Abstract
Pragmatic competence plays a very significant role in cross-cultural communication. In Chinese high school, many English teachers focus more on lexical and syntactic aspects of English. The aspect of pragmatics, however, is relatively neglected by high school English teachers. The aim of this research is to investigate pragmatic transfer in refusal speech act made by Chinese high school EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. Written DCT (Discourse Completion Test) was used for data collection. Research subjects included three groups: native Chinese speakers (NC), Chinese English learners (CE), and native English speakers (NE). The performance of three groups were compared to find out the differences of refusals made by Chinese and Americans, the characteristics of pragmatic transfer in EFL learners as well as the realtiaonship between pragmtiace transfer and L2 proficiency. Results show that 1) In terms of the frequency of semantic formulas, American speakers liked to use more direct refusal strategies and positive feelings than Chinese speakers. 2) Apparent pragmatic transfer could be found in CE1 and CE3 groups as regards to the frequency of semantic formulas. For instance, both Chinese speakers and EFL learners used address forms while no one in NE group use them. 3) A large amount of pragmatic transfer could be found in the content of refusal strategy of excuse. Statistics show that both NCs and CEs used the similar content as an excuse when giving a rejection. 4) In terms of pragmatic transfer and L2 linguisitic ability, results indicate that the overall tendency of the co-relationship is negative. More pragmatic transfer happened in CE1 group than CE3 group.
Highlights
1.1 Research BackgroundInterlanguage pragmatics (ILP) is one of the most significant domains in second language studies
The findings offered evidence that pragmatic transfer exists in learners of different proficiency levels
The frequency of semantic formulas in each situation will be presented to examine the differences in using refusal strategies among native Chinese speakers (NC), Chinese English learners (CE) and native English speakers (NE) groups
Summary
Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) is one of the most significant domains in second language studies. It studies second language learners’ pragmatic competence. As a new domain, Interlanguage pragmatics attracts more and more researchers’ interests in L2 learners’ pragmatic competence. In ILP, speech act, “the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication” (Seale, 1969), is the focus of pragmatic research. In communication with people from other cultures, one’s proficiency of pragmatic competence is of vital importance. If the speaker doesn’t know about the customs and culture of the listener, he or she may transfer some pragmatic knowledge from her first language into L2 communication
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