A Study On The Strategies Of Cultivating Pupils' English Pragmatic Competence Based On Speech Act Theory

With the development and progress of society,the communication and cooperation between different countries are increasing over time.As a developing country,China undertakes some international responsibilities and obligations.English,as one of the most widely used languages,has become an important tool of international communication in cultural,science and technology.Therefore,as an English learner,we must be able to communicate in English with accuracy.Thus,cultivating pupils' pragmatic competence is one of the main tasks facing today.To cultivate learners' pragmatic competence is the ultimate goal of English teaching.However,whether learners can communicate effectively depends not only on their grammatical competence,but also on their pragmatic competence.Because of the examinations,training students' language competence has been paid too much attention to instead of training students' pragmatic competence.Pragmatic competence is regarding as an important component of communicative competence.It guarantees people to use and understand language effectively.In English teaching,teachers should not only emphasize the learning of language system,but also attach much importance to the application and function of language forms in different environments.It is necessary and important to cultivate students' pragmatic competence in teaching process.Therefore,based on speech act theory and combined with the author‘s teaching practice,this paper explores strategies to improve students' English pragmatic competence at primary school.It aims to understand and analyze the current situation of English pragmatic competence at primary school and tries to solve the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of primary school students' English pragmatic competence under the new curriculum reform?(2)What are the factors that influence primary school students' pragmatic competence?(3)How to cultivate and improve primary school students' English pragmatic competence in class?In this paper,236 students from six classes of grade five in Longdu Primary School,Zhucheng,Shandong Province were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey on their English pragmatic competence.Data which is collected through oral tests,questionnaires and interviews was used to assess students' pragmatic competence and make a classification of pragmatic failures.The experimental period is one semester(18 weeks).Firstly,in the first week,oral tests were conducted to assess students' English pragmatic competence,and questionnaires were conducted to find out the problems existing in English teaching.Secondly,in the following 17 weeks,the strategies to improve pragmatic competence are adopted by English teachers in English teaching.Last but not the least,after a 17-week experiment;another survey was conducted to learn the students' English pragmatic competence.By SPSS 22.0,the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data led to the differences before and after the experiment.The paper analyses the present situation of pupils' English pragmatic competence and pragmatic failures.Thus puts forward some teaching strategies to help the students improve their English pragmatic competence.The result shows that pupils' English pragmatic failures are frequent and their pragmatic competence are generally low;their linguistic competence and pragmatic competence are not directly corresponding;pragmatic failures include both language pragmatic failures and social pragmatic failures in verbal and non-verbal communicative acts.Pragmatic failures are common especially in the speech act.The main reasons for pragmatic failures are differences of cultural values,ethical ideology,national customs and thinking between China and western countries,negative pragmatic transfer and the ignorance of the students‘ pragmatic competence.Based on speech act theory,the following strategies are put forward to improve pupils' English pragmatic competence: choose a topic and introduce its culture;identify the subject and pass on pragmatic knowledge;creating context based on the topics;deepen the theme and provide communicative strategies.Finally,the paper points out that it is a long and arduous process to cultivate students' pragmatic competence.In fact,it is impossible for students to achieve the pragmatic competence of native speakers in English teaching.Only by appropriate ways can students' pragmatic competence be continuously improved.