On Cultivation Of Students' Pragmatics Competence In Primary English Teaching

English teaching in primary schools has always focused on linguistic knowledge but ignored the development of students' pragmatic competence, causing pragmatic failure in real communication situations. The present paper discusses the needs and ways to develop students' pragmatic competence. It begins with the analysis the relation of pragmatic competence to communicative competence and language competence, then introduces some relevant theories and principles on pragmatics, including the J. L. Austin's Speech Act Theory, L. R. Searle's Indirect Speech Act Theory, H. P. Grice's Cooperative Principle and G N. Leech's Politeness Principle. Then the paper analyses the definition and reasons of PF: (1) The shortage of pragmatic knowledge caused by teaching techniques; (2) The inappropriate pragmatically transfer of learners' native language; (3) Lack of cross-cultural knowledge. It then reports an investigation carried out among 230 students from different schools in Fu Zhou. At last, a conclusion is drawn that pragmatic failure exists widely among school students, especially primary school pupils, of English. The cultivation of pragmatic competence is rather weak in current English teaching and learning, and the students' pragmatic competence and linguist competence are unbalanced. The writer concludes that it is necessity to teach pragmatic knowledge and believes that pragmatic knowledge can and must be taught in English classes, especially for primary schools, where English learning begins. Finally, this paper inquires into how to teach pragmatic knowledge and to develop primary school pupils' pragmatic competence.