Research Into The Relevance Between Pragmatic Competence And English Learning Motivation

The thesis aims at exploring the correlation between pragmatic competence andforeign language learning motivation among college students. Pragmatic competencecan be explained as the ability to use a target language tactfully and appropriately,which is an essential component of communicative competence. Pragmaticcompetence can be divided into pragmalinguistic competence and sociopragmaticcompetence. It goes without saying that the development of pragmatic competenceplays an important part in English teaching since grammatically correct Englishsentences do not stand for appropriate English. Students' deficiency in pragmaticcompetence is bound to lead to pragmatic failures.As a new interdisciplinary branch of study, interlanguage pragmatics is a keypart of second language acquisition. It describes not only the pragmatic characteristicsof nonnative speakers' language, but also the pragmatic development. Therefore, itfalls into static interlanguage pragmatics and dynamic interlanguage pragmatics.Speech act theory is vital for the branch of study. Up to now, questions about learners'target language pragmatic comprehension of speech acts and their pragmaticproduction in target language have been well discussed. Lots of studies have beenconducted on pragmatic failures and transfer. However, only a few studies have beendone on the development of pragmatic competence. In recent years, with the extensivestudies on individual differences, interlanguage pragmatics has paid attention to theinfluence of individual differences on pragmatic development. Language learningmotivation is one important individual difference variable. The study on the role ofmotivation in pragmatic development should become one of the main research topics.Motivation is one of the main variables that govern foreign language learners'achievement. Its importance in language learning cannot be neglected. It has receivedlong-term extensive attention from some researchers. Gardner et al put forwardsocioeducational model on the basis of social psychology. This model is dominant instudies on motivation and enjoys the name of classic motivational theory. They layemphasis on the social nature of motivation. Deci and Ryan divide motivation intointrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation from cognitive psychology. Learnerautonomy in learning process is stressed in this model. Dornyei sets forth thethree-level categorization, which emphasizes the combination of language learningmotivation and teaching situation.Pragmatic learning is a social and cognitive activity. Theories on L2 pragmaticdevelopment, such as the acculturation model, cognitive processing, socioculturaltheory, language socialization, and interactional competence, demonstrate learners'attitudes, affect, cognitive ability, and interactional competence exert influence onpragmatic learning.Although pragmatic development has become one research topic forinterlanguage pragmatics and scholars have done much research on the role ofmotivation, there exist few studies about its impact on pragmatic development. Thepresent author conducted a correlation research with the help of questionnaires,attempting to answer this question.Results got from the survey reveal that the subjects hold positive attitude towardspragmatic knowledge learning, but there is no significant correlation between theattitude and pragmatic competence. Their dominant motivational type is instrumentalmotivation. However, the correlation between pragmatic competence and culturalmotivation is significant.Based on the findings, the present author provides suggestions on foreignlanguage teaching. Learners' pragmatic awareness must be raised. Students should setpragmatic development as one of their learning objectives. The imparting ofpragmatic knowledge and initiating and protecting learners' motivation should becombined.