A Study Of Interlanguage Pragmatic Competence Of Non-English Major Postgraduates

In the recent years, interlanguage pragmatic competence has gained popularityamong scholars and linguists and it has become a hot issue in the pragmatic field.However, most of the researches in China focus on reviewing the crystallization andresults achieved by foreign scientists and researchers, which means scholars andlinguists in China lack independent and creative study and research. After reviewingalmost all those previous researches in this field, the author has found that almost allof them are studying the subjects who are recruited from senior high schools,undergraduates and English majors. In other words, the interlanguage pragmaticcompetence of non-English major postgraduates is widely ignored by researchers dueto the fact that the total number of this group of students is relatively small. Therefore,the present study will concentrate on investigating the current state of interlanguagepragmatic competence of non-English major postgraduates and exploring thecorrelation between interlanguage pragmatic competence and linguistic competence.It’s significantly crucial for the students to improve their interlanguage pragmaticcompetence if they desire to enhance their comprehensive English capability. It’swidely acknowledged that the ultimate goal of studying English is to achieve the aimof fluent and smooth communication. Consequently, it is simply the necessary ladderto high level of pragmatic competence to accumulate vocabulary, study grammar andpractice sentence structure. Under the current situation of English teaching, however,the majority of teachers have, to a large extent, neglected the cultivation of students’pragmatic competence. Owing to the fact that we Chinese students are all under greatpressure of final examinations as well as entrance examinations, teachers are morelikely to devote all their energy and efforts to helping English learners to improvetheir vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and test-taking skills but they fail to attachadequate importance to their ability to appropriately use what the students have learnt.Through careful investigation of interlanguage pragmatic competence ofnon-English major postgraduates, the author will find out what is the current state ofpragmatic learning and then help people realize the existing problem. After studying this topic, the author will raise some effective solutions to the current problems andcome up with some methods and strategies of improving the current state of teachingand learning of pragmatic competence. Only in this way can we foster more decentand poised complicated talents with international confidence in the world stage.The purpose of the case study is to investigate the current state of interlanguagepragmatic learning of non-English major postgraduates. Three questions are answeredin the study. They are as follows:(1) What is the present state of inter-languagepragmatic learning and teaching among non-English major postgraduates?(2) What isthe general level of non-English major postgraduates’ inter-language pragmaticcompetence under the current circumstance of teaching and learning?(3) How doesthe inter-language pragmatic competence correlate with the linguistic competence?The participants of this study are first year non-English major postgraduates andthird year non-English major postgraduates in Shandong Normal University where theauthor is studying. Through the analysis of data collected from the questionnairecombined with pragmatic-competence test and exploration of role-play transcription,we can draw the following conclusions:(1) the current state of pragmatic learning stillhas much room for improvement;(2) the general pragmatic competence ofnon-English major postgraduates is at a relatively low level;(3) the interlanguagepragmatic competence of non-English major postgraduates does not go up with thegrowth of linguistic competence.This thesis also proposes some implications for pragmatic teaching and learningbased on the major findings of the study. Meanwhile, the limitations of the study aresummarized and corresponding suggestions for future studies are provided with thehope of paving the way for more relevant studies.