A Study Of Pragmatic Competence Based On The Analysis Of Non-English Major Students' Pragmatic Failure

Since the 1980s', as the communicative approach in FLT (Foreign Language Teaching) is increasingly gaining popularity and researches on language and culture have been done pervasively, more and more researchers and scholars have begun to concern themselves with learners' pragmatic competence and ICC (Intercultural Communicative Competence) rather than their grammatical competence and communicative competence. Therefore, great importance has been attached to pragmatic failure in the field of pragmatics and applied linguistics. The term "pragmatic failure" is first adopted by J. Thomas in her article Cross-cultural pragmatic failure in 1983. She states that pragmatic failure refers to the inability to understand "What is meant by what is said". And it can be subdivided into two categories of pragmatic failure: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure.The thesis is based on the theories of intercultural communication, and 132 non-English major students are designed as its subjects. Through the analysis of the data collected from the questionnaire, the thesis mainly expounds the relationship between non-English major students' pragmatic competence and their linguistic competence, types of pragmatic failures invited by Chinese non-English major students, potential sources of their pragmatic failure and the influence of culture on the decrease of pragmatic failure, etc.The research questions of the thesis are as follows:1) How is Chinese non-English major students' pragmatic competence relevant to their linguistic competence?2) What kinds of pragmatic failure are Chinese non-English major students prone to invite in intercultural communication?3) What are the potential sources of pragmatic failure as the reflection of non-English major students' pragmatic competence?4) Does cultural difference input exert some positive influence on the decrease of non-English major students' pragmatic failure?The results show that: 1) Chinese non-English major students' pragmatic competence cannot proportionally develop as linguistic competence improves, that is to say, students with high linguistic competence do not possess equally high pragmatic competence. As indicated by the means of CG (control group) and EG (experimental group), 30.734 and 30.911 respectively, there is no significant difference between them (p>0.05). 2) As the focus of the current study, pragmatic failures on speech act are frequently committed by Chinese non-English major students in intercultural communication. 3) Through the analysis of the results obtained from the questionnaire, the potential sources of pragmatic failure that reflect Chinese non-English major students' pragmatic competence are inter-lingual transfer, intra-lingual transfer, cultural transfer and so on. 4) Based on the results of the t-test, it is found that cultural difference input would exert some positive influence on the decrease of Chinese non-English major students' pragmatic failure.The thesis would provide some pedagogical instructions for college English teaching in China. As the results indicate, the Chinese non-English major students' linguistic competence does not guarantee their pragmatic competence and there should be some improvement in college English teaching. For example, teachers should pay much more attention to the pragmatic rules while focusing on language form. In addition, culture factors should be integrated into foreign language teaching. Only by learning cultural differences can learners improve their pragmatic competence.