A Pragmatic Study Of Differences In English Classroom Directives Between Chinese Teachers And American Teachers

With a view to exploring the differences in the use of directives by the Chinese teachers of English and the American teachers, the present study collects directives from English classes instructed by the Chinese teachers and the American teachers and makes a classification of these directives according to Blum-Kulka and Trosborg.The findings show that the Chinese teachers of English tend to choose direct request strategies in comparison with the American teachers and that the Chinese teachers of English have less preference to discourse modifiers than their American counterparts. It is found that many factors, chiefly, power, distance, imposition, culture values, L1 transfer and proficiency of target language, work together to result in the differences.In addition to an introduction and a conclusion, the thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One makes an introduction to the definition of directives and some previous related studies both at home and abroad. Chapter Two introduces a theoretical background to the current study, and describes data collection process and research procedure. Chapter Three provides some findings and discusses what contribute to the results. Chapter Four deals with the implication and application for researches in related fields.