Abstract This paper analyzes the phenomena of pragmatic failure committed by senior middle school students in their daily conversations in intercultural communication, and discusses the nature and causes of pragmatic failure in intercultural communication situations. After gaining a better understanding of the phenomena, recommendations are made on how to raise the pragmatic awareness, and develop the pragmatic ability of senior middle school students of English in the EFL (English foreign language) classroom so as to increase their intercultural communicative competence in English.60854

 Key words: pragmatic failure;pragmatic awareness;pragmatic competence

摘  要这篇文章分析中学学生在日常交流中常犯的跨文化交际语用失误的现象，并且讨论在跨文化交际中语用失误的本质和原因。在了解了跨文化交际语用失误之后，提出在中学英语教学中怎样提高中学学生的跨文化交际语用失误的意识，以及如何在课堂里培养中学学生的语用能力。

毕业论文关键词：语用失误；语用意识；语用能力 

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Pragmatic Failure 2

2.1 The Definition of Pragmatic Failure 2

2.2 The Types of Pragmatic Failure 2

3. Literature Review 3

4. Pragmatic Failure Committed by Senior Middle School Students 4

4.1 Pragmalinguistic Failure 4

4.2 Sociolinguistic Failure 6

5. Potential Causes of Pragmatic Failure 9

5.1 Cultural Differences 9

5.2 Pragmatic Transfer 10

5.3 Lack of Pragmatic Knowledge 11

6. Recommendations on Developing Pragmatic Competence 12

6.1 Raising Chinese Learners' Cultural Awareness 12

6.2 Instruction in Pragmatic Knowledge 13

6.3 Creating an Interactive Learning Environment 13

7. Conclusion 14

Works Cited 15

 1. Introduction

With the globalization of the world economy, intercultural communication is becoming more and more important. As an international language, English is the most widely used throughout the world. In China, English as a school subject is becoming increasingly more important. More and more Chinese students are going to English-speaking countries to further their studies. However, even though they have little difficulty understanding the literal meaning of utterances when confronted with authentic communication situations, they may not interpret the utterances correctly, or express themselves appropriately. Intercultural communication sometimes breaks down in real-life conversations, not because of the non-native speakers errors in syntax, or their inaccurate pronunciation in the target language, but because of their pragmatic incompetence, which leads to pragmatic failure. In other words, they may be unable to use language effectively in order to achieve a specific purpose or to understand language in context. As Rintell and Mitchell point out, it can cause misunderstandings or create offence when learners can understand only the literal meaning of words but do not know the rules of use for interpreting those words.  源]自=优尔-·论~文"网·www.youerw.com/

Pragmatic failure belongs to the field of cross-cultural pragmatics, a new branch of pragmatics which has developed rapidly in the past twenty years. Several research studies about pragmatic failure in speech acts have been conducted in EFL classroom settings in China, but few have been done on Chinese learners of English in the target language community. On the basis of a literature review and a small-scale, exploratory study in the host environment, this paper attempts to analyze the phenomena of pragmatic failure committed by senior middle school students in their daily conversations with native English speakers. The purpose is to gain a better understanding of the phenomena in order to make recommendations on how to raise the pragmatic awareness, and develop the pragmatic ability of senior middle school students in the EFL classroom. Specifically, beginning with an understanding of pragmatic failure, the paper conducts a review of pragmatic failure committed by senior middle school students in intercultural communication situations. It goes on to discuss the potential causes of pragmatic failure. Then the paper reports the small-scale, exploratory study which was carried out in the target language community. Finally, some teaching ideas are recommended.