Abstract: Chinese non-English majors, in their intercultural communications, tend to make a great number of socio-pragmatic mistakes out of ignorance of English-Chinese different cultural backgrounds and values, which exerts a negative influence on their intercultural communications. This paper mainly discusses socio-pragmatic failure of non-English majors especially in the aspects of greetings, compliments, requests as well as apology-making and also attempts to analyze some possible reasons for their failure, such as different economic backgrounds, values, thinking modes and the negative pragmatic transfer that lead to socio-pragmatic failure in intercultural communication. In addition, some corresponding effective approaches for avoiding social-pragmatic failures in intercultural communication for non-English majors are also offered in hopes that they are able to understand English real-time expressions further within specific contexts so as to enhance their intercultural communication competence to a large extent.
Key words: Chinese non-English majors; intercultural communication; socio-pragmatic failure
CONTENTS
Abstract
摘要:
1. Introduction.1
2. Literature Review.1
2.1 Language and Culture
2.2 Intercultural Communication
2.3 Pragmatic Failure
2.3.1 Definition
2.3.2 Classification
2.3.3 Development of Maxims
3. Typical Examples of Non-English Majors’ Socio-pragmatic Failure in English-Chinese Intercultural Communication.4
3.1 Greetings
3.2 Requests
3.3 Compliments
3.4 Apology-making
4. Causes of Non-English Majors’ Socio-pragmatic Failure in English-Chinese Intercultural Communication7
4.1 Different Economic Backgrounds
4.2 Different Values
4.3 Different Thinking Modes
4.4 Different Customs
4.5 Negative Pragmatic Transfer
5. Countermeasures to Reduce Non-English Majors’ Socio-pragmatic Failure in English-Chinese Intercultural Communication.9
5.1 Cultivating Students’ Intercultural Awareness
5.2 Improving Students’ Intercultural Communication Competence
6. Conclusion10
Bibliography 12
Acknowledgements13