The Enlightenment of pragmatic competence research on English Teaching

Huan Pu

◆ABSTRACT：The cultivation of pragmatic competence is one of the objectives of College English curriculum and plays an important role in the basic courses of English majors.With the deepening of English teaching reform and practice，the language level of English learners in China is improving，but the development of learners' English pragmatic competence is relatively slow.Firstly，this paper discusses the performance of Chinese English learners' pragmatic competence，and combs the investigation and research on domestic English learners' pragmatic competence. Secondly，it discusses the teaching theory and practice of pragmatic competence training，including the influencing factors of pragmatic competence，classroom teaching and pragmatic competence test. Finally，it puts forward some suggestions on the cultivation of pragmatic competence in English teaching.

◆Keywords：classroom teaching;pragmatic competence;College English teaching

1Introduction

At present，experts and scholars generally believe that pragmatic competence refers to the ability of language users to understand and express specific intentions by combining specific contexts and using various knowledge and strategies.It not only emphasizes learners' grammatical ability，but also emphasizes learners' ability to communicate properly and appropriately.

The cultivation of pragmatic competence is one of the objectives of College English curriculum.In April 2018， the Ministry of Education issued the China English proficiency scale （hereinafter referred to as the scale），which specifies the English proficiency levels of Chinese English learners and users.The ability description framework includes language understanding ability，language expression ability，pragmatic ability，language knowledge， translation ability and language use strategies. It can be seen from the two documents of the Ministry of education that pragmatic competence is as important as language knowledge and plays an important role in English curriculum. However， in the process of English learning，learners focus on vocabulary accumulation and grammar knowledge，pay attention to language knowledge，and ignore language application ability;Many learners are still short of money when communicating with native English speakers， and impolite and inappropriate situations often occur. Therefore，cultivating students' pragmatic competence and improving students' English communicative competence are worthy of exploration and practice by every front-line English course teacher.

2A survey of English pragmatic competence in China

Students' lack of pragmatic competence is also reflected in other investigations and studies.After analysis，they concluded that the development of students' pragmatic competence is largely affected by English teachers' teaching content and teaching methods.The results show that the subjects can not properly express pragmatic idioms like native speakers in a specific context.It is suggested that teachers should strengthen the explicit teaching of pragmatic idioms and provide as many language materials covering the usage of idioms as possible.

To sum up，the research on the pragmatic competence of domestic English learners shows that： first， students' pragmatic competence can not be enhanced with the improvement of English level， so it is necessary for teachers to cultivate students' pragmatic competence;Second， students' pragmatic competence may become rigid and stagnant after reaching a certain stage;Third， the students have the performance of lack of pragmatic ability， such as weak pragmatic awareness，insufficient speech act ability and limited mastery of idioms;Fourth，English teachers' teaching contents and teaching methods affect the development of students' pragmatic competence.It is suggested that teachers should strengthen explicit teaching.

3Theory and practice of cultivating pragmatic competence

The teaching theory and practice of pragmatic competence training include three aspects：influencing factors of pragmatic competence，classroom teaching and pragmatic competence test，which complement and promote each other.The research on the influencing factors of pragmatic competence enriches the theory of pragmatic competence training，and the research on pragmatic competence test reflects the pertinence and practicality of classroom teaching.

3.1Factors affecting pragmatic competence

Researchers have different views on whether English pragmatic competence can be enhanced with the improvement of English proficiency.Some researchers believe that the higher the learners' English level， the higher their pragmatic competence，and the two are in direct proportion;Other researchers believe that learners' English pragmatic competence can not be naturally enhanced with the improvement of English level，and the improvement of pragmatic competence needs teachers' targeted training.Although the conclusions are different， the researchers agree that English proficiency is the reason morphemes affect English pragmatic competence to varying degrees. In addition，many factors affecting the development of learners' pragmatic competence also include pragmatic transfer，gender，learners' individual differences，social environment，classroom teaching and so on.Pragmatic transfer is one of the important research contents in the field of pragmatics and has attracted extensive attention of researchers.

Pragmatic transfer refers to the influence of learners' existing linguistic and cultural pragmatic knowledge on the understanding，production and learning of pragmatic information in the target language.For example，influenced by the expression of Chinese greeting，learners will "where to go？" The direct output is "where are you going？" English native speakers' attention to privacy and sensitivity to social distance are ignored.Many studies at home and abroad have proved that learners rely on the social and cultural knowledge of their mother tongue to varying degrees in the process of using the target language，and researchers have reached a consensus on the impact of pragmatic transfer.

To sum up，although the researchers have different conclusions on the influencing factors （such as gender），the researchers believe that the development of English pragmatic competence is mainly affected by the following factors：English level，pragmatic transfer，learning environment，learners' individual factors，classroom teaching， etc.Among them， the role of classroom teaching in the development of learners' pragmatic competence has been paid close attention by researchers.

3.2Classroom teaching

The premise of classroom teaching practice is that pragmatic competence can be taught. At the beginning of the 21st century，foreign researchers systematically demonstrated the necessity of pragmatic teaching.The main teaching methods of cultivating pragmatic competence can be divided into two categories：explicit and implicit，induction and deduction.Taguchi n （2015） summarizes the research and development of pragmatic competence training in recent 30 years and discusses two questions：first，can teaching methods effectively improve learners' pragmatic competence？Second， if it is effective， which method is more effective？The results show that：first，teaching methods can improve learners' pragmatic competence;Second，explicit teaching methods are more effective than implicit teaching methods.

The theoretical basis of explicit teaching effectiveness can be explained by Schmidt's attention hypothesis.Explicit teaching plays a key role in language acquisition，because classroom teaching can attract students' attention to some characteristics of language，which is more effective than learning only through contact with the language environment.Domestic researchers also believe that it is not enough to let learners contact the target language.Pragmatic functions and related contextual factors are usually not in a prominent position for learners and are not easy to be noticed.Therefore， explicit pragmatic teaching is needed.

Most of the studies on pragmatic teaching methods in the existing domestic literature focus on the explicit and implicit research framework，and confirm the effectiveness of explicit teaching. In addition，some researchers have compared the effects of explicit teaching and implicit teaching on the development of students' English speech act and pragmatic competence.At present，the phased conclusion is that the effect of explicit teaching is better than that of implicit teaching;Classroom pragmatic teaching has a significant impact on the cultivation of pragmatic competence.The effectiveness of explicit teaching provides practical basis for the design and implementation of classroom teaching content.Some foreign researchers believe that adding examples of target language social interaction in classroom teaching and providing opportunities for target language communication and interaction can cultivate students' pragmatic awareness.Pragmatic teaching abroad first focuses on speech acts，followed by discourse organization and pragmatic conventions，and finally pragmatic meaning.Some researchers apply pragmatic knowledge to learners' learning of listening， speaking，reading writing and translation，and put forward that college English teaching can not only cultivate foreign language skills，but also develop pragmatic competence.Some researchers analyze the advantages and disadvantages of implicit teaching and explicit teaching，and put forward a pragmatic teaching model of mixed explicit teaching and implicit teaching.Some researchers also put forward the methods of conversation analysis and the use of multimedia teaching context to promote the development of pragmatic competence.

To sum up，the researchers verify the importance and necessity of explicit teaching for the cultivation of pragmatic competence from theory and practice，and emphasize the communicative interaction of the target language at the level of teaching content design;At the same time， more and more researchers propose innovation from different perspectives，such as the application of multimedia environment.

3.3Pragmatic competence test methods

The premise of classroom teaching design for the cultivation of pragmatic competence is to reasonably evaluate the level of students' pragmatic competence and obtain learners' learning needs.Pragmatics is a subject that studies the meaning of dynamic discourse，so learners' pragmatic competence can not be tested by traditional testing methods.

There are three main forms of discourse completion questionnaire.The first kind of classical discourse completion：the tester sets the communication situation，the starting turn and the reply，and the subjects respond according to the combination of the reply and the starting turn，so as to complete the situational dialogue.The second kind of dialogue Construction： the tester sets up a communication situation or provides an initial turn，but does not provide a reply; Or providing a reply but not a starting turn，the subjects constructed a dialogue according to the situation and known conditions.The third kind of open discourse completion： subjects can choose language，nonverbal or silence to respond. Three kinds of discourse completion questionnaires take the first classical discourse completion as the test form often used by researchers.There are two main reasons： first， the classical discourse completion form can quickly collect corpus from different languages in a short time for cross-cultural comparison.The widely influential CCSARP （cross-cultural speech act expression project） uses this form to investigate the implementation of apology and request in eight languages and language variants. Second，classical discourse completion can help the tester understand the subjects' pragmatic knowledge.Even though the form of classical discourse completion is widely used，some researchers have expressed opposition. They believe that the classical discourse completion form can not reflect the subjects' pragmatic competence and can not dynamically evaluate the subjects' communicative competence， because the questionnaire defines the initial turn and reply，and the subjects' response length is limited; At the same time，the corpus collected in the questionnaire may not be the actual discourse of communicators.The author believes that if researchers are concerned about the subjects' pragmatic knowledge rather than pragmatic competence，the form of classical discourse completion can be selected.Because knowledge is the premise of competence and consciousness is the basis of behavior，understanding the subjects' pragmatic knowledge can provide a basis for the cultivation of learners' pragmatic competence.

4Conclusion and Enlightenment

With the deepening of China's internationalization process，national and local economic development puts forward higher requirements for students' English communicative competence.As an important part of communicative competence，the cultivation of students' pragmatic competence should be paid more attention.

The investigation of English learners' pragmatic competence shows that learners' pragmatic awareness is not strong，their speech act ability is insufficient，and their mastery of idioms is limited.Therefore， it is necessary for teachers to give targeted guidance and intervention in the above three aspects.Firstly，in terms of classroom teaching effectiveness，explicit teaching obtains more empirical data support than implicit teaching.In addition，pragmatics is a subject that studies the meaning of dynamic discourse， and communication is a dynamic system.We should highlight communication and interaction.Secondly，although classroom teaching is the main learning environment for students，teachers can give full play to the second classroom role of foreign teachers and foreign interns，or excavate and build a foreign language learning community，create an environment for students to communicate in English and effectively improve students' pragmatic ability.Finally， the cultivation of pragmatic competence should fully consider the level of students' pragmatic competence，reasonably evaluate the level of students' pragmatic competence and obtain learning needs，which is the premise of classroom teaching design for the cultivation of pragmatic competence.It is worth mentioning that English is an international lingua franca in the context of globalization.The communicative environment of multiculturalism，different language norms and social conventions is a new direction for the cultivation of pragmatic competence.

References

[1]TAGUCHI N.Instructed Pragmatics at a Glance：Where Instructional Studies Were，Are，and Should Be Going[J].Naoko Taguchi.Language Teaching.2015，48（01）：1-50.

[2]Qingyan Meng.The Application of Pragmatic Theory in College English Teaching[J].Journal of Contemporary Educational Research，2021，5（03）.