Teaching culture: is it possible to avoid pragmatic failure?

Abstract

The main purpose of learning a second language is communication. Nevertheless, many students are surprised when they realise that, in spite of having a perfect dominion of the L2 grammar rules, they have difficulties at interpersonal level when establishing a conversation with native speakers. Thus, pragmatics constitutes a fundamental element of language ability for L2 learners. However, L2 teachers often overlook pragmatics, due to the difficulty of its teaching, and instead focus on the grammatical aspects of language. The resulting lack of pragmatic competence on the part of L2 students can lead to pragmatic failure and, more importantly, to a complete communication breakdown. In this paper, several examples are used to illustrate how pragmatic failures affect the interpretation of messages and sometimes block communication completely, thus defeating the principal purpose of L2 acquisition. Finally, guidance is provided to encourage teachers to incorporate the necessary pragmatic and cultural aspects of L2 learning into their lessons in order to prevent students from making these types of mistakes.

The Perception of English Speech Sounds by Cantonese ESL Learners in Hong Kong

“…So, should this sound be included as an ESL perception teaching target, and if so, how important should teachers consider complete mastery of this sound to be? One important purpose of learning a language is communication (Fernandez Amaya, 2008), yet in Hong Kong, English is often used by ESL learners for communicating with non-Chinese speakers who are also nonnative speakers of Englsh (Li, 1999), rather than just for communicating with native speakers of English. In this regard, the purpose of learning English is for international communication (EIL).…”

The use of politeness strategies in teacher–student interaction in the Omani EFL classroom

“…Thus, the interaction in the classroom should not fail pragmatically. Amaya (2008) has explained that pragmatic failure leads to misinterpretation of the message and might even lead to communication breakdown. Khodashenas (2017) confirms that it is not enough to be linguistically accurate, but also a speaker should be linguistically appropriate.…”

“…Khodashenas (2017) confirms that it is not enough to be linguistically accurate, but also a speaker should be linguistically appropriate. Thomas (1983) cited in Amaya (2008) defines pragmatic failure as "the inability to understand what is meant by what is said." This failure might cause inappropriacy which can be interpreted in some social contexts as rude, awkward or threatening.…”

“…According to Holmes and Brown (1976), pragmalinguistic failure happens when a misunderstanding occurs in the intended illocutionary or pragmatic force of an utterance. Sociopragmatic failure arises from the cultural differences on what is considered a linguistic appropriate behaviour (Amaya, 2008).…”

“…At the same time, they try to also preserve and not damage the hearer's face. However, this is not always possible, as Amaya (2008) argues, because some speech acts might be of direct threat to one's face. In these instances, FSAs are sought to be implemented by practicing politeness strategies.…”