Verbal Communication Failure In English

Verbal communication failure is a very common phenomenon in learning a foreign language. Many factors can result in this phenomenon, such as linguistic factors, pragmatic factors, social and cultural factors, etc. This paper defines verbal communication failure, and compares it with pragmatic failure, and points out that the relationship between verbal communication failure and pragmatic failure is an inclusive one. It also lists the conditions for successful performance of verbal communication put forward by Levinson, and the categorizations of verbal communication failure phenomena. Then it explores the factors that can lead to verbal communication failure: non-linguistic factors such as social factors, physiological factors, and body language factors; linguistic factors such as the features of language itself, linguistic ambiguity, speech competence, social linguistic competence and differences in linguistic competence; pragmatic factors such as conversational implicature, speech act theory, such as the pragmatic reasons listed by Levinson that can lead to verbal communication failure; and cultural difference factors such as religion, history and customs; Besides, it illustrates politeness principle and cooperative principle and their relationship with verbal communication failure.Finally it puts forward several inspirations of verbal communication failure for foreign language teaching. It holds the opinion that foreign language teaching should be shifted from traditional teaching method which mainly focuses on teaching grammar and vocabulary to cultivating the communicative competence of students. Also it gives several suggestions for improving foreign language teaching, such as changing the teacher-centered teaching approach; paying attention to comparison of English and Chinese cultures; stressing on language functions and the appropriateness and felicitousness of language use; giving students cultural knowledge, pragmatic knowledge and contextual knowledge in the actual process of foreign language teaching, as well as making full use of modern multimedia resources. The paper also puts forward some suggestions on reform in language testing, illustrates language testing theory and suggests the integration of learning and testing. It points out that language testing must be in allusion to students' language abilities and language using abilities. Such kind of testing will produce quite profitable effects for students in learning a foreign language.If we pay attention to the important factors that lead to verbal communication failure, we can avoid the occurrence of communication failure in our daily language communication and reach the goal of successful communication. Studying verbal communication failure has important guiding significance for human communication.