A Survey Report On English Pragmatic Competence Of MI Students In Xi'an International Studies University

Pragmatic competence refers to the ability to use language appropriately in context.It is an important component of interpreting competence with regards to the context-sensitive nature of interpretation.However,pragmatic failures occur frequently in MI interpretation training.There have been many investigations and studies on pragmatic competence both at home and abroad,which mainly focus on English or non-English majors.Thus,it is worth researching and exploring MI students' English pragmatic competence.In this report,the author attempts to investigate the English pragmatic competence of MI students in Xi'an International Studies University with an aim to explore their English pragmatic competence and provide reference for future teaching and training.A questionnaire survey method was adopted in the research,including the self-assessment questionnaire on English pragmatic competence and the English pragmatic competence test.The former aims to investigate the respondents' self-assessment on their English pragmatic competence,while the latter intends to explore the respondents' actual performance in the English pragmatic competence test.Based on the analysis of the results,the author proposed the following conclusions:(1)The overall English pragmatic competence of MI students in XISU is not very well;(2)The first-year and second-year MI students' self-assessment on their English pragmatic competence maintains a higher level than their English pragmatic competence test;(3)The third-year MI students remain at a low level for both the self-assessment and the actual testing.A comparison of the responses from the first-year,second-year and third-year MI students also shows that their English pragmatic competence does not improve as the students receive more interpretation training and studies.The results also indicate that MI students in XISU still need to improve their English pragmatic competence.