L2 Acquisition Of Pragmatic Routine Formulae By Chinese Efl Students

The relationship between linguistic proficiency and pragmatic competence of EFL / ESL learners remains a controversial issue. Some researchers hold that they do not affect each other (e.g., Olshtain & Blum-Kulka, 1985), while others report a certain relationship between them, although the nature of the relationship is not clear (e.g., Trosborg, 1987; Takahashi & Beebe, 1987).This study is an attempt to probe into this question by investigating the role of linguistic proficiency in Chinese EFL learners' development of pragmatic competence and sensitivity to the contextual information when using two pragmatic routine formulae Excuse me and Sorry in social interactions. In addition, the issue of the effects of external learning environment on the development of pragmatic competence and sensitivity to the contextual information is also examined.One hundred and fifty-eight Chinese EFL students participated in the studies. They were divided into 4 groups representing 4 proficiency levels according to the scores they obtained in a vocabulary size test. Each participant was required to complete a DCT on Excuse me and Sorry and provide the reason(s) for the response s/he gave to each test item. They were then asked to answer a questionnaire on their opinions about pragmatic learning in the Chinese context. Thus, three types of data were collected. They were: (1) the participants' performance on the DCT, (2) the participants' statements of the reason(s) for their responses to test items of the DCT, and (3) the participants' responses to the items in the questionnaire.The major findings of the study are: (1) there is no concurrent development of pragmatic competence in terms of the participants' ability to use the pragmatic routine formulae with the linguistic proficiency; (2) there is a general lack of sensitivity to the contextual information required for differentiating the use of the two formulae; (3) the participants paid greater attention to the similarities and differences regarding the contextual information and pragmatic knowledge between Chinese and English language as their linguistic proficiency increases;and (4) although classroom instruction plays an important role in providing pragmatic knowledge to participants, for most of the learners the most effective way to develop the pragmatic competence lies in the contact with authentic English input.Thus it can be concluded that relationship between the linguistic proficiency and pragmatic competence can be conceptualized as follows: linguistic proficiency does not help the acquisition/learning of external realization of pragmatic competence; nor could the former help learners' development of contextual sensitivity. It, therefore, can be further argued that pragmatic knowledge and contextual information should be taught separately from grammatical knowledge with explicit and systematic instruction. In the light of this conclusion, the amount of pragmatic knowledge and the way of pragmatic instruction in the Chinese classroom need to be further improved.