A Pragmatic Perspective In EFL Reading: Implications And Application

In an attempt to seek the answer for "how to use a pragmatic perspective to guide our reading?" This thesis aims at providing, from theoretical and practical aspects, a comprehensive, coherent framework for teachers of foreign/second language at primary, secondary or tertian,' levels concerned with a better understanding of reading.In the reading process, readers fail to achieve adaptation due to a lack of understanding of the interactions between as well as among all the relevant elements. The thesis calls this phenomenon "deficiency of adaptation". To solve this problem, we need to know as much as possible about the nature of reading, moreover how to apply these knowledge into teaching practice.Reading comprehension is an interaction between background knowledge and the textual elements. Both are essential factors in the reading process. The reading process is a process of using language, that is, "a process of choice - making, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal (i.e. Structural) and/or language-external reasons." (Verschueren 1999). In practical reading, all these elements are involved in interaction; the dynamic adaptation among them enables reading to be a dynamic, complete unified whole. A pragmatic perspective is the prerequisite for an in-depth understanding of reading. The author holds that in classroom teaching, teachers can design appropriate reading tasks on the basis of a pragmatic perspective so as to achieve the interaction at all the relevant levels. For example: the fulfillment of the interaction between the teacher and students brings about the interaction between the students as readers and the writer. Thus, teachers function as mediators in the real sense. The reading task serves as a network to achieve adaptation at various levels.Theory of adaptation is the core of the pragmatic perspective. To realize real adaptation, the author provides a task-based interactive reading model on the basis of socialconstructivism. This model points out that readers can't truly understand the dynamic nature of reading unless they understand the interaction among as well as between different understanding levels. This model reveals the pragmatic nature of reading. In addition, if also displays the interaction between teachers and students and the interaction between students as readers and the texts.The principles discussed here are applicable to teachers of English as a foreign language, modern language teachers, or those involved in teaching any language whether in China or overseas. It is intended that it should be usable by teachers from a range of teaching contexts and cultural backgrounds. By putting a pragmatic perspective in reading, first, we can have a better understand of reading; next, our teaching of reading will be improved; then, our use of language will enter a new era; last but not the least, our insight of language will be upgraded.