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

摘要

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.