An Investigation Of Pragmatic Awareness And Competence Of Senior High English Teachers Under The New Curriculum Standards

Based on English core competencies,pragmatic competence,an important part of language competence,is supposed to be paid attention to and cultivated by the teachers in English classes.However,due to the strong influence of exam-oriented teaching as well as teachers’ lack of pragmatic competence,the cultivation of students’ pragmatic competence has been neglected to some extent for a long time.Under the background of New Curriculum Standards,pragmatics will inevitably play an increasingly important role in the teaching content of English classes.In other words,it is urgent that teachers must put it as one of teaching objectives in English teaching.To achieve this,there is no denying that teachers’ pragmatic awareness and competence must first be studied,as it influences that of students greatly.Only when teachers are equipped with enough pragmatic knowledge and competence,can the cultivation of students’ pragmatic competence be accomplished.The study intends to investigate the current situations of pragmatic awareness and competence of senior high English teachers,and find out the potential affecting factors as well as teachers’ perceptions on the improvement.The ultimate goal of the study is to enhance teachers’ pragmatic awareness and improve pragmatic teaching in classroom teaching.On the basis of related theories,the thesis tries to look into the current situation on teachers’ pragmatic awareness and competence,In this study,questionnaires and interviews are employed as research methods.106 high school English teachers are randomly selected from high schools in Dali as the research participants.The results show that high school English teachers possess some pragmatic awareness and competence,and they have a certain degree of pragmatic teaching competence as well.They will pay attention to the teaching of pragmatic content in English classes.However,due to their lack of comprehensive understanding of pragmatics and limited pragmatic awareness and competence,there do exist some randomness and incompleteness in pragmatic teaching.In addition,it is found that some factors of senior high English teachers affect their pragmatic awareness and competence as well as pragmatic teaching competence including school level,teaching experience,educational background and professional title.Considering the current situation,teachers are willing and want to improve their pragmatic competence,so as to promote pragmatic teaching.Based on the results of this study,this paper proposes that teachers should put more emphasis on the cultivation of teachers’ pragmatic competence from the aspects of improving theoretical knowledge,carefully studying the New Curriculum Standards,seeking practical communication opportunities as well as emphasizing and optimizing pragmatic teaching in English classes,with the goal of advancing teachers’ pragmatic teaching competence,so as to ultimately achieve the continuous promotion of the comprehensive development of students’ English language competence.