On Cultivating Pragmatic Competence By Vague Mechanism

The cultivation of pragmatic competence in learning English can not be emphasized more nowadays. The reason is that pragmatic competence is regarded as a JOINT connecting linguistic/grammatical competence with communicative competence. Only when the students possess good pragmatic competence, can their linguistic competence be fully turned into communicative competence.This thesis, in its first chapter, gives a description of how the pragmatic competence is gradually realized by people, and conducts an analysis of the present situation of middle school students' English pragmatic competence in China. At the end of the chapter, the author suggests that Vague Mechanism can work in fulfilling the transformation, that is, linguistic/grammatical competence, with the "joining in" of pragmatic competence, can develop into communicative competence.In the second chapter, the author first acclaims that vague mechanism in teaching and learning English is hinted by the theory of fuzziness/vagueness. By a brief introduction of the theory, the thesis devotes pages of words to the vague phenomena existing in the different aspects of English language, and the thought and cognition of human being, and just because of the above reasons, the process and procedure in teaching and learning should be manoeuvred in an ambiguous way. Here, AMBIGUITY does not mean unclearness; on the contrary, it means to arrange the various factors in learning and teaching in an effective mode, thus, making the conception of vague mechanism understandable.The practice of carrying on the vague mechanism is thoroughly depicted in Chapter Three from two angles. In individual angle, the activities concerning listening, speaking, reading, writing are illustrated by vague controlling means or methods; in comprehensive angle, the methods of vague mechanism in oral and written communication are also explained by examples given. Some principles for presenting effective vague mechanism are concluded.The last chapter probes into the significance and effects of the use of vague mechanism in learning and teaching English to cultivate the students' pragmatic competence.