| As a linguistic and cultural phenomenon, euphemism is so frequently used in English-speaking countries that"Few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plain-spoken, ever get through a day without using them.", according to Rawson, a British linguist.Euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive ones. The term comes from the Greek, eu meaning"well"or"sounding good"and pheme meaning"speech". From the day it came into existence, euphemism has been lubricating our communication, helping establish a good relationship between human beings and even strengthen social stability. The frequent use of euphemism in our daily life lies in its strong communicative functions: evasive function, politeness function, cosmetic function, humorous and satirical function. Besides, euphemism is also observing the Face Theory proposed by Brown and Levinson. According to them, euphemism serves as an important language tool to maintain and save both the positive and negative face. In reality, however, Chinese English teachers and non-English majors tend to ignore its importance. As a result, few college students are able to express themselves in a euphemistic way. Such a way of an expression of what we call"call a spade a spade"usually results in unpleasantness or even breakdown in communication. In order to solve this problem, teachers should take the initiative to find effective and practical ways to help students form a solid foundation for successful communication.Many linguists and scholars have studied this linguistic phenomenon from the perspectives of rhetoric, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. As a result, achievements in the study of euphemism have been conspicuous. Thus, on the basis of others' researches, this thesis attempts to make sure how well non-English majors did in this field and provide some implications for the future college English teaching.
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