A Cognitive Study on Politeness Intention Processing and Its Association with Pragmatic Failure in Cross-Cultural Communication

Although a large number of studies have focused on various aspects of politeness,very little is known about how politeness intention is activated cognitively during verbal communication.The present study aims to explore the cognitive mechanism of politeness intention processing,and how it is related to pragmatic failure during cross-cultural communication.Using 30 Chinese EFL university students who were instructed to finish a probe word judgment task with 96 virtual scenarios,the results indicate that within both mono-and cross-cultural contexts,the response time in the experimental scenarios was significantly slower than that of the filler scenarios.This suggests that politeness intention was activated while understanding the surface meaning of the conversation;however,the EFL learners could not completely avoid the negative transfer of their native politeness conventions when they were comprehending the conversational intention of the target language.Furthermore,no significant differences in response time were found between the groups with high and low English pragmatic competence,illustrating that transferring the pragmatic rules and principles into cross-cultural communication skills was more cognitively demanding.Overall,this study adds to the literature on politeness research and provides some implications for foreign language pragmatic instructions.

Exploration of Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failures in English Interpretation and Their Solutions

From the perspective of international market development and international cultural exchange,English is the main applied language,especially in most western countries.With the deepening of global economic integration and international trade,cultural collisions are becoming increasingly frequent,and interpretation in different languages is inevitably required.However,interpretation does not only mean transfer language,it also involves culture.In the practice of interpretation,some errors arise from the lack of cross-cultural awareness,which becomes pragmatic errors.Therefore,this article will mainly discuss cross-cultural pragmatic failures in English interpretation with some examples and specific solutions.Firstly,it will introduce what pragmatic failures are and typical types of failures,clarify the relationship between English interpretation and pragmatic failures,and then elaborate on representative cross-cultural pragmatic failures in English interpretation.Finally,it will summarize the reasons and solutions that lead to cross-cultural pragmatic failures in English interpretation,putting forward corresponding suggestions for reducing cross-cultural pragmatic failures.

An Exploration into Pragmatic Failure in EFL Learning

To acquire the real communicative competence for language learners calls for not only the linguistic knowledge but also the ability to use the language appropriately. But many empirical studies have manifested that Chinese learners of English are quite fragile in pragmatic competence. Thus, the author mainly depicts in this paper the necessity of cultivating pragmatic competence and ways to enhance English learners＇ pragmatic competence by exploring into pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure.

The Study of Pragmatic Failure:From the Perspective of Cultural Differences between China and Britain

The intercultural pragmatics is a field that is concerned broadly in recent years. Cultural difference is an essential factor that caused the pragmatic failure. It is an inevitable fact that Chinese and British have different language habit because of different cultural backgrounds. As a result, pragmatic failure has an effect on the access to information and cause communication misunderstanding even influence communication going with a swing. This thesis tries to analyze the pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication from the perspective of cultural differences, find the reason and put forward the measures that can solve this problem.

Cause Analysis of Sociopragmatic Failure in Intercultural Communication

With the rapid development of science and globalization,communication between people is becoming more and more convenient and flexible.However,communication breakdown still occurs occasionally in the process of intercultural communication.Pragmatics failure is one of the main causes of the bias in intercultural communication.Based on the Jenny Thomas’theory,pragmatic failure is divided into pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure,the former is defined as the lack of pragmatic knowledge,while the latter affects more fundamentally the effect of intercultural communication as sociopragmatic failure is caused by the differences in cultural dimensions,ways of thinking,value orientation between speakers.By cognizing and understanding the main causes of pragmatic failures,intercultural speakers could avoid misunderstanding between different cultures and promote their intercultural communicative competence,in order to achieve an effective result of intercultural communication.

A study on pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication

Through analyzing and comparing the anecdotes of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication from the aspects of lexicon, syntax and discourse, some pragmatic strategies are suggested in intercultural communication. To improve learners＇ cultural awareness and communicative competence, a cultural-linguistic approach in foreign language teaching should be adopted.

On cross-cultural pragmatic failure in English advertisements translated from Chinese

With the rapid development of globalization, more and more factories and companies in China are keen to put their products onto the international market. Advertising translation is the outcome of this economic trend. This paper tries to analyze cross-cultural pragmatic failure in English advertisements translated from Chinese at lexical and textual levels, and puts forward some suggestions on how to avoid cross-cultural pragmatic failure.

A Study on Pragmatic Failures in Nonverbal Communication in Intercultural Communicative Context

In the intercultural communication, people often ignore the nonverbal behavior when they talk to others. With the raid progress of modern traffic and tools of communication, people’s contacts have become increasingly frequent with different regions and countries. The research on pragmatic failures in nonverbal communication allows people to understand its nature and eliminate some unnecessary misunderstanding. This paper aims at finding out the root causes about pragmatic failures in nonverbal communication in the intercultural communication, and providing several sensible recommendations.

Analysis of Pragmatic Failure and College English Teaching

This article uses a lot of evidences to expose the pragmatic failures in people＇s inter-cultural communication, and analyses the types and causes of these pragmatic failures. Hence it puts forward several methods of college English teaching to help our students get rid of such pragmatic failures.

Pragmatic Failure in Sino-western Cross-cultural Communication and Implications for Improving Chinese EFL Learners' Communication Competence

Due to the social and cultural differences,people from different countries would always encounter pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication,which may lead to the breakdown of communication.In light of Thomas'(1983) classification of pragmatic failure,this article firstly analyzes the types of pragmatic failure in Sinowestern cross-cultural communication and their underlying factors.Then,the article tries to explore the strategies for avoiding such pragmatic failures and improving Chinese EFL(English as a Foreign Language) learners' communication competence from the perspective of English instruction.In Sino-western cross-cultural communication,there are mainly two types of pragmatic failure:pragmalinguistic failure and socio-pragmatic failure.Cultural difference and negative transfer of the mother language are the major factors for pragmatic failure.In English teaching,teachers should arouse students' cross-cultural awareness,effectively combine cultural instruction with language teaching,carry out extra-curricular cross-cultural communication activities,and develop students' good habit of leaning English.

The Necessity of Cultural Elements in ESL Teaching --Through the Analysis of the Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication

It is undeniable that it is difficult for Chinese English learners to communicate competently in English with native English speakers. Compared with the grammar mistakes, the pragmalinguistic failures and sociopragmatic failures are subtle and have received less attention from Chinese English learners. Misunderstanding caused by cross-cultural pragmatic differences is the source of cross-cultural communication breakdown and therefore much more attention should be paid to our communication. The article concerns the failures occurred in cross-cultural communication to show the importance of cross-cultural awareness in the successful communication.

Survey of High School English Teachers＇ Pragmatic Failure

According to the principals of the Course Standard of English for Ordinary Senior Schools, published by China Education Ministry in 2001, the general goal of English curriculum on the basic education stage is to foster the students＇ cross-cultural awareness, which is to develop their cross-cultural communicative competence. To achieve this goal, most of all, teachers of English at high school must have a good command of cross-cultural pragmatic competence. By looking through papers in various periodicals and the Internet, the writer finds that most of the studies have coped with pragmatic failures of ESL students but few of ESL teachers＇. Therefore, this thesis studies the present situation --- how much do schoolteachers of English know about pragmatics？ What about their cross-cultural communicative competence？ Can they communicate with the native speakers fluently and appropriately？ What are the most serious problems among them in pragmatics？ What can be done to solve the problems？ With all the questions, this research has collected considerable firsthand data and information. Only after the basic situations are known overall, can actions be taken to solve the problems existing in everyday ESL teaching. So this research is necessary and urgent for the present basic English pedagogy. However, since the present writer＇s ability and research conditions are limited, it is not possible to make a wider investigation in many places. Therefore, the district --- Bameng League, Inner Mongolia, China, is selected as the basic range of the survey, the situation of which is believed to be able to represent the basic educational ones in the poor and remote districts in the north and the west of China where education is more backward. The questionnaire consists of two parts： a table of individual information and a test paper. The former investigates informants＇ basic information, including the items of name, age, sex, teaching age, title of the technical post, degree, academic career, college or university that they graduated from, working unit, grades for teaching and the others. The latter is the test paper cited from He Ziran and Yan Zhuang （1986）, that is, Chinese Students＇Pragmatic Failure in English Communication --- Survey of the Pragmatic Difference between Chinese and English. And it contains 48 items, with items of pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic competence mixedly arranged. 120 of the questionnaire copies were handed out and 86 are collected, but only 64 are collected. The survey covers over 10 high schools in all the 7 banners of Bameng League, including two autonomous region-class key schools and five other league-class key schools. After the investigation, the present writer carefully corrects, marks, arranges, summarizes and analyzes the questionnaire, and obtains plenty of firsthand data and information. Then some conclusions have been drawn based on the data analysis. The result of the survey shows that linguistic competence is not equal to pragmatic competence, that ESL high school English teachers may use English rather fluently, without many mistakes in vocabulary and grammar,but it does not necessarily mean that they can use the target language appropriately to communicate with native speakers without pragmatic failures, and that the informants＇ knowledge of pragmatics and their pragmatic competence are rather poor. As a result, improving their knowledge and competence in pragmatics becomes a very necessary and urgent task to develop the quality of ELT in basic educational stages. In order to solve the above problems, the writer makes some suggestions as follows： （1） Pragmatics should be required as an essential course for the English majors in colleges and universities, especially in normal colleges and universities; （2） In-service high school English teachers must study courses of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication; （3） In some poor and remote districts, if educational conditions don＇t permit, textbooks of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication must be handed out to the high school English teachers who can study by themselves, then tests are regularly held for them and certificates will be given to those who have passed the tests; （4） In some developed districts, if conditions permit, English teachers can be sent abroad to English-speaking countries for further education in order to have a good command of the English language in the authentic contexts; （5） Modern multiple medias, such as VCD or DVD videos, TV or radio programs, the Internet, should be widely and frequently applied to training teachers; （6） More native language teachers and experts from English-speaking countries must be invited to high schools to train teachers of English.

Analysis of Pragmatic Failures and Strategies for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Cross-cultural communication has become an essential course for international students.As foreign students have different cultural backgrounds and languages,pragmatic failures are inevitable for them when communicating in Chinese,thus resulting in unpleasant communication.In order to effectively reduce pragmatic failures,it is necessary to analyze the problems that arise in the process of teaching Chinese as a foreign language and determine the causes.This research is separated into three aspects.Firstly,with the support of the theory of pragmatics and by analyzing the life and learning of foreign students,it can be appreciated that the pragmatic failures of foreign students in using Chinese for communication are very much detailed in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language[1].Secondly,after arranging and analyzing these corpora,the reasons for the pragmatic failures of foreign students are determined.Finally,aiming at the causes of pragmatic failures,corresponding countermeasures and teaching suggestions are proposed.The conclusion drawn from this research is that pragmatic failures occur due to various factors,some of which are essential factors that cannot be changed.This requires effort from both Chinese language teachers and students in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language to lessen the occurrence of pragmatic failures.

Pragmatic Failure and Teaching of English

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A Pragmatic Analysis of Public Signs in Chinese-English Translation——Based on the Example of Shaoguan National Forest Park

With the rapid development of economy and close international exchanges, the English translation of public signs is in-creasingly important and cannot be ignored. This paper takes Shaoguan National Forest Park as an example to analyze its publicsigns translation and points out some pragmatic failures from two aspects:pragmatic language failures and social pragmatic failures.Also, the paper puts forward some suggestions based on the translation error analysis.

Developing Pragmatic Competence in EFL Speaking Classes： From Theory to Practice

Fostering students＇ pragmatic competence in ESL/EFL classrooms has been the subject of a large number of studies over the last several decades. This paper will examine the importance of pragmatic competence in L2 spoken communication and investigate factors leading to pragmatic failures. It will also discuss possible ways to help foster students＇ pragmatic competence in EFL speaking classes.

The Influence of Negative Language Transfer

With the advance of the research of language learning, the field of SLA has expanded more expansively and native language transfer has become a popular issue in academia field. It exists in all language learning process, with different forms,which is mainly observed in three aspects including pronunciation, vocabulary and syntax. Furthermore, negative transfer is a major barrier influencing learners' second language improvement. This paper dwells on negative transfer. The comparison on language system and cultural background between native and target language should be attached great importance and analyzed.It is conducive to reduce the effect of native language and speed up the rapid learners' learning step.

An Interlanguage Pragmatics Study of Request

Based on the analysis of letters written by some Chinese college English learners and American native speakers, this paper first verified that Chinese college English learners often commit pragmatic failures concerning request in letters. Then, after discussion of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic failures found in the letters of Chinese college English learners in detail, this paper further provided some implications for the EFL learning and teaching.