A Study On Partings Made By Foreign Students At Novice And Intermediate Chinese Levels

As the ending of social interaction, Partings are the most frequently used speech act, andimproper partings will influence communication. According to the researches of predecessors,we divide the construction mode of parting speech acts into three parts: direct parting tactics,indirect parting tactics and modified supplementary methods.Through questionnaire supplemented by interview, this paper investigates the partings offoreign students at novice and intermediate Chinese levels, and then makes a comparison withthat of native speakers. Results show that:â‘ With the improving of their Chinese levels, foreign students are gradually close to nativespeakers in choosing the parting tactics and words. But the partings of foreign students still showtwo characteristics of L2 learners: the strategies they used are not so abundant as native Chinese;there are some pragmatic errors in the usage of specific strategies.â‘¡The foreign students at novice and intermediate Chinese levels all have chosen differentpartings tactics according to the different situation, and all have noticed the influence of socialpower and distance. The parting speech mode by foreign students in situations of different socialpower present differences; but in situations of different social distance, the influence of Chineselevel of foreign students is not obvious.â‘¢Unauthentic language materials in textbooks and little attention of teachers on Chineseparting act cause errors in usage and understanding of foreign students to some degree.Finally, we proposed correspondent teaching suggestions toward the problem of textbookediting and teaching approach.