A Study On Chinese Efl Learners' Interlanguage Pragmatic Competence In The Speech Act Of Apology

Pragmatic aspects of learner language, one indispensable component of second language acquisition (SLA) research, are investigated in order to illuminate how a second or foreign language (S/FL) learner uses the formal linguistic properties of the target language in actual communication. Within the framework of interlanguage pragmatics, the studies concerning various kinds of speech acts in interlanguage have focused on the illocutionary meaning, or language functions, particularly, the extent to which and ways in which learners perform illocutionary acts in the L2 differently from native speakers of the target language. The performance of speech acts in interlanguage undoubtedly serves as one important perspective to explore the S/FL learner's pragmatic competence.The thesis aims to investigate how Chinese EFL learners, specifically, the English-majored students at college perform the speech act of apology so as to discuss the development of their pragmatic competence. The data for this study were elicited from four groups of subjects through two questionnaires, one open-ended discourse completion test (DCT) questionnaire with eight apology situations in it and the other questionnaire of evaluating social distance, social power and severity of offence in the apology situations. Analysis of variables (ANOVA) was conducted to identify the pragmatic differences in the selection of apology strategies that distinguished two groups of Chinese English-majored students at different language proficiency levels from the group of native American speakers and the group of native Chinese speakers. Spearman correlation tests were conducted to explore whether the selection of a certain apology strategy correlates with the evaluation of the apology situation.The results from the quantitative analysis indicate that more similarities than differences among four groups have been detected in terms of apology strategy selection. Nearly ail the subjects preferred to use the illocutionary force indicating device (IFID) strategy, which suggests that the IFID strategy is more universal whereas the other strategies are situation-specific. In some but not all situations, more Chinese EFL learners performed no speech act of apology and fewer of them used explanation or account and offer of repair than native American speakers. The Chinese EFL learners at the lower intermediate level...