Developing Students' Oral Communicative Competence From A Stylistic Perspective

This thesis seeks to argue for the great necessity and usefulness of stylistic theory to achieve college students' (non-English majors') oral communicative competence and its practical use in EFL teaching.With China's entry into WTO, college students, after their graduation, will have more and more chances to use English as a tool to communicate with native speakers of English. It has been found that students entering higher education with the experience of six or more years of instruction in English at the secondary school, although they are very familiar with English grammar, have considerable difficulty coping with English language in its normal communicative use. Facing the existing problems students have in communication, teachers have been trying hard to give innovations in EFL teaching. And the purpose of English teaching and learning has shifted from merely passing exams to achieving communicative competence. Based on the writer's years of teaching practice, the thesis suggests the application of stylistic theory in EFL teaching, especially in speaking class.The thesis first discusses the relationship between stylistics and communicative competence. It states that stylistics is "the linguistic study of style". Its main concern is the appropriate use of language in different situations. In different situations, people use different variations in English. The thesis discusses the five different levels of style (frozen, formal, consultative, casual and intimate) and their different application in different situations. A good style must conform to the context of situation and make people think it is appropriate. For English learners, the most important thing is to master the linguistic features of different styles so as to communicate effectively with native speakers of English. The thesis then introduces the notion of communicative competence which includes 2 sub-competences: linguistic competence and pragmatic competence (including social-linguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence). As for our students, pragmatic competence is of vital importance to them. Stylistics can facilitate EFL teaching to help students to achieve communicative competence.Secondly, the thesis provides an introduction to an important notion of stylistics: non-linguistic context. Non-linguistic context consists of cultural context which refers to the total patterns of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community and situational context which is composed of field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse. Cultural context and situational context strongly determine the choice of linguistic variations. The name given to a variety of language distinguished according to use is "register". While people are speaking, the knowledge of situational context can help to choose the right register.Thirdly, the thesis elaborates the distinction between spoken discourse and written discourse. The differences between the two are due mainly to the fact that one is generally planned, whereas the other is more or less spontaneous. In writing, one has time to edit and polish the language. If necessary, he can revise or do the whole thing over again, hi speaking, however, one's words and even one's ideas often emerge in the course of the conversation; little is planned or deliberated. There are hesitations, backtracking, changes in the middle of an idea or sentence. The different linguistic features of spoken discourse and written discourse are described in the thesis at four levels: phonologically, lexically, syntactically and discoursally. Knowing the distinction between spoken discourse and written discourse, students will not misuse the written language in informal conversation.Fourthly, the thesis lists the existing problems college students have in communication. These problems are: choice of items from wrong register, mixing of items from wrong register, transfer of LI culture knowledge, lack of knowledge about English culture and lack...