So teachers can introduce some subjects that can be talked about but not offensive, such as the weather, the school life, the hobby and so on. Such topics are always stimulating and relaxing. When the conversation starts, students need to know how to develop the topic. And the teachers can introduce ways of responding and going on their conversation. As for how to change the conversation, it is usually the non-native speakers’ trouble. In the English class, the teachers can encourage students to challenge the other persons’ questions and take the floor of the conversation. Otherwise the conversation will go on like an interview all the time and may be lack of interest and fun. In conclusion, in the teaching of spoken English, the teachers should pay special attention to the importance of pragmatics and make students be aware of cross-cultural differences and help learners to understand the way pragmatic principles work in their culture. And the teachers should pay more attention to the significance of pragmatics in teaching English speaking so as to develop students’ communicative competence.
3. Implications of More Efficient English Teaching
First, pragmatics offers us a new way to use English in special context. And
according to the theory of pragmatics, there are four factors affecting the efficiency of our teaching in English. They are language knowledge, context, psychological linguistics, social linguistics. And since there are many aspects that will influence English language teaching, the teachers should choose proper and practical pragmatic theories for their teaching. In English teaching, the teachers should not only teach the English language itself, but also teach pragmatics more and let students learn some theory knowledge such as the cooperative principle and politeness principle and so on. By doing so, the students will improve their language communicative ability in the classroom English language teaching.
Second, application of pragmatics in English teaching makes students’ learning and teachers’ teaching English easier and more efficient. And it benefits both of them since it good for the students’ effective learning and teachers’ professional development. So the teachers can develop topics centering on the situation that two unfamiliar person converse together, and teach students some ways of communicating with unfamiliar people freely and confidently.
4. Conclusion
As we have talked so much about the pragmatics and English language teaching, we know that the theories of pragmatics do help a lot in language teaching. Of them, the cooperative principle, relevance theory and politeness principle have a close connection with the reading, speaking, listening and the teachers’ classroom performance. So in the process of English teaching, we should make a combination of pragmatics and teaching, thus making it easier for the students to learn English. However, the study of pragmatics is not enough, we need to apply the theory of pragmatics to the teaching of English closely and properly.
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