| Pragmatic competence is the research focus in the field of Interlanguage Pragmatics all the time.Studies of teaching pragmatic knowledge in English as the foreign language(EFL)classrooms are abundant in China.Nevertheless,the empirical studies of testing second language pragmatic competence are underexplored.As to the contents of comprehension of pragmatic competence,speech act,which includes requests,refusals,complaints,apologies and compliments and so on,is the most commonly researched area up to now.However,there are some little explored areas,such as conversational implicature.Moreover,current studies persistently discuss the relationship between pragmatic competence and grammatical competence,with “Pragmatics Precedes Grammar” and “Grammar Precedes Pragmatics” as the two competing trends.To demonstrate which viewpoint is more scientific and correct,some advanced and accurate research methods are needed.Last but not least,with increasingly close cross-cultural communication,it is significant for the Chinese EFL graduates to know how to comprehend and utilize conversational implicature,and how to recognize and apply the pragmatic transfer,which plays an important role in crosscultural communication.This study employs the psychological software DMDX as the experimental tool and invites one hundred seventy-six graduates at Lanzhou University who meet the requirements of the experiment to take part in the test.This study aims to examine the effects of second language(L2)proficiency and implicature type on Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of English conversational implicature and compare Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of Chinese conversational implicature with their understanding of English conversational implicature.To fulfill the purposes of the study,the author presents the following research questions: 1)Does L2 proficiency affect Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of English conversational implicature? 2)Does implicature type affect Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of English conversational implicature? 3)Are there any differences between Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of Chinese and English conversational implicature? The study posits corresponding hypotheses and designs the Offline Test and the Online Test to answer the research questions.On the indices of accuracy and response time,there are three findings in the study.Firstly,L2 proficiency does not affect indirect criticism and idiosyncratic implicature but does affect Pope Question.This study to some extent supports the viewpoint of “Pragmatics Precedes Grammar.” Moreover,implicature type has effects on accuracy and response time significantly at both levels of L2 proficiency.It is noteworthy that from the perspective of accuracy,Pope Question in the Offline Test is the easiest type.However,from the standpoint of response time,more time is needed for its comprehension in the Online Test.Unlike the previous findings,Pope Question is not difficult for Chinese EFL learners.The reason for its easy accessibility in the Offline Test might be that the English knowledge or socialization in English Pope Question corresponds to the Chinese knowledge or socialization in Chinese Pope Question,thus leading to positive pragmatic transfer.Nevertheless,in the Online Test,more time is needed for its comprehension because much more time is spent on clarifying the logic of the questions in the dialogue and on understanding the conversational implicature that the conversation has produced.In the end,the study shows there are significant differences between the English Group and the Chinese Group at both proficiency levels.The Pope Question is the crucial point of the problem.Chinese-based conventions of usage in Chinese Pope Question coincide the conventions of English contexts in English Pope Question.The explanation of the problem is similar to the reason for the second finding.Based on the above-findings,the author gives a further discussion and provides some possible explanations for the results. |
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