A Comparative Study of the L2 Pragmatic Competence of University Students in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland:The Contributions of Sociocultural Context and Linguistic Proficiency

This study investigates the differences in pragmatic competence between Hong Kong and Chinese mainland university students.Participants included 19 native speakers of English,115 Chinese mainland students,divided into those who had spent time abroad in an English-speaking country(CM A)and those who had not(CM NA),and 97 Hong Kong students,divided into those from an English-medium secondary school(Hong Kong EMI)and those from a Chinese-medium school(Hong Kong CMI).Linguistic proficiency was measured by a C-test,and pragmatic competence by a Metapragmatic Knowledge Test,an Irony Test and a Monologic Role Play.Group scores were compared using ANCOVAs to control for differences in proficiency.The results point to a continuum of pragmatic competence—EMI>CMI>CM A>CM NA—reflecting the groups’access to English in real-life contexts.The differences between the Hong Kong groups and the Chinese mainland groups were clearest in those tests measuring processing capacity(i.e.,Irony Response Time and the Monologic Role Play).CM A,but not CM NA,performed as well as the Hong Kong groups on measures of metapragmatic awareness.The results are discussed in terms of Bialystok’s(1993)distinction between analyzed representation and control of processing.

From Theoretical Grammar to Grammatical Competence:An Empirical Study

In China,English teachers usually take a three-step approach to grammar teaching,namely,the presentation—practice—production principle(3P Principle).This method consists of both“morphology”and“syntax.”It adopts the traditional mode of grammar teaching,including knowledge presentation,grammar exercises,and grammatical competence production,which will inevitably lead to time consumption and low efficiency in grammar learning.This study is about cultivating English majors'grammatical competence through the theoretical mode of grammar teaching.The research results show that the theoretical mode of grammar teaching helps cultivate learners'grammatical competence.

Taking Stock of Grammar-Translation Teaching Method in Developing Intercultural Pragmatic Competence

Grammar-translation teaching method(GTTM as a shorthand below) has long been a buzzword when it is adopted in the class of English as a foreign language.It has been universally acknowledged that such teaching method contradicts the development of communicative language competence advocated in recent decades.However,I positively argue that GTTM in English class,as a comparative and intercultural model,should be given a due reconsideration to improve L2 learners' pragmatic competence.

Investigating L2 Request Strategies: A Case Study of Chinese English teachers' L2 Pragmatic Competence

Empirical descriptions of how the teacher performs requests in English can make them realize the importance of improving pragmatic competence, so that they could help students develop more native-like pragmatic behaviors and enhance cultural competence. This case study is to explore the pragmatic competence of a Chinese EFL teacher by investigating the patterns of realization strategies and the ways of reacting to the different social and contextual variables in her requests. It was found out that the teacher investigated in the study had good pragmatic awareness and pragmatic competence to produce the speech act of requests and develop students' pragmatic competence, but more explicit instructions should be provided to help students develop more native-like speech acts by providing more explicit instructions.

A Research on the Improvement of Pragmatic Competence in College English Teaching

A core issue in foreign language teaching is to foster actual competence of language learners to practically utilize language, which is called pragmatic competence. But compared with traditional linguistic competence, the levels of their pragmatic competence need to be further understood. Thus it is essential to make an investigation into this. From the investigation results it is expected to reveal from which aspects teachers and students should carry on in order to improve pragmatic competence and meet foreign language learning need in new age.

Understanding the Gap between Grammatical Knowledge and Competence: An Exploratory Practice

As an Exploratory Practice conducted in the micro-context of language classrooms,this study aims to establish an ex?plicit understanding of the gap between students’grammatical knowledge and competence.Through integrating the“work for understanding”into the existing pedagogical procedures,both students and the teacher contributed some insightful explanations to this puzzle.With these underling reasons brought to surface,the main players of the classrooms can make some contextually ap?propriate changes to their classroom life.

A Review of Research on Development of Interlanguage Pragmatic Competence from a Cognitive Perspective

English language learners' pragmatic competence is related to their success incross-cultural communication. Cognitive approaches, mainly the Noticing Hypothesis and Analysis/Control Model, have provided some insights into the question of how to effectively develop second language(L2) learners' pragmatic competence. Empirical studies based on cognitive theoretical constructs suggest that pragmatic activitiesthat draw learners' attention and help them control attention to relevant and appropriate information and integrate those forms in real time of communication contribute to the development of interlanguage pragmatic competence.

On the Grammatical Unaccountability of English Lexical Collocation from the Perspective of Pragmatics

As for the English lexical collocation,there has been a great amount of researches conducted by Chinese and foreign scholars.However,less people has offered the explanation in allusion to the collocation which isn't confined to the grammatical domain.Therefore,the thesis aims to depart from the research of the grammatical unaccountability of the lexical collocation to deeply investigate the reason of it from the point view of etymology,semantics,pragmatics and cultural category by taking"female secretary" as an example.In addition,the thesis intends to search for an effective learning way to help learners improve their learning efficiency and use the English lexicon correctly as a native speaker.

Chinese EFL Teachers' Pragmatic Competence in China

The focus of this study is to outline the survey results carried out on the pragmatic competence of the High School Chinese EFL Teachers in China. The research participants in this study comprised of 40 teachers. The tools used to carry out the research included: a) a questionnaire made up of two parts: the background information of the respondents, and the Multiple Choice Discourse Completion Test(MDCT).b) the retrospective interview questions. The main purpose of the MDCT is to examine the level of pragmatic competence of the teachers by analyzing their practical shortcomings. On analyzing the results on the data collected from the teachers, the extent of the Chinese EFL teacher's pragmatic competence was observed. Analysis of the answers obtained from the teachers also implied how the High School EFL teachers can help in developing the level of the student's pragmatic competence. The analysis of the results showed the various responses to the questionnaire questions based on the items of the speeches showing the different points of weakness that need to be improved.

Developing Pragmatic Competence in Chinese EFL Classroom

This paper aims at investigating effective classroom-based instructive methods that facilitate the development of pragmatic competence of the intermediate-level adult English learners in China,who have gained relatively high grammatical competence but low pragmatic competence.The paper starts with the importance and components of pragmatic competence.It then examines what should be taught to help develop learners' pragmatic competence.The paper focuses on some explicit instructive methods adopted by the author in her conversational English class that may raise learners' awareness of pragmatic knowledge and enhance learners' practice of pragmatic abilities:1) Encouragement of learners' observation of pragmatic phenomena by English speakers from authentic audio-visual materials;2) Discussion of linguistic variations for each speech act and strategies of carrying out certain speech acts according to contextual cues;3) Role-play tasks engaging students in different speech events and communicative actions.The effectiveness of these methods is shown by test results after at the end of the course.

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.

On Teaching L2 Learners’ Pragmatic Competence

On the basis of the explanation of the notion of pragmatic competence and review of its previous teaching, this paper con-cludes that instructions can improve L2 learners’ pragmatic competence.

A Study on Pragmatic Competence in Using Apologies by Medical College Students

Apology becomes the focus in the field of pragmatics.As future caregivers,learning how to use English apologetic expressions is essential for the medical college students,especially in the present day of globalization.This thesis is an effort to analyze a full and accurate data on a test about the use of“I’m sorry”and“Excuse me”and a questionnaire survey about learning of“I’m sorry”and“Excuse me”,aiming at investigating the similarities and differences in using“I’m sorry”and“Excuse me”among Chinese medical college students.

Study of Relation between EFL Students'Cognitive Style and Pragmatic Competence

Individual difference is one of the important factors affecting the success of learning English as foreign language（EFL）. However, very little research has dabbled in the correlation between pragmatic competence and cognitive styles among college students. Two questionnaires（the embedded figure test and the pragmatic competence test） were designed and used to conduct our study among seniors with non-English majors from key universities. The data was analyzed with SPSS 21.0 and results showed that pragmatic competence of the subjects was much lower than expected. Besides, there was a significant and positive correlation between field dependent（FD）cognitive style and inter-language pragmatic competence while no significant correlation was found with field independent（FI）. A regression model was also formulated to obtain more specific information. Lastly,some practical advice is offered for teachers to boost students＇ pragmatic competence in the future with FD/FI cognitive styles into proper consideration.

The Importance of Developing Cross-cultural Pragmatic Competence

本文着重分析了跨文化交际的重要性,指出了文化背景知识在交际中的重要作用,从而提出了在外语教学中不仅应注意提高学生准确掌握语言的能力,还应把提高学生的跨文化语用能力放到一个重要位置。

The Effects of Pragmatics Competence in EFL University Learners

As we know, Pragmatics is the way we convey meaning through communication, so the study aims at student’s opinions on the use of English language as a means of communication and to show the significance of language function, context, and authentic situations to develop pragmatic competence in Sudanese English Language university learners. To achieve the objectives, the study used a questionnaire to address the study questions and objectives. 150 employed students participated in the questionnaire. The study found that the students have positive views toward the using of the language as communicative means in various, functions, contexts, and authentic situations inside and outside the classroom to enhance the student’s fluency in using the target language as well as the take care about the language forms to avoid imperfect using of the language.

A Literature Review of the Research Method in the Study of L2 Pragmatic Competence of Chinese Tertiary-Level Students

This study combs through the frequently cited papers on L2 pragmatic competence of Chinese tertiary-level students from CNKI,and analyzes the research methods used in these studies.The findings are:Metapragmatic judgement item,discourse completion task,role play,and verbal reports are the most widely used instruments in the study of L2 pragmatic competence of Chinese tertiary-level students.Besides,other methods like natural comprehension and elicited conversation have received more attention in recent years.

Pragmatic Competence in Language Teaching

Pragmatic competence is generally considered to involve two kinds of ability. In part it means knowing how to use languag1 in order to achieve certain communicative goals or intentions.

A Survey on Pragmatic Competence of English Majors in an Agriculture University

Based on the questionnaire of 80 English majors in an agricultural university,the author tries to get a better understanding of the practical situation of their pragmatic competence.After analyzing the results in the survey,the author finds out the reasons which may cause those failures,and then puts forward proposals for teachers in the agricultural university to improve students'pragmatic competence.