the question of his father by design. Instead he uses a new topic to avert the attention of his farther. He violates the Relation maxim.Speech communication is a very complex process.What we should make it clear is such a question as follows:What is the use of CP,now that the principles can be violated?As CP itself,firstly it offers the conventional norms and pattern .That is to say the normal conversation should go on under these principles.Secondly,it offers a standard to distinguish the conventional and non-convevtional communication.Those communication that violate CP are seen as non-convevtional communication.What is more,CP helps the hearer to calulate the real meaning of the speaker,which is the intention of indirect speech act.In our real speech communication,people do not follow the CP and its relative principles.These principles do not have strong restiction.They may be violated in speech communication.But it does not affect the real result of speech communication.Instead it is very important .The utterance that violates the CP has a non-conventional meaning.This conversation implicature is the real intention of the speaker,which hides behind the literal meaning.That is the intention of the indirect speech act. The theory of CP and conversation principles help people find the rules and principles in speech communication.Following the thinking path of Grice ,people offer more and more priciples in speech communication.These principles can revise and complement the CP, which makes the principles of speech communication more perfect.2 Principles in Speech Communication.Speech is a process of conveying information by encoding and decoding .Encoding is using language to express ideas. There are many factors that affect it, such as thought pattern , culture and moral background, values and so on. Decoding is a process in which the hearer changes the sign of information into meaning.The hearer must have certain language competence to communicate with the speaker. Speech communication is a complex process, which includes both the objective and subjective factors such as thought pattern, emotion language habit, the context and so on. The same sentence may have different meaning in different context.Successful speech communication is the ultimate goal of any communication. In fact, it is simple, because it is hearer who gives exact interpreting of the real meaning of speaker, but in real daily life, there is not always successful speech communication. because speech communication is affected by many factors. To achieve a successful communication, the speaker and the hearer need to agree with each other in expressing and interpreting.To reach the goal of communication, the speaker and the hearer need to follow some pragmatics principles in the conversation. Of all the pragmatics principles, the cooperative principle and polite principle are the most important principles.2.1 Politeness PrinciplesIn speech communication, the speaker and hearer hope to respect with each other to achieve the goal, the speaker will use some proper strategies to show the politeness. Manner is a very common phenomenon in communication. It is a manifestation of modesty and respect in the speech and action when people communicate with each other. Meanwhile, it can be seen as common social norms to be routinely followed by people. Because of this, when people are talking, they should follow the politeness principle besides the cooperative principle. In 1983, British linguist Geoffrey Leech formerly came up with the politeness principle in his book Pragmatics Principles.Leech points out that the Polite Principle is an essential complement to the cooperative principles, because it can solve the problem that CP can not solve. The central part of the politeness principle is context, relationship and manner. Some certain context determines what we are going to say, some certain relationship determines who we decide to say, some certain manner determines how to say. Generally speaking, the politeness principle is characterized by the benefits for others. The content consists of six categories of maxims in the following: These maxims not only can explain how to do it politely but also why some utterances are polite and some are impolite.The PP includes six maxims as follows.1. Tact Maxim (in directives and commissives)a. Minimize cost to otherb. Maximize benefit to other2. Generosity Maxim (in directives and commissives)a. Minimize benefit to selfb. Maximize cost to self3. Approbation Maxim (in expressives and representatives)a. Minimize dispraise of otherb. Maximize praise of other4. Modesty Maxim (in expressives and representatives)a. Minimize praise of othersb. Maximize dispraise of others5. Agreement Maxima. Minimize disagreement between self and otherb. Maximize agreement between self and other6. Sympathy Maxima. Minimize antipathy between self and otherb Maximize Sympathy between self and otherThese maxims not only can explain how to do it politely but also why some utterances are polite and some are impolite. In fact, we can conclude the six maxims into three aspects of requirement. To minimize cost to others, minimize dispraise of other and maximize praise of other. The first aspects not show your superiority by devaluing other. For example, we often use Yes/No questions to offer a request so that the hearer can get the leeway to feel happy. For example,Open the door.Please open the door.Would you please open the door?It is hot here in the room.For these sentences, the degrees of politeness are different. The first one is direct The last one is the most indirect. The second maxim is not devaluing other and showing off yourself. Because they violate the PP, on the contrary, when a person praises you, you need to devalue yourself. When scolding other, you should use a indirect way not to make him unhappy. For example,You are wrong.You should not do it.You should do it like this.Do you think it is better to do it like this?From this group of sentences, the tone is more and more indirect. It is easy for the hearer to receive because it uses the PP. The third aspect is when the speaker show his agreement with the hearer in most cases. In emotion, the speaker should do his best to show the sympathy and sincerity to make the atmosphere more harmony, enhance the emotion links and make sure the conversation go on smoothly .When the speaker and hearer differ in some problems ,he can first admit the reasonable part and show his sympathy. Then he can show his own ideas and point out the defects of other. One person often says: "Yes, your request is not over the line, I can understand you. If I were you I will offer the same request, but..."Such an utterance is easier for the hearer to receive because it conforms to the PP.2.2 Tact PrinciplesSuccessful speech communication is the ultimate goal of any communication. While successful communication must be tact. The tact speech is the ideal pattern. Tact speech communication is the effective communication when people use indirect ways to make utterance in order to cater for different needs of the contexts. For example, Suppose the situation, the doctor suspect the patient has got a terminal disease. In such a context the doctor can use many ways to express The degrees of tact varies from different expression ways.(1)Patient: What about my disease?Doctor: I suppose you have got a cancer and it reaches the terminal stage.(2)Patient: What about my disease?Doctor: There is a black shadow in your x-sheet, it is a tumor, but I think it is benign.But I suggest you go to the special hospital to do a further examine.Obviously the second one is tact. The doctor uses a indirect way not to give the patient stress.Tact principles and the Cooperative Principles are closely related. The former can explain the indirect speech communication. The latter can explain the direct speech act. Tact principle can help us understand why and how we use indirect speech communication to comply with a certain context. We can use tact principle to make a reasonable explanation on the speech .The combination of these two principles can make the speech communication go on smoothly and achieve a ideal goal.3. Pragmatic Failure in Speech CommunicationIn cross-culture communication, people from different cultures speak the same language, but their communication may break down due to pragmatic difference in ways of thinking, rules of speaking, social values, lexical connotation and other factors. Pragmatic failure was first proposed by Thomas to refer to the inability to understand what is meant by what is said. In China, Heziran first started the research in this field. Research this area is of importance for building up foreign language knowledge, pragmatic competence and competence of cross-culture communication. It is generally realized that for efficient communication and correct understanding, it is not enough for language learners to know only the formal rules but the rules of use. That is the Pragmatic principle and sociolpragmatic convention.Pragmatic failure can falls into two kinds: Pragmalinguistic failure and sociolpragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure is closely linked with language itself, referring to the case that learners unconsciously transfer native expression into English ignoring their pragmatic meaning, or use other inappropriate expression of the target language. Sociolpragmatic failure involves lack of awareness of the conventions and thesocio-cultural norms of the target language, such as not knowing the appropriate registers and topics or taboos governing the target language community. Sociopragmatic failure refers to the expressive inappropriateness resulted from the misunderstanding or the ignorance of social or cultural differences. It falls into two main aspects: failures in culture and failures in social norms.These two types of pragmatic failure cannot always be distinguished as they are closely connected. An inappropriate utterance may be regarded as pragmalinguistic failure from one angle, or sociolinguistic failure from another angle; correct interpretation of the failure relies on an understanding of different contexts, intentions and interlocutors. The causes for these two pragmatic failures, according to Thomas, are negative transfers, which include negative transfer of social norms, negative transfer of conventional value, negative transfer of politeness, inadequate instruction guidance and inadequate exposure to actual use of the target language3.1 Pragmalinguistic FailurePragmatic failure is one of the several factors which influence cross-cultural communication. Pragmatic failure is a term given by British ling uist Jenny Thomas to “the inability to understand what is meant by what is sad”. Thomas divid es pragmatic failures into two types, pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure refers to the inability in interpreting the linguistic meaning caused by mistaken beliefs about pragmatic force of utterance, and it is generally categorized into the following three kinds of failures: failures in literal meaning, failures in structure and failures in style, which mainly revealed as confusing the literal meaning with pragmatic meaning, overusing complete structure and violating the language rule of speaking.Pragmalinguistic failure is caused by the fact that the speaker lack of the language competence to use language. This kind of failure has four aspects:1.Phonetics aspect 2.Lexical aspect 3.Grammatical aspect 4.Textual aspect.Pragmalinguistic failure is closely linked with language itself, referring to the case that learners unconsciously transfer native expression into English ignoring their pragmatic meaning, or use other inappropriate expression of the target language.First, if we can not know the Phonetics feature of the other nation, it will cause Pragmatic failure in phonetics. For example the stress, the tone the pace of speaking are key factors we must pay attention to in our communication with people from different culture. Thus we can avoid the pragmatic failure.Secondly, the improper choice of lexical words in communication with people from other nation will cause pragmatic failure. The lack of equal words and misuse of the lexical words are the main reason for pragmatic failure.Thirdly, pragmatic failure in grammatical aspect is caused by improper use of rules in other nation. Finally,the textual pragmatic failure in different structure of the text in different nation. It is affected by different thought pattern.Pragmalinguistic failure tends to occur when non-native speakers assume total comparability of usage between some items in the L2 and some in their L1. For example, the following conversations involve some Pragmalinguistic failure:a. Lichen: Liming, have you finished your homework?Liming: Yes, I finished my homework.b. Hejie: Do you like it?Lihua: No, I like it.c. Mother: Where are your shoes?Son: They are under the bed.3.2 Sociolpragmatic Failure.Sociopragmatic failure refers to the expressive inappropriateness resulted from the misunderstanding or the ignorance of social or cultural differences. It falls into two main aspects: failures in culture and failures in social norms. The causes for these two pragmatic failures, according to Thomas, are negative transfers, which include negative transfer of social norms, negative transfer of conventional value, negative transfer of politeness, inadequate instruction guidance and inadequate exposure to actual use of the target languageSociolpragmatic failure in contrast, is closely related to cultures defined by Thomas as social conditions placed on language use stemming from cross-culturally different perceptions of what constitutes appropriate linguistic behaviour. sociolpragmatic failure involves lack of awareness of the conventions and the socio-cultural norms of the target language, such as not knowing the appropriate registers and topics or taboos governing the target language community.3.2.1 The Forms of Sociolpragmatic Failure.There are three forms of sociolpragmatic failure:1.misuse the context in target language. It occurs when the speaker ignores the status and role of the hearer.2.misuse the ways of target language For example, a Chinese student greets his American teacher Johnson; "Hello, Teacher Johnson" In Chinese, when we greet other, we add the title to the name of the hearer to shoe our respect. In this example, the student ignores the difference in addressing in different e the ways of mother tongue. Using the ways of mother tongue to speak to the foreigner may cause pragmatic failure. For example, in a crowded bus Lihua let his foreign teacher sit down in his place. He said: "Please sit down, Mrs Green. You are old." He use the Chinese ways to show the respect, but the teacher may be unhappy.3.2.2The Polite Principle and Pragmatic FailurePoliteness does not belong to one certain language. In contrast, it belongs to every language community as general principle. In most cases, there are some polite ways of speaking and acting, but these polite ways vary from different contexts. In real communication, due to improper use of language, it will cause some conflict thus to make the relation more intensive. Politeness is one kind of action when people convey the information that shows respect and sympathy through verbal or nonverbal language sign. This convey of polite information is a two way form it is proper and easy to receive. Politeness is to follow the social moral, it also conveys the respectful information. The hearer can not feel the respect from the speaker, this convey of information is meaningless, it is impolite. Politeness is an important object for the linguists to research on. Leech points out the reason why speaker violates by design the CP to let the hearer to get his real meaning. The reason is out of politeness.We must notice that the feature of politeness vary from different nations. The difference between Western and Eastern in this aspect is obvious. The standard that the feature of politeness differ in Western and Eastern .The standard of former is the individual rights and balance of gain and lost, but the latter is the respect and considerate. In communication, Chinese regard concern and considerate for other as politeness. They do not insult other to show respect. For example, when meeting a friend, we Chinese often say: "Hello, have you had the meal?" We answer: "Yes, I have, and you?" The foreigner can not understand the way we greet with each other they think what he is doing is not related to other. They think it intrusive to their privacy. In fact, this way is just to show the concern and respect for Chinese. You do not need to answer in detail. Just a nodding means your answer.The structure pattern of polite words differ in Western and Eastern .In English, emotional words are used mostly in polite words, they have the special function .It can tell the degree of intimacy and politeness. For example, "Might I use your pen?" The word "might'' shows the respect to the hearer. Chinese often use some special lexical words to show the politeness in some great occasion For example:“承蒙光临,不胜荣幸”,“鄙人不才,敬请指教”。
pragmatic development in a second languagepragmatic development in a second language refers to the ability of a person to use language in a context-appropriate, effective, and efficient way. In other words, it is the ability to understand and communicate in a second language with proficiency and flexibility, taking into account the cultural, social, and historical context in which the language is used. There are several factors that contribute to pragmatic development in a second language, including:1. Years of exposure to the language: The longer a person has been exposed to a second language, the more likely they are to develop proficiency in its pragmatic usage.2. Cultural background: People from different cultural backgrounds may have different perspectives on language use and may use language in different ways. Therefore, pragmatic development in a second language is often influenced by a person"s cultural background.3. Language skills: People with higher levels of language skills in a second language are more likely to be able to use it in a more flexible and context-appropriate way.4. Practice: Practice is crucial for developing pragmatic skills in a second language. Through practice, people canimprove their language use and gain experience in different contexts.5. Support: Receiving support from language teachers, peers, or family members can be helpful in developing pragmatic skills in a second language.Overall, pragmatic development in a second language requires a combination of factors, including language exposure, cultural background, language skills, practice, and support. Once these factors are in place, a person can develop advanced skills in using the second language in a context-appropriate and effective way.。
pragmatic features of humorouslanguageHumorous language is a unique language phenomenon that is widely used in various fields such as daily communication, literature, and art. The pragmatic features of humorous language mainly include the following aspects:1. Context dependence: The pragmatic feature of humorous language is that it often relies on specific contexts and background knowledge. Only in a specific context can listeners or readers understand the humorous effect and implied meaning of humorous language.2. Creative use of language: The pragmatic feature of humorous language is that it often uses creative language expressions, such as metaphor, simile, pun, irony, and hyperbole. These creative language expressions can make language more vivid, interesting, and attractive, and at the same time convey the speaker's humorous intention and emotions.3. Cultural dependence: The pragmatic feature of humorous language is that it is often closely related to cultural background and social customs. Different cultures and social customs may lead to differences in understanding and appreciation of humorous language. Therefore, in cross-cultural communication, it is necessary to understand and respect the cultural background and social customs of the other party in order to better appreciate and use humorous language.4. Interpersonal function: The pragmatic feature of humorous language is that it often plays an important role in interpersonal communication. Humorous language can ease tension and awkwardness in interpersonal communication, enhance mutual understanding and closeness, and at the same time reflect the speaker's intelligence, wit, and humor.In short, the pragmatic features of humorous language are context dependence, creative use of language, cultural dependence, and interpersonal function.Understanding and applying these pragmatic features can help us better appreciate and use humorous language, and at the same time improve our communication skills and interpersonal relationships.。
英语c类大英赛大作文英文回答:In the intricate tapestry of life, we are constantly presented with choices, each with its own set of consequences. The path we choose to tread can profoundly shape our present and future, leading us down disparate paths with unique destinations. One such choice that holds immense significance is the decision between pursuing alife of material wealth and one of purpose and fulfillment.On the one hand, material abundance can provide a sense of comfort and security, allowing us to indulge in life's luxuries and pursue our desires. This path may appeal to those who prioritize financial stability, material possessions, and societal status. However, it is important to recognize that true happiness and fulfillment cannot be solely derived from external factors.On the other hand, a life of purpose and fulfillmenttranscends material wealth and focuses on cultivating a meaningful existence. This path may involve pursuing passions, contributing to society, and making a differencein the world. It emphasizes personal growth, relationships, and experiences that enrich our lives.Ultimately, the choice between wealth and fulfillment depends on our individual values, priorities, and aspirations. There is no right or wrong answer, but it is essential to carefully consider the potential consequencesof each path before making a decision.中文回答:在人生的错综复杂的道路上,我们总是在面临选择,而每一次选择都会带来不同的结果。
The cultivation of intercultural communicative competence in English Teaching(英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养)Steam headeducationscienceCultivation of intercultural communicative competence in English TeachingLiu Jia(Dezhou University, Shandong, Dezhou 253000)[Abstract "mainly from the relationship between language and culture, cultural differences analysis, describes the current status of cultural awareness in English Teaching in the infiltration of the tomb on the basis of cross cultural communication in English Teaching in Colleges and UniversitiesSome strategies for ability training.Key words: College English teaching; cultural awareness; intercultural communicative competenceCLC number: 042, document identification code: A, article number: 1871-7597 (2009) 0210173-01I. Theoretical BasisCulture is closely related to language. Culture is the base of language, influenced and restricted by various cultural factorsForms of language expression. Language is a reflection of culture. It is not only a symbol system, but also a societyPhenomenon, the form of which is affected by the history, geography, local customs and traditions of a nation or a nation,The influence and restriction of life style, literature, art, behavior norm, mode of thinking and value concept;At the same time, language and culture is the form of expression and bearing, through language, we can learn from ChineseTherefore, the application of language can not be separated from culture and exist independently. In English teaching, we should pay attention to the languageOnly by doing so can we improve our sensitivity and adaptability to the cultural differences between China and the WestCommunicate in language.Two, in-depth analysis of the influence of differences between Chinese and Western culture on the expression of Language OfficerChina and the West have their own characteristics in terms ofhistorical traditions, cultural customs and valuesThere are also great differences in the expression of Chinese and EnglishThe differences in expression are illustrated by examples:The differences of the 1. topic: Westerners respect the values of individualism, try to avoid in conversationAsk no questions about salary, marriage, age, faith, family, etc. while the Chinese focus on collectivism, they wishTalk to each other. Therefore, on personal issues, the Chinese and western sides often clash, for example: AmericansGreetings often say Nil, Hellol, or Lovely, Weather., isn, t, it, etc neutral topics:The Chinese would say, "Have, you, had, meal, your," or "Where are you."Going? "So foreigners don't understand," Do, you, Want, to, treat, me, "or" heart. "Why, you, always, me, where, I, am, going, It, is, none, ask, do"Of your business.", so when talking to Westerners, in order to prevent infringement of the other personPrivacy, avoid communication barriers, try not to talk about the following topics: "there, are, you."From?, ",", "110W, Old, 8RE, y0U,", "HOW, many, children, do, you."Have?, ",", "Are, you, single, or, married," "How, much, do, you, earn?"","What, religion, do, believe, in, you", "How, much, is, your."Watch? "And so on2., the difference between ideas: Westerners believe that time is limited resources, to "punctuality" asIn their opinion, punctuality is a kind of respect for other people. There are also great differences between Chinese and western in the appointmentIn China, people generally don't need to make appointments while visiting in ChinaTherefore, when teaching such differences, students should be told the reasons given above. Some Chinese students would think that they would think soIt's polite to call in advance without asking the other person for the right time and whether you want to meet him or notAlways say "I am coming to see you"". Avoid such pragmaticerrorsTeachers must let students realize the deep differences between Chinese and Western culture and language, and create more situational exercises as much as possibleTo cultivate students' sensitivity to cultural differences between China and Western countries.3., the difference of thinking mode: there are great differences between Chinese and Western ways of thinking, Chinese peopleMostly for the "back" mode of thinking, and Westerners are mostly spiral thinkingFor example, Americans write letters in lettersAt the beginning of the straight to the point, will their demands on the front and Chinese first at the beginning of a greetingArray, and finally around a big circle, and then talk about the theme, this way of writing is easy to make each other look, the more you see, the more pasteTu, I don't know what you're trying to say4., the different response to compliment: treat compliments, English and American like direct expression, ChineseThey like the subtle and implicit expressions, so Westerners are often surprised when they communicate with Chinese peopleChinese people are always at sea when they praise or compliment them. They are too modest and even antiWe deny it, and Westerners accept it with thanks. Such as,When someone praises you for being good and competent, "Your English is really good." ChineseWould say, "Well, it, is, so, so., just," or "No, you, me., flatter" will even belittleThey say, "No, my, English, is, poor., very" instead, Westerners behave frankly and loudlyA simple "Thank you." shows that your compliment is genuine. Therefore, in class, shouldTeach students about cultural differences and avoid being overly modest in communication to make them feel youDishonest or even impoliteThree, the status quo of cross-cultural educationAt present, College English Teaching in our country emphasizes only the teaching of language knowledge and the cultivation of listening, speaking, reading and writing ability,Ignoring the infiltration of cultural awareness and the cultivation of intercultural communicative competence, students can only imitate mechanically,Recite the language passages, but ignore the cultural background, communicative situation and language objects of the languageMisunderstandings and obstacles often result in communication failure. Therefore, in English teaching, teachersEnglish teaching should be placed in an intercultural communication environment to train students to use appropriate language for cross-cultural communicationThe ability to communicate enables more students to overcome barriers to understanding because of cultural differencesFour, the construction of intercultural communicative competence1. dig out the teaching materials and introduce them in time. Teachers should understand, dig and bind the contents of textbooks carefullyAt the same time, we should introduce the western culture at the proper time and start with the comparative analysis of Chinese and foreign cultures to fully understand the cultural differencesFor example, to explain to students in western dining a class,you can compare the differences between Chinese and western table cultureWhen the introduction of western table manners, the Chinese treat, the general dishes are very rich, but said: "the dishes do.""No, just eat it." and the Westerners hear, "do not do well, why do you invite me?""Eat." and the European treat generally only a few simple dishes, meals generally only said: "Help!""Yourself, please." rather than giving food to guests, it's very impolite2. make full use of foreign teacher resources. Through the English corner, English national culture lectures, reports and so onWay, give full play to the role of foreign teachers in the dissemination of western culture, and create more students with foreign teachersThe flow of opportunities, so that students more intuitive understanding of western culture3, set up film appreciation courses and absorb foreign cultures. By opening Video classes, choose to watch someMeaningful English original movies and TV plays enable studentsto feel more deeply in western society and cultureLive, such as the TV series "Friends" that reflects family life in America, and films that expose social realities"Xiao Jin Ke 9, save the funeral" the godfather ". Enjoy the movie at the same time, should pay attention to the character in the movieVarious cultural factors such as speech, manner, expression, action, scene, etc..4., read English cultural materials extensively and make full use of Internet resources. Guide students in their spare timeExtensive reading, western literature, original works, newspapers and magazines, draw cultural knowledge and broaden the horizon of Western culture:Make full use of network resources, such as browsing economist., com, discoverychannel., Co., UK and other websites,Understanding current events, reviews, natural and economic information, increasing cultural literacy, and improving intercultural communication skillsR, goo.Split apartT, -a:Y,...Reference:CI] Hu Wenzhong. Culture and literature, CJ]. foreign language teaching and research, 1994, (1): 17.Cz] Cai Liying, how to understand Chinese and Western cultural differences in English teaching so as to improve students' cross-cultural communicationWhen the ability of [A]. Chinese Education Innovation Herald, 2007, 475:83.[3] forest, cross cultural communication and conflict in western culture CA]. Social Sciences Journal of Colleges of Shanxi,2008.20 (1): 28-29.} mouth day。
- 39 -校园英语 / 高等教育研究Pragmatic Failure and English language Teaching咸阳师范学院教育科学学院/李玲 雷宏友【Abstract 】The pragmatic failures made by the Chinese English learners in their daily communications with the English native speakers and the ways how to reduce the occurrence of the pragmatic failures are addressed in the paper. Additionally, some suggestions about the avoidance of pragmatic failure are proposed in English language teaching.【Key words 】pragmatic failures; cultural context; language teachingPragmatic failure was first proposed by Jenny Thomas and its nature is that the hearers can not understand the implications of the speakers ’ utterances, even the cultural conflict happened. He Ziran indicated that pragmatic failures were not caused by the abuse of the grammar rules but the ways of the conversation which violate the native speakers ’ expressing habits as well as thinking modes and the speaker can not express his intended meanings at the apposite time and context.Thomas (1983) classified pragmatic failures into pragmaticlinguistic failures and sociopragmatic ones.Pragmalinguistic failures refer to the communicating failures caused by the lack of pragmatic knowledge as well as the negative transfer of the learners ’ mother language. In addition to this, the non-native speakers ’ comprehending the communicative contexts based on their stereotyped ideas cultivated in mother tongue context will definitely make such troubles.Example :(In an office, a foreign businessman shows his thanks to a Chinese secretary.)Foreign businessman :Thanks a lot, that ’s a great help.Chinese secretary :Never mind. It ’s my duty to do so.The Chinese secretary embarrassed the foreign businessman. “Never mind ” is used to response to the apology from the speaker and not suitable for accepting other ’s appreciation. “Duty ” means that the speaker does not want to do something. Instead, she should say “Don ’t mention it. It ’s a pleasure.”Sociopragmatic failures relate to the failures that occurred in the dialogues when the people do not have a clear idea on the cultural differences between the East and the West.Example :(Xiao Hong asked a foreigner to help her take photos and told him the operation instructions. Before starting, the foreigner made sure how to operate it.)Foreigner :Shall I push this button ?Xiao Hong :Of course.For Chinese people, “Of course ” sounds quite right,because it is a close correspondence with the Chinese phrase “当然”, showing that the speaker are sure of something. While the foreigner thought that the student laughed at his ability of operating the camera and doubted his intelligence as well. Due to the cultural difference, “of course ” implies that the speaker has explained the instructions clear enough, and any normal intelligent person can understand it. The proper way should be “Exactly ”, or “Yes ”.Negative transfers come up when the L2 learner ’s habit thinking modes from his mother tongue are transferred into the target language and the target language speakers perceive that it is different from what the learners desire to express. Teachers should make great efforts to set up real-life situations to help the students minimize the negative transfers of mother tongue.Language is both the carrier and the main expressional form of culture. Teachers can exploit contrastive analysis method to promote the students pragmatic competence by intentionally letting the students find out how the request is performed differently among the Chinese and the English in their inter-communication. Such contrastive analysis can arouse students ’ awareness of the language difference and remind them of some possible problems in their use of the target language.Pragmatic Competence calls for the learners to communicate in terms of concrete context. In order to help the students eliminate the pragmatic failures, the teachers should offer the proper teaching materials to improve their communicative competence, utilize the multi-media equipments to help them obtain the “authentic ” linguistic materials, design proper exercises to foster their linguistic competence, encourage them to read more foreign publications. References :[1]Thomas,J.Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure.Oxford:Applied Lingustics,1983(2).[2]Zhang Jianzhong,Brief English teaching method,Guangzhou: Guangdong education publisher 1990.[3]何自然.语用学概论[M].长沙:湖南教育出版社,1988.【基金项目】陕西省教育厅项目“地方高校大学生EFL学习者文化身份焦虑研究”(16JK1810);咸阳师范学院科研基金项目(15XSYK007)。