Implication Of Pragmatic Failure Research For English Teaching In Five-year Foreign Languages Normal Schools

Pragmatic failure is a frequent phenomenon in the use of English and students feel troubled about that, which is also a problem that faces teachers as well as experts in this field. Numerous studies have been done in order to throw some light on it, but most of them seem to focus on students' learning with little attention to the teaching in foreign language normal schools.This thesis aims to explore the causes of frequent pragmatic failures that students meet with and offer some suggestions to the English teaching in five-year foreign languages normal schools. In Chapter 1, the need for carrying out the study is illustrated and a brief introduction to the study is given. Then in Chapter 2 the writer defines the key terms conceptually and traces back to the related research on pragmatics and pragmatic failure. Besides, the writer makes some evaluating comments on these studies and puts forward her supposition. To make it further, in Chapter 3 the writer compares Chinese with English in terms of sociopragmatics and makes a list of common sociopragmatic failures, pointing out the sociopragmatic failures students make are most often the result of lack of knowledge of the differences between Chinese and English in the habitual ways of communicating, hence the necessity to conduct the research about pragmatic failure. Then in Chapter 4 the writer puts forward three questions to be answered by the three studies and gives a detailed description as to why and how the studies are carried out. In Chapter 5 the writer reports the findings and explores the hindrance from pragmatic teaching in foreign languages normal schools and also implication of the studies is provided. Finally the write points out the urgency of changing this unpleasant situation in English teaching and advocates the immediate involvement of pragmatic teaching in five-year foreign languages normal schools.