A Study Of Speech Acts In Teaching Chinese As A Second Language

Teaching Chinese as a foreign language is an important source for Chinese learners to understand Chinese knowledge and an important tool for improving the ability of using Chinese language.Various speech acts are an important part of the textbook content,such as Requests,Suggestions,Rejections,Criticisms,etc.A Chinese learner can properly implement speech acts is also one of the criteria to measure their Chinese pragmatic ability.Existing research shows that there are currently researchers who have tried to analyze the speech behaviors in the textbooks for Chinese as a foreign language,but they are mostly limited to the description of the distribution of language behaviors in multiple Chinese languages,and have achieved certain research results.The situation of questionnaire survey and tracking is still relatively small.This article will be based on speech behavior theory and relevance theory,with qualitative description and quantitative analysis research methods.First of all,the HSK Standaid Course series of textbooks will be used as examples to analyze the four speech behavior strategies of Request,Suggestion,Rejection and Criticism Distribution,This article held a questionnaire survey with high school students of Bangkok in Thailand as the survey object,to examine their Chinese pragmatic awareness,pragmatic understanding and pragmatic expression ability.The results show that the overall frequency of the four speech act strategies in the textbook is relatively high,which can basically meet the communicative needs of learners,However,there are also some strategies that are too concentrated,systematic,and layered in the arrangement of speech acts.The problem is insufficient.A pragmatic survey of Thai high school students shows that most of the participants can understand and follow the basic Chinese communication principles,but there are great difficulties in understanding each other's specific intentions and choosing appropriate strategies and language forms to express their views.The more commonly used request strategies of the subjects were Inquiry Type and Demand Statement Type;the strategy of Suggesting and Refusing speech act were obviously regulated by social distance and social power.It is suggested that the high-powered people in the context tend to use Declarative Sentences and Imperative Sentences,the low-powered people tend to use Interrogative Sentences and Imperative Sentences,and the equal-powered people use Imperative Sentences and Declarative Sentences more.In the context of Criticism,high-powered people mostly use Warning Threats,Negotiation,and Desire-based strategies.Low-powered people mainly use Commentary and Reminder styles.When equal powers,they prefer to use Negotiation and Desire styles.Respondents often used Explanation strategies,Promises and Persuasion strategies when they refused to speak.Based on the above research results,this article draws inspiration from the two aspects of textbook compilation and class teaching.We also proposes that the textbook compilation should follow the macro principles,such as From easy to difficult and Step by Step,Priority and other considerations,Recurrence,Real and Natural.Textbook writers should also pay attention to providing sufficient contextual information and pragmatic explanations when arranging specific speech acts,focusing on the specification of pragmatic strategies,and providing diversified and targeted exercises.Teachers also attach importance to guiding Chinese learners in summarizing commonly used strategies,updating strategies,and establishing a pragmatic and contextual perspective when teaching Chinese.