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1、 Suggestions on how to avoid pragmatic failure and develop students communicative competence Abstract: Pragmatic failure is the main source that gives rise to cross-cultural communication breakdown. For efficient communication and correct understanding, teachers should focus their attention on langu
2、age in use and help the students raise their communicative ability. The author gives some suggestions on how to avoid pragmatic failure and develop students communicative competence.Key words: pragmatic failure;communicative competence;English teaching1. Pragmatic Failure1. 1 Definition of Pragmatic
3、 FailurePragmatic failure was first put forward by Thomas (1983) to refer to the inability to understand what is meant by what is said. She notes that “pragmatic failure has occurred on any occasion on which H (the hearer) perceives the force of Ss (the speakers) utterance as other than S intended s
4、he or he should perceive it. After Thomas published her “Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure”, many scholars in China began to study this issue. Hu Wenzhong uses the term cultural mistakes to refer to language and behavior that is inappropriate or unacceptable to most native speakers, and he considers
5、that cultural mistakes are often worse than linguistic ones and tend to create ill feeling between native speakers and Chinese speakers of English. He Ziran notes that pragmatic failure is those faults, which make the communication imperfect in verbal communication.1. 2 Types of Pragmatic FailureAcc
6、ording to Thomas, pragmatic failure can be divided into two types: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure occurs when the pragmatic force mapped by speakers on to a given utterance is systematically different from the force most frequently assigned to it by nat
7、ive speakers of the target language, or when speech act strategies are inappropriately transferred from L1 to L2. Sociopragmatic failure refers to the kind of miscommunication resulting from ignorance or negligence of social or cultural differences of the speaker or the listener in cross-cultural co
8、mmunication. Sociopragmatic failure is much more difficult to deal with. It mainly stems from cultural differences.2. Major Causes of Students Pragmatic Failure2. 1 Inappropriate TransferTransfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any oth
9、er language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired. In real communication, when learners make inappropriate transfer, pragmatic failure occurs. He Zhaoxiong notes that words and expressions may have different meanings in different situations. The same is true in different cultur
10、es.Many Chinese and English words and expressions are identical semantically and syntactically. However, they have different pragmatic implication and function. The inappropriate transfer of semantically or syntactically equivalent structures is a frequent cause of pragmatic failure. For example, in
11、 English” of course” can be used in this way:2. 2 Culture Difference In cross-cultural communication, cultural difference inevitably creates barriers to effective communication, because Chinese people and western people comply with different sets of norms and rules of social interaction. The Chinese
12、 learners of English may be quite familiar with the English grammatical rules, but they may ignore the fact that the native speakers of English speak differently, respond to compliments and apologize differently, engage in different forms of polite interaction, adopt different ways of making request
13、s and so on. Unaware of the differences between Chinese and English cultures, Chinese learners of English hold the unquestioned assumption that their own ways of speaking are correct and proper. 2. 3 Different Value SystemsValue systems should be taken into account when we transfer information or id
14、eas from one cultural group to another because people build their social circles according to their values unconsciously. A value system is reflected in various aspects of life: their families, beliefs, manners and expressions, which are deeply rooted in peoples minds and transferred from generation
15、 to generation. Just as Samovar points out “What is most important is that cultural values guide both perception and communication. That is, our values get translated into action.” Differences in value system may become obstacles to hider the intercultural communications. So it is very hard or even
16、impossible to understand the native speakers behavioral patterns without knowing more of their value systems like individualism, privacy and so on.3. Cultivation of College Students Communicative Competence3. 1 Enhancing Culture TeachingCultural differences are the main source which leads to pragmat
17、ic failure. So teachers can use different techniques and methods to teach culture. For example, watching English films is a very good way to learn culture. Teachers should regard it as a good teaching aid and make full use of it, instead of just taking it for fun. Original English films can provide
18、a good chance for students to improve both their linguistic competence and social competence. Through the vivid performance of the actors students can easily grasp the culture information and experience the feeling and acting of the people living in the given customs. While watching film, students w
19、ill not only experience enjoyment of visual sense but can listen to typical spoken English. It can present authentic communicative situations by which the cultural background of the characters can be reflected vividly. Teachers should also recommend various kinds of books on culture to students. For
20、 example, original English novels, dramas, short stories, play and so on. Through such exposure students can develop amore nature and all-round understanding of the target culture. Besides, newspapers, magazines and journals are other important sources of learning cultural traits because they touche
21、s upon different topics concerning the latest information about geography, religion, politics, economy, philosophy, literature, art, tourism, fashion, entertainment and daily life, which are very useful in widening students view and improving their cultural competence. In fact, many methods can be u
22、sed to teach culture both in classroom and out of classroom. Teachers should make full use of them, and let them serve for teaching.3. 2 Improving Teaching Methods3.2.1. Stressing Student-centered ClassroomIn order to develop students communicative competence, the teacher should create a good enviro
23、nment for students to practice English in class. The present situation is that in almost all Chinese classrooms, the teacher is the center of classroom activity. The teacher is considered the authority. But in fact English class needs more practice and co-operation between the teacher and students.
24、Thus a teacher-centered class is not effective. So teaching should be more student-centered than teacher-centered. The teacher should offer more chances for students to practice. In addition, the atmosphere plays a very important role in English teaching classroom. In order to increase learning effi
25、ciency, the teacher should try to create an agreeable and friendly atmosphere in which students can learn without feeling tense or nervous, and their self-confidence is much improved. In this way, students are no longer afraid of making mistakes, which is good for developing their communicative comp
26、etence.3.2.2. Integrating teaching with contextContext is a key notion in pragmatics as well as in communicative English language teaching. As is known to us, textbooks only provide the basic contents and teaching goals which teachers are supposed to fulfill. The books cannot offer everything, so it
27、 is the task of the teachers to give the linguistic items sense. Thus in teaching English, the teachers are supposed to teach not only the grammar of linguistic items, but also their potential force matched for different contexts. Different linguistic form may have the same pragmatic force and one l
28、inguistic form may possess different pragmatic potentials, so the teachers should teach the students relationships. And some linguistic items can be taught by creating situations. What is most important is that the teacher should impose on the students the contextual meaning, and context is dynamic,
29、 just as Thomas says, “meaning is in interaction”. The students therefore should learn to seek meaning in context, both textual and situational.4. ConclusionNow we are living in a world of global village and information superhighway, cross-cultural communication becomes more and more significant in
30、the 21st century. The frequent exchange of technology and culture with people all around the world makes cross-cultural communication indispensable for us. When we communicate with people from other cultures, we are often confronted with language rules, and norms different from our own. Misunderstan
31、dings or even conflicts may arise. Pragmatic failure is the main source that gives rise to cross-cultural communication breakdown In order to minimize the misunderstandings or conflicts when we communicate with people from other cultures, we should study how pragmatic failure occurs. Study on pragma
32、tic failure can help us get a better understanding of cross-cultural communication. It is generally realized that for efficient communication and correct understanding, it is not enough for language students to know only the rules of the language, but also the knowledge of when, how and to whom it i
33、s appropriate to use these rules. So the teacher should not only teach grammar and words, but also focus their attention on language in use and help the students raise their communicative ability.References1 Samovar, Porter& Stefani. Communication Between Cultures M. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.2 Thomas, J. Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure J. Applied Linguistics, 1983(4).3 何自然, 冉永平, 语用学概论M, 湖南教育出版社, 2001.4 何兆熊, 新编语用学概要M, 上海外语教育出版社, 1999.5 胡文仲, 不同文化之间的交际语外语学习J, 外语教学与研究, 1985(4).
