On Chinese Suggestions Made By Second Language Learners From Japan, Korea And Southeast Asia

The speech act of suggestion is the kind of directives that is much frequently used in our daily life. The improper suggestions will lead to the obstacle to communication. The strategies of Chinese suggestion realization can be roughly divided into direct and indirect suggestions as well as specific politeness strategies. Chinese suggestion has its own characteristics, causing second language (L2) learners to misinterpret or to be misinterpreted, thus cross-cultural communication breaks down.This paper aims at describing and analyzing the Chinese suggestions made by L2 learners from Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia at two different levels after the research made by means of interview and questionnaires, as well as the comparison with native speakers. Results show that: 1) distinction exists between second language learners and native speakers as far as the linguistic forms and realization strategies are concerned. 2) L2 learners adopt fewer suggestion patterns and strategies, yet they become more native-like with the improvement of their Chinese proficiency. 3) Because of the Chinese origin of most foreign students from Southeast Asia, the realization of Chinese suggestion by them is different from L2 learners of Japan and Korea, though they also have some in common with each other. 4) Only the two factors of degree of embarrassment and social distance do affect the choice of linguistic patterns and strategies in the realization of the act by L2 learners.According to the research, it is believed that much importance should be attached to both the authentic teaching materials and the improvement of L2 learners' pragmatic competence, and teachers should take both semantic rules and pragmatic principles into account while teaching. The learners are encouraged to take the advantages of thpe environment and promote intercourse with the native speakers, so as to improve their communicative competence and pragmatic competence.