A Cross-cultural Study On ESAs In ECLDs

Speech act behavior constitutes an area of continual concern for language learners, who need to perform speech acts, such as complaints, apologies, requests and refusals in the form of the language they learnt. In cross-cultural communication, failures in speech act prove to be of great concern for foreign language learners.However, expressions of speech acts (ESAs) in existent ECLDs are far from satisfactory to le from the perspective of cross-cultural communication. Given this situation, the present study focuses on: (1) In what ways do English people and Chinese people differ from each other while performing a certain speech act? (2) What kinds of cross-cultural information (CCI) about ESAs should be included in ECLDs? (3) How do the chief existing ECLDs deal with CCI about ESAs? (4) How can CCI about ESAs be incorporated in the future ECLDs?Relevant literature on speech acts and behavior of language learners is reviewed first. On the basis of this literature review, major aspects of CCI about ESAs which should be included in ECLDs are discussed. The thesis also presents a tentative model for CCI about ESAs in ECLDs, based on the findings of a contrastive analysis between four representative ECLDs, which is aimed to investigate the status quo of CCI about ESAs in the chosen dictionaries.In the conclusion, the thesis points out some research values, innovations, implications and limitations of the study. Suggestions are also given for further research into this topic.