An Analysis Of Pragmatic Errors Of Chinese College Students

The study of error analysis (EA), as a new discipline of applied linguistics, rose at the end of 1960s and developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Its researches show the foreign language learner's errors are potentially important for understanding the process of foreign language acquisition. The aim of EA is to find the rules in the learning process and to explain them in theory. In other words, the purpose of EA is to enrich the research theory of FLT (foreign language teaching), to deepen people's understanding of FLT process and to offer real help to teaching activities. However, EA in China is mainly limited to the language itself, while little attention has been paid to the analysis of pragmatical aspect (Shu Dingfang and Zhuang Zhixiang, 1996). For many years, linguistics has been aiming to study the linguistic system itself and ignoring the actual language use in life. Accordingly, FLT naturally focuses on teaching learners linguistic knowledge—pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary instead of language use. In China, most teachers always emphasize the teaching of linguistic knowledge system, and little attention is paid to the application of language knowledge (Yu Xiangyue, 2002: 2). As a result, the students become less and less pragmatically competent. Pragmatic errors often occur, even to the extent that some unnecessary embarrassments and conflicts are caused (Shen Yongping, 1996: 6).In order to call attention to the pragmatic competence of the students, a research on linguistic errors and pragmatic errors is conducted by means of questionnaire and interview. The subjects of this research are 300 students from three different grades of Chuzhou Teachers' College, Anhui Province. The major findings, based on the analysis of questionnaires collected and interview's records, are presented as follows:<1> It is a common phenomenon for Chinese college students to commit pragmatic errors, which can be found among the students from different grades. The quantitative analysis of the errors and their frequency distribution shows it is not the case that the more linguistically competent the students are, the more pragmatically competent they become. Thus, pragmatic knowledge should be attached importance to,and it should be imparted to the students together with linguistic knowledge, as early as possible and as all round as possible.<2> The students living in the countryside are less pragmatically competent than those living in the cities and towns.<3>Inter-lingual transfer, intra-lingual transfer and cultural-transfer are the main sources of pragmatic errors that Chinese college students commit. Besides, the relationship between interlocutors, gender of interlocutors and lack of practical training also have effects.This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter one is a general introduction about the necessity and purposes of this study, and the whole structure of the thesis. Chapter two offers a framework for this study and introduces some related concepts such as error analysis, error, mistake and competence, etc. Chapter three is about the methodology of this study in which research questions and research design are described in detail. In Chapter four the results of the investigation are analyzed and discussed. Chapter five is a conclusion in which major findings of this study are summarized, its implications and limitations are pointed out, and some suggestions for further research are put forward.