跨文化语用失误研究

跨文化语用失误研究 本科毕业论文 跨文化语用失误研究 —提高学生的交际能力 学 院,外国语言学院 专 业,英语专业 姓 名,郑蓉芳 学 号,051310073 指导教师,张瑜清 职 称,讲师 论文提交日期,二ΟΟ九年六月 A Study on Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure — Enhancing Students’ Communicative Competence A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirement for The Degree of Bachelor of Arts By Zheng Rongfang Under the Supervision of Lecturer Zhang Yuqing Foreign Languages College Of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University June 2009 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 跨文化语用失误研究 — 提高学生的交际能力 摘 要 语用学主要研究话语怎样在情景中获得意义。语用失误属于语用学范畴，指人们在实际的言语交流中因说话不合时宜的失误或者因说话方式不妥、达不合习惯等导致交际不能取得预期效果的失误。国内外语言学家们已经对语用失误作了研究，其研究成果逐渐加深了人们对语用失误的认识。 本文通过作者和周围同学在英语交际时出现的失误以及相关语用失误的案例进行分析，认为之所以出现跨文化交际失误主要受三个方面因素的影响:一是母语的影响，二是跨文化知识的缺乏，三是传统授课方式的缺陷。针对上述问提出建议:一、学生要强化母语知识;二、学生课下要通过各种途径增加跨文化知识;三、教师在讲授语言知识时应增加语用恰当性的内容。 本文中的跨文化语用失误主要是借鉴自己以及身边的同学在用英语进行交际时出现的失误进行研究。本文目的在于结合自己在英语交际中遇到的问题试图找到能帮助学生减少和避免语用失误的策略。作者认为本研究对培养学生语用能力具有一定的实际意义。在分析语用失误的过程中，作者借助Jenny Thomas对语用失误归类的理论,希望可以帮助学生进行很好的交际。 关键词:跨文化交际;语用失误;交际能力;英语学习 i 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 A Study on Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure —Enhancing Students’ Communicative Competence Abstract Pragmatics studies how utterances have meaning in situation. Pragmatic failure belongs to the field of pragmatics. Pragmatic failure often occurs in the situation in which the speaker fails to speak appropriately in a specific situation, or cannot use language accustomed to different situations, which leads to the listener's misunderstanding of the speaker's intention. Linguists at home and abroad have been doing researches on pragmatic failure. These valuable researches are helpful to further understand pragmatic failure. This thesis analyzes pragmatic failures of the writer and classmates in using English for communication and other examples of pragmatic failure. Through analysis the author draws the conclusion that three reasons could lead to pragmatic failure: Firstly, the influence of native tongue. Secondly, be lack of intercultural knowledge. Thirdly, deficiencies in traditional teaching methods. Based on the above reasons, the writer puts forward the following suggestions: Students should appreciate their native culture; Students should raise cultural awareness outside of class through many kinds of ways; Teachers highlight the appropriate use of words, phrases, sentences and grammar in classroom teaching process. Cross-cultural pragmatic failure in this thesis mainly draws lessons from the failure of the author and classmates in using English for communication. This thesis aims to find out some tactics to help students reduce and avoid pragmatic failure by combining the problems the author has found out during English communication. The writer thinks the study doing here is meaningful to enhance students? pragmatic competence. In the analysis of pragmatic failure, Jenny Thomas' theory of categorizing pragmatic failure is applied. Hopefully this could help students have a smooth cross-cultural communication. Key words: cross-culture communication, pragmatic failure, communicative competence, ii 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 English language learning iii 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................... 1 Chapter 2 Cross-Cultural Communicative and Pragmatic Failure .... 3 2.1 Definitions and Concepts ................................... 3 2.1.1 Communication ..................................... 3 2.1.2 The Relationship Between Culture and Communication ...... 4 2.1.3 Cross-Cultural Communication ......................... 5 2.2 Theories Related to Pragmatic Failure .......................... 6 2.2.1 Thomas?s Theories of Pragmatic Failure .................. 6 2.2.2 Domestic Researches on Pragmatic Failure ................ 8 Chapter 3 Reasons for Cross-cultural Communicative Pragmatic Failure ..................................................... 10 3.1 Native Tongue Influencing Cross-cultural Communication ......... 10 3.2 Lacking Knowledge in Intercultural Communication .............. 11 3.3 Deficiencies in English Language Teaching (ELT) ............... 13 Chapter 4 Suggestions for Enhancing English Learners’ Cross-cultural Communication ........................................ 15 4.1 Learners Should Appreciate Their Native Culture ................ 15 4.2 Students Should Raise Cultural Awareness ..................... 16 4.3 Suggestions for English Teachers ............................. 18 Chapter 5 Conclusion ........................................... 20 Notes .......................................................... 22 Bibliography ................................................... 23 Acknowledgements ............................................... 25 iv 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Chapter 1 Introduction China is attracting much attention from all over the world. Especially after the success of Beijing Olympic in 2008, increasingly more and more people from all over the world come to China. Cross-cultural communication has become more and more important nowadays. However, the same message may be interpreted differently by different individuals because of the differences in cultural backgrounds. Therefore, serious communication failures may come out. In order to help English learners to be aware of why and how pragmatic failure happens in intercultural communication, this paper introduces sources of pragmatic failure according to Jenny Thomas. Pragmatic failure can be roughly classified into two kinds: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure is caused by people?s different understanding on a linguistic token or structure; sociopragmatic failure stems from cross-culturally different perceptions of what constitutes appropriate linguistic behaviors. The dissertation will place emphasis on the analysis of the sociopragmatic failure so as to offer some effective ways that can help communicators to achieve successful communication. The less the learners? pragmatic failures are, the stronger their pragmatic competence becomes. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly necessary for the students to avoid pragmatic failure. This thesis, which deals with pragmatic failures in English-Chinese communication, consists of five chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction. Chapter Two provides literature review related to cross-cultural communication and pragmatic failure. Chapter Three analyzes some reasons of pragmatic failure. These reasons are: the influence of native tongue, the lack of knowledge in intercultural communication and the deficiencies in English language teaching. Chapter Four serves as a suggestion to reduce and avoid pragmatic failure. These suggestions are: students should appreciate their native culture and raise cultural knowledge outside the classroom and teachers need to try to explore the possibilities of a context on the cross-cultural pragmatics failure when having a class. 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Chapter Five is the conclusion of the study. Knowing pragmatic failure, students will try to avoid it during intercultural communication with English-speaking people. 2 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Chapter 2 Cross-Cultural Communicative and Pragmatic Failure Many experts at home or abroad have been studying pragmatic failures for more than twenty years. Such as Thomas who is the first one to give the definition of pragmatic failure. In China, Huang Cidong?s research is the beginning of domestic study of pragmatic failure. He summarized the sources of pragmatic errors. Their studies on cross-cultural communication and pragmatic failure have widened the vision of the author in the study of pragmatic failure. 2.1 Definitions and Concepts 2.1.1 Communication It is difficult to find a single definition for communication because of its complex nature. In 1972, Hymes points out that “knowing when it is appropriate to open a conversation and how, what topics are appropriate to particular speech events, which forms 1 of address are to be used, to whom and in which situations.”Too many styles of speech belong to communication. People choose an appropriate topic and then have a conversation. Yet this is no easy thing to do it. What are the appropriate conversations depends on different cultures. Thus, communication within the same culture is complicated, let alone cross cultures. According to Samovar & Porter, “communication refers to our ability to share our ideas and feelings; it is a dynamic, systematic process in which meanings are created and 2reflected in human interaction with symbols.” In their studies, communication consists of human communication and non-human communication. The former could be divided into social communication and non-social communication. Non-social communication is the communication inside one person himself. Social communication, which is the focus of 3 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 cross-cultural communication, can be divided into three subgroups: interpersonal communication, it refers to the communication between two or more people; organizational communication, it happens in large organizations like schools, companies, and governments; mass communication such as the act or process of professional communication groups transmitting message to indefinite mass through mechanized ways. Magazines, newspapers, TVs are typical ways of mass communication. Communication is essential to human being as we all need to express ourselves and exchange our thoughts with others. One cannot make it without communication. Communication is not an isolated process. It always happens in certain social environment. The environmental elements may affect our understanding of the speaker's intentions. Many factors affect communication. Communication does not only concern what, when or where to talk, but also how to talk-the intonation, stress, pacing and pausing, speech acts adopted, etc Many of these variables in the communication process are to some extent determined by culture. Different cultures prefer different styles of social interaction. People from different cultures have different ways of expressing messages. Therefore, communication between cultures is more difficult. Problems tend to rise in communication between cultures. Next we will discuss the relationship between culture and communication and how culture can affect communication and which cultural factors are most influential to communication. 2.1.2 The Relationship Between Culture and Communication Samovar & Porter said “culture affects communication in subtle and profound ways. Unawareness of cultural differences often leads to conflicts or breakdowns in communication. Each of us is conditioned by our culture from birth. Our culture teaches us when to speak up and when to keep silent, how to address people in different situations and according to different relationships between the speakers involved, what tone of voice to employ, when and how to make eye contact and for how long, and countless other 3 things .”There are different communication in different cultural backgrounds. Under the same cultural background, most people will have the same thinking mode, cultural values, 4 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 they will have the same view about one thing. So cultural affects communication. Communicationg with people from other cultures requires people involved to have a clear mind of each others? cultural backgrounds or thinking patterns. Many times, some of the expressions or even body languages that are acceptable in one culture could be completely unacceptable in anther. About the relationship of culture and communication, another professor Zhang Ailin points out “As cultures differ from one another like languages, communication practices and behaviors of the individuals brought up in different cultures also vary. In many aspects the relationship between culture and communication is reciprocal. So culture and 4 communication affect and influence each other.” The relationship between communication and culture is a very complex and intimate. There is no communication, there is no culture. The reason is that cultures are created by communicating. It is not individuals can create a culture when they interact in relationships, groups, organizations, or societies, while cultures are a natural by-product of social interaction. Without communication and communication media, it would be impossible to preserve and pass along cultural characteristics from one place and time to another. One can say, therefore, that culture is created, shaped, transmitted, and learned through communication. The reverse is also the case, that is, communication practices are largely created, shaped, and transmitted by culture. To summarize, the author thinks culture and communication are inseparable. Understanding of the one requires understanding of the other. If one can make a good communication, she or he must know the culture. 2.1.3 Cross-Cultural Communication The term "Cross-Cultural Communication" may sound new to many people, but the activities of cross-cultural communication have been going on for thousands of years. Hu Wenzhong said “Cross-cultural communication describes communication between two people from different cultures. It refers to the exchange of knowledge, ideas, thoughts, concepts, and emotions among people of different cultural backgrounds. Cross-cultural communication occurs whenever people of different cultural backgrounds come in contact 5with each other.”And Samovar& Porter said simply: “behavior that is appropriate and 5 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 6effective in a given context.” Chinese people began our communication with the western world through the "Silk Road" several thousand years ago. Nowadays, more and more people are involved in the activities of cross-cultural communication even though they are not aware of it, such as the visits of our leaders to other countries and their meetings with other foreign leaders, Chinese companies? interactions with foreign investors; and a Chinese tour guide's conversation with foreign travelers. Besides, in our daily life, there are other cross-cultural communications, such as reading a foreign novel, watching a foreign movie and TV. In a word, cross-cultural communication refers to the communication between people of different cultural backgrounds. In cross-cultural communication, people from different cultures may speak the same language, but their communication may break down due to pragmatic differences in ways of thinking, rules of speaking, social values, lexical connotation and other factors. 2.2 Theories Related to Pragmatic Failure 2.2.1 Thomas’s Theory of Pragmatic Failure Pragmatic failure occurs whenever the communicator could not use language appropriately or interpret language correctly. Pragmatic failure is first proposed by Jenny Thomas who points out that “pragmatic failure refers to the inability to understand what is 7meant by what is said.” Thomas uses the term “failure” rather than “error” because, “although grammar mistakes can be judged according to prescriptive rules, the nature of pragmatic patterns is such that it is not possible to say that pragmatic force of an utterance 8 is wrong.”Sometimes, two people, like English and Chinese, have a conversation with a same language, but they cannot understand each other clearly, even could make each other confused, that?s because they have different cultural backgrounds. Thomas remarks,“…a speaker who is not operating according to the standard grammatical code is at worst condemned as „speaking badly?, the person who operates according to differently formulated pragmatic principles may well be censured as „behaving badly?; as being an 6 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 9untruthful, deceitful, or insincere person.” Thomas distinguishes two sorts of pragmatic failure: pragma-linguistic failure and socio-pragmatic failure. According to Thomas, “pragma-linguistic failure occurs when the pragmatic force mapped by S(speaker) onto a given utterance is systematically different from the force most frequently assigned to it by native speakers of the target language, or when speech act 10strategies are inappropriately transferred from Language1 to Language2.” Pragma-linguistic failure is comparatively easier to be discovered and corrected because of its limited sources. Among those sources, the most influential one is pragma-linguistic transfer from the mother tongue to the English language. Thomas said, “Pragma-linguistic transfer means the inappropriate transfer of speech act strategies from one language to another, or the transferring from the mother tongue to the target language of 11 utterances„”.It is easy to know that pragma-linguistic failures are caused by people?s understanding to the linguistic structure. As we all know, passive sentence often be used in English, for example, “Evidence found through the thorough investigation will soon be released by the media.” But in Chinese, we often use active sentence to express it. A common situation can be served as an example for pragma-linguistic failure. After an English writing class, my classmate Mark cleans the blackboard. The English writing teacher said “Thank you very much”, Mark said, “It is my duty”. Americans often feel irritated when their gratitude is responded by “It?s my duty” from Chinese. The word “duty” has a negative meaning for Americans. For them, performing a duty usually means doing some unpleasant and distasteful task for someone else. So when Chinese people say “It?s my duty”, native speakers will interpret this as the meaning of “I was required to do what I had done and I did not do it willingly or joyfully.” What they would like to accept is “You?re welcome.” or “My pleasure.” About Socio-pragmatic failure Thomas said, it arises from cross-culturally different assessments within the social parameters affecting linguistic choices such as “size of 12imposition” , “cost or benefit” , “social distance” and “relative rights and obligations.” Different cultures tend to have very different ways of thinking, speaking, and social values. 7 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 The diversity in social value systems and the ways ideas are expressed in cross-cultural communication are not always well interpreted. In this case, misunderstanding of one?s intention is inevitable and is much more difficult to cope with, since it involves the speaker?s cultural knowledge of the target language. To put it simply, socio-pragmatic failure occurs when non-native speakers fail to choose the appropriate language form because of lacking the knowledge of cultural differences For example, if an American lady praises a Chinese girl “How beautiful!”, the girl will feel embarrassed and shy. To show this feeling, she declines it directly as “just so so” But in a similar situation, a native speaker of English would say, “Thank you” In cross-cultural communication, it may provoke the feeling that the compliment-giver has a poor judgment. 2.2.2 Domestic Researches on Pragmatic Failure Based on Thomas? framework, domestic scholars have published books and articles to discuss pragmatic failures and pragmatic competence. In 1984, Huang Cidong first suggests “pragmatic error” in Pragmatics and Pragmatic Errors. His article is characterized with a qualitative analysis and deals with the different meanings of speech acts between different cultural backgrounds. He believes the sources of pragmatic errors are: unawareness of cultural differences; differences in lexical connotation; lack of common background information or knowledge. Consequently, Huang suggests that “pragmatic content regarding speech acts should be added to texts and taught to 13learners.” This is the beginning of domestic research of pragmatic failure. He Ziran and Yan Zhuang?s work, “The Pragmatic Failures of Chinese Students in Communication in 14 English—An Investigation of Chinese-English Pragmatic Difference.”is the quantitative research on pragmatic failures, focusing on pragmatic differences. It takes the theoretical framework of Thomas and analyzes the cross-cultural pragmatic differences in both pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic aspects. Its result shows that pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic knowledge is the main cause of pragmatic failures for Chinese learners. Based on these studies at home and abroad, the writer tries to find some reasons of 8 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 pragmatic failure during cross-cultural communication and suggestions for English language learners separately in the following two chapters separately in the following two chapters. 9 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Chapter 3 Reasons for Cross-Cultural Communicative Pragmatic Failure People from different cultural backgrounds have different ways of communication. When Chinese students use English, they should be aware of the differences between Chinese culture and Western culture during communication to avoid pragmatic failure. The following are the analysis of pragmatic failure. 3.1 Native Tongue Influencing Cross-Cultural Communication According to Thomas, Pragma-linguistic failure is particularly likely to occur when a range of structures in Chinese has a wider range of possible translations in English. One kind of such failure arises when two languages share the same expression but is used in different situations. For example, it is typical in Chinese to give a response to thank you by saying “Mei guan xi(没关系)”. If, however, Chinese learners of English were to translate “Mei guan xi” into English literally as “Never mind” in response to an expression of gratitude such as “Thanks a lot. That?s a great help”, the English addressee would not be able to interpret the utterance as an acknowledgement of thanks. In such a case, the response should be “My pleasure.” Here is another example: Chinese students often use “It doesn?t matter” to accept apology in English while this sentence can not be used under the same circumstances in English. However, this is a typical pragma-linguistic failure brought about by wrongly employing Chinese as the equivalent of English. Although such fixed expressions as “It doesn?t matter.” “That?s all right.” and “Never mind.” have already appeared in textbooks of junior schools, college students are almost ignorant of their accurate meanings in different situations, which on the one hand shows that the fixed expressions of native tongue have taken root in their mind, and on the other culture learning needs be further strengthened. 10 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 3.2 Lacking Knowledge in Intercultural Communication During the process of communication, Chinese students have less awareness in avoiding to choose topics which are private and sensitive, such as age, income, marital status and price of goods they bought. They lack cross-cultural knowledge. For example: Last Autumn, my friend Xiao Li gave her seat to an America lady who was more than 60 years old in bus. However the lady said thank you and refused. And Xiao Li: (To the elderly American) You must be very tired. You?re old…… W: Oh…I?m Not old, and I?m Not tired The lady was not happy. The sentence spoken by Xiao Li gave the impression that the elderly person would collapse any minute if a rest was not taken then and there. China is a country with love and benevolence ethic. It is praiseworthy that Chinese young people respect and help senior citizens. This is Chinese traditional moral values. If an senior American tourist knows that Chinese are very respectful to old people, he or she will not be so angry when the Chinese guide asks him or her if he or she needs any help. While in Western countries, especially the USA, senior people can not accept special care and they think they are still young and strong. In many English movies, to a 70 year old woman, children often say “Miss White” instead of “Aunt” or “Grandma”. However, if it occurs in China, children are criticized for naughty or less-educated. Even when it becomes very necessary to be required such as registering most Americans do not ask a person his or her age, nor do they like to be asked about their age, especially for women. Though individuals may vary in the degree in tolerating to hear “How old are you?”, it is better to avoid such kind of questions. Also, in the United States there is such a value placed in being young that many people cannot accept the fact that they are growing old. For these reasons, the Americans often felt offended. This, by the way, was a true incident. It is all right to ask children or teenagers their age. However, exception still exists when an old person is in their 80s or 90s, they may be quite proud of how old they are. It is true that Americans are often happy to talk about their families. But it is not true if you assume that everyone over 25 or 30 is married and with children. Therefore, 11 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 attention should be paid when talking about families. In the United States some people never get married in their whole life, others marry quite late and have no children. So it is unwise to ask questions as: “Have you got married?”, “Why are you still single?”, “Is your husband/wife with you?” or “How many children have you got?” These questions are frequently asked in China when people communicate with others. It is quite different from Americans who would raise questions as: “Is your family a large one?” or “Are there many in your family?” This kind of wording allows the option of talking about parents, brothers and sisters about spouse or children. Chinese people like to show concern to Americans as a result of being cared about in the family since childhood and of being taught to concern others. However, for Americans who value independence and individualism, such good intention is not always appreciated. For example, when an American is sick in China, he or she would receive suggestions as, “Drink plenty of water.” or “Put on more clothes.” Actually, these words have protective, parental overtones and hence he or she may feel being treated like a child. In English, it would be normal to show concern under the same circumstances by expressions like the following: -I do hope you’ll be better soon. -Look after yourself. -Try and get some rest. -Take it easy For example: An American teacher went to the teachers’ office to ask for leave from his Chinese leader. A: Mr.Zhang, I need one-day break because I got a headache today. C: Really? You must have caught a cold. You should take some medicine, wear more, drink more water and have a good sleep. Mr.Zhang?s consideration may offend this foreign teacher. This warm-hearted thoughtfulness and consideration are quite acceptable and common for Chinese, but may make the foreign teacher have a terrible feeling that his leader still takes him as a little 12 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 child who does not know how to look after himself. Greeting is to establish a friendly atmosphere, maintain a close relationship or prepare for a further talk. People of other cultures have different ways of greeting people. Greetings, such as the following are common in English: -Good morning/afternoon/evening. -Hello(Hi). -How are you? -How is everything going? But Chinese people would often greet Americans as follows: -Ni qu nar?(你去哪,Where are you going?) -Chi le ma?(吃了吗,Have you had your breakfast or /lunch or supper?) -Gan ma qu?(干吗去,What are you going to do?) If we use, for example, “ Are you going to the film?” or “Where are you going?” rather than the proper answer“Good afternoon, Professor Blake!” to greet Professor Black on the way to school cinema. Most Americans would regard these as great concern over eating and other?s privacy. Speakers of American English sometimes find themselves speechless when they are greeted in a number of countries in China by two common greetings translated as,“Have you eaten?” and “Where are you going?” One response we observed is that the native speaker of English misinterpreted the greeting as an invitation. In the other instance, American English speakers mistook the intent of the greeting and, when spoken to a non-intimate, felt that the question was inappropriate and a violation of their privacy. Above examples are belong to socio-pragmatic failure, Chinese learners of English should pay attention to. This could avoid pragmatic failure and create a good communication atmosphere. 3.3 Deficiencies in English Language Teaching (ELT) In senior middle schools, traditional English-teaching methods pay little attention to how to use the language, while the main concerns are drawn to words, phrases, sentences and grammar. In teaching words, most of senior middle schools teachers seldom add 13 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 pragmatic appropriateness to the teaching of words, phrases, sentences and grammar. In teaching words, teachers seldom give clear explanation about the style of the words, and distinguish the words which are partly different from Chinese in meaning, connotation and denotation, or affective implication, etc.; in teaching phrases, still many of the teachers seldom tell the appropriate use of some English phrases which are partly different from Chinese phrases in meaning but partly or completely similar in appearance; in teaching sentences, some teachers just try to make them be grammatically correct, and seldom explain the communicative function or pragmatic force of the sentences; in teaching grammar, some teachers add little pragmatic appropriateness to the explanation of grammar rules. More or less, this traditional English-teaching method influences students? communicative competence, but it does not make students pay more attention to another important part of English learning-pragmatic competence. Then most of students entrancing colleges often have problems in communication with people from English-speaking countries, even after graduating. 14 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Chapter 4 Suggestions for Enhancing Students’ Cross-Cultural Communication 4.1 Students Should Appreciate Their Native Culture Although attention should be given to target culture in EFL learning, it does not mean that native culture can be ignored or even belittled. Because we can not forget our native language totally while learning the English, but we can use it to help learning the English. What?s more, when we only master our culture on the condition of having the basic konwledge of English, we can use the English as an effective tool as our native language in our life. On the contrary, we, as English majors often be encouraged to learn and develop our native culture. The ability to attain cross-cultural communicative competence may be very closely linked to the knowledge of one?s own cultural system, which will help learners understand another culture. To learn and study our own culture is instrumental in increasing students? cross-cultural awareness. Chinese learners clearly know native language and culture then using English language smooth. Taking an example, “San ge dai biao” 三个代表, Chinese people know what the meaning is while English-speaking people do know clearly. When translating it to “Three Representatives”, translators or interpreters must explain what it is. If we do not know the Chinese culture, this kind of special words can not be translated correctly. Let us take Tomb-Sweeping Day as an example, if we don?t know the culture of China, we cannot understand what the Tomb-Sweeping Day is, what people will do during the day, why they do it, so we cannot translate it correctly. The Day is a traditional festival in China. It has important commemoration significance, especially for those heroes who have given their lives for our motherland. In China, still a proverb says three cobblers with their wits combined epual Zhuge Liang the master mind. (三个臭皮匠，合成一个诸葛亮) Its reall means is Zhuge Liang by himself can never be perfect, he has his limitations. Learning English language can not only introduce our culture and study foreign countries? 15 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 knowledge and technology, but also mix together two cultures and have a progress each other. Therefore, Chinese students learning English should have a better understanding of one?s native culture. Students must have the consciousness to learn the necessary linguistic, communicative and cross-cultural skills to reflect upon and portray their own society, to present their own culture. Besides, students should learn to adopt the method of discussing with others to compare the underlying values and beliefs in their native culture with the English culture so that they can not only know the differences but also better appreciate both cultures. 4.2 Students Should Raise Cultural Awareness Obviously, culture acquisition cannot be achieved merely through classroom teaching. It can not cover everything. Students should not only take part in teaching activity. But after class, students need to create cross-cultural atmosphere themselves. Much cultural information can be picked up from fictions and dramas written in English. Students should realize the cultural differences. We, as English-major students, need to read English newspapers, magazines, novels, fictions and even children's books written in English. While reading literature, if careful enough, we often come across places where we can glean some cultural information. Taking Pride and Prejudice for example, which is the masterpiece of Jane Austen. In the fiction, too many descriptions about parties appeared. From it readers could know that having party is most important social contact during that time. So we are not surprised by the fact that many foreigners often love to attend a party while Chinese people are not accustomed to it. And after that we can learn and discuss with each other. With a systematic study of intercultural communication, students can better understand the differences between cultures. Through extensive reading, the students will have an overall understanding of the Western culture. This will be helpful even in the verbal performance. For example, in American culture, people normally indulge in a few minutes? small talk as preparation for leaving. “Well it?s been lovely to see you again, but I must be going soon. I hope we?ll be able to get together again before 16 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 long„” In contrast to this, Chinese visitors often stand up and say, “I?m leaving now” or “I have to go”. Contacting the native speaker of English will enable the students to learn what most books do not tell them directly. Therefore students should grasp more opportunities to communicate with the English native speakers. Just take my experience as an example, I have learned another expression of “get a cold”, that is “my nose is running”, which I got it from Mickle who is my English writing teacher. Nowadays, most universities have foreign teachers. To students, their foreign teachers are the direct channel for them to gain authentic intercultural non-verbal communication pattern. They are all useful ways to help students to use English well. Take myself for example, in the first year of my university life, I am not sure that the cultural factors can influence communications with native speakers and seldom take cultural factors into consideration when speaking English; I have little awareness of cultural differences between China and the Western English-speaking countries and their impact on communication. Due to culture diversity, failure communication can often be caused unintentionally by asking or discussing the improper topics, or by a wrong expression. Chinese must be very careful about the following topics, which are regarded as private by Americans, such as age, income, health, family. For example, students can be aware of the different invitations between two cultures: when I was a freshman, our class had a party, I invited our teachers Jack who came from America to join us. I said “I invite you to take a party on sunday evening, you must come to.” Jack was not very happy. My classmate told me this kind of invitation may make Jack uncomfortable and was forced, because it gave him the feeling that he forced to do so. I did not realize it at that moment, since I always said things in the similar tone to many classmates. After that I aware the different cultures and try to avoid pragmatic failure. It is all right to ask someone what their job or position is, but many Americans are perplexed when they are inquired about salary. How much one earns is something extremely personal and private. Similarly, it is all right to ask people where they live but it 17 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 is not polite to ask them their rent. But this does not mean that money cannot be talked. The following is an example of how to get to know the price for a particular item: Li Fang is my classmate; Ann is our English foreign teacher. Li Fang: They are beautiful shoes! Where did you buy them? Ann: At San Mao Shopping Center on Zhong Shan Road. Li Fang: Oh, I’d love to buy one pair myself. Was it very expensive? Ann: Not really. In fact, I thought it was quite reasonable. I paid only one hundred yuan for them. Through my learning experience, I think English learners can improve their pragmatic competence by participating the following activities. Some of the popular activities among students are listed here: cartoon shows, play-actings, speech contests and reports given by native speakers of English or people from abroad, evening party on festivals such as Christmas Day and All Saints? Day, English corner every week, and correspondence between China and English-speaking countries. Such activities can not only help students learn more culture and improve their pragmatic competence, but also can initiate students? interests in learning English. Watching movies is also a useful way to learn culture. Many body languages can be found in movies and can only be interpreted through the language context. In many countries, nod means “yes” and shaking head means “no” while in Bulgaria Greece and Iran these means of nodding and shaking are opposite. In a movie, Henry, a boy, comes from Bulgaria and a girl LiLi is a Chinese, they are lovers. Every time LiLi asked Henry “Do you love me?” Henry kept silence and shook his head then LiLi was very happy. She knew Henry?s meaning was definite. The information will enable students to communicate more smoothly, their pragmatic competence can be developed. 4.3 Suggestions for English Teachers In order to make the students have a good command of words, phrases, sentences and grammar, teachers may try to explore the possibilities of a context on the cross-cultural pragmatic failure and highlight the appropriate use of words, phrases, sentences and 18 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 grammar in classroom teaching. In teaching words, phrases, sentences, teachers can not only teach students the basic meanings and common rules of making sentences, but also let them be clear with the custom of sentence using. Take an example of teaching words, when teaching the word “cost”, besides introducing the common usage of this word, teachers can also give the students some related culture information, because in English-speaking countries people consider the action of asking someone the price of things that he buys as a taboo. In teaching grammar, the teachers can add pragmatic appropriateness to the explanation of grammar rules. For example, the imperative sentence in English does not always means order. The following are three sentences: ?please be quiet; ?Would you like to help me? ? How about having a dinner with us? In these sentences, only the first sentence means order, and the next two sentences mean asking and inviting separately. 19 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Chapter 5 Conclusion Concerning the present trend of globalization, it is an urgent demand for the communicators to be aware of the pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication mainly due to the differences of cultural backgrounds. Traditionally, both the foreign language teaching and learning, especially English-learning in China, pay more attention to linguistic backgrounds of the English language. Yet in fact, language is a product of culture and subject to the changes of different situations. The differences of culture values and thought patterns between China and English-speaking countries influence people?s communications. And this sometimes can lead to the pragmatic failure in Chinese-English communications. The aim of this thesis is to find reasons of pragmatic failures and provide effective ways to avoid pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication. It helps people of different cultures know each other and makes them realize that the language which was regarded proper in one culture may be explained differently in another. Moreover language correctness is not enough to achieve successful intercultural communication. What?s more important is language appropriateness. Through the theories of Jenny Thomas, this thesis identifies some sources of pragmatic failures. There are three reasons of pragmatic failures: 1. The influence of native tongue 2. Lacking of intercultural knowledge. 3. Traditional teaching method. Through analyzing the reasons above, following suggestions can be applied to avoid such failures: 1. Students should appreciate their native culture. 2. Students can raise their cultural awareness outside class through various ways. 3. Teachers highlight the appropriate use of words, phrases, sentences and grammar in classroom teaching. These make English language learners know clearly why there are so many misunderstandings in intercultural communication and how they can improve and avoid them. This could help students improve pragmatic competence. Although this dissertation has done a fairy concentrated study, the suggestions put forward do not provide enough information for avoiding pragmatic failures during intercultural communications. Therefore, this study is still far from complete. However, the 20 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 writer firmly believes that more future studies in this direction will throw new light on what have been done here and benefit our understanding of pragmatic failure and English - learning in China. 21 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Notes 1. H. D. Hymes, On Communicative Competence, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 26. 2. Larry A. Samovar and Porter E. Richard, Communication Between Cultures, (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000), 76. 3. Larry A. Samovar and Porter E. Richard, Communication Between Cultures, (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2004), 28. 4. 张爱琳.《跨文化交际》.重庆:重庆大学出版社，2003, 第64页。 5. 胡文仲.《跨文化交际与英语学习》.上海:上海译文出版社，1988，第21页。 6. Larry A. Samovar and Porter E. Richard, Communication Between Cultures, (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2004), 302. 7. Jenny Thomas, Cross-culture Pragmatic Failure: Applied Linguistics, (Beijing: Teaching and Research Press, 1983), 677. 8. Thomas, 684. 9. Thomas, 707. 10. Thomas, 698. 11. Thomas, 696. 12. Thomas, 701. 13. 黄次栋.“语用学与语用错误”，《外国语》.长沙:湖南教育出版社，1984, 第1期, 第32页。 14. 何自然, 阎庄.“中国学生在英语交际中的语用失误——汉英语用差异调查”，《外语教学与研究》.长沙:湖南教育出版社，1986，第6期，第21页。 22 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Bibliography Chomsky, N. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge Mass: MIT Press, 1980. Hymes, Dell H. On Communicative Competence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972. Samovar, Larry A. and Porter E. Richard. Communication Between Cultures. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000. Samovar, Larry A. and Porter E. Richard. Communication Between Cultures. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2004. Thomas, Jenny. Cross-Culture Pragmatic Failure. Beijing: Teaching and Research Press, 1983. 邓炎昌, 刘润清.《语言与文化——英汉语言文化对比》.北京:外语教学与研究出版 社，1989。 何自然, 阎庄.“中国学生在英语交际中的语用失误——汉英语用差异调查”，《外语 教学与研究》.长沙:湖南教育出版社，1986，第6期。 何自然.《语用学与英语学习》.上海:上海外语教育出版社，1997。 胡文仲.《跨文化交际与英语学习》.上海:上海译文出版社，1988。 黄次栋.“语用学与语用错误”，《外国语》.长沙:湖南教育出版社， 1984，第1期。 《跨文化交际》.重庆:重庆大学出版社，2003。 张爱琳. 23 内蒙古农业大学本科毕业论文 Acknowledgements I finished this thesis under the patient, careful and strict supervision of Zhang Yuqing. She gives me a lot of help in the choosing of topics and construction of the thesis. I can not find out an exact expression to show my appreciations to her help. I am very grateful to all the teachers in Foreign Language College of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University I would like to thank all my friends who discussed this thesis with me and encouraged me. 24