The contributing factors of pragmatic failure in China's ELT classrooms

Abstract

Pragmatic failure is the inability to understand what is meant by what is said, which can often lead to misunderstanding or confusion in cross-cultural communication. For this reason, the present article explores the contributing factors of pragmatic failure in China's ELT Classrooms. According to the exploration, the following factors are found out: teacher-centered teaching; lack of authentic input; teaching English without considering the cultural differences; linguistic competence oriented evaluation system. Some effective measures are also put forward to deal with these deficiencies, such as, task-based teaching; authentic English teaching materials and pragmatic competence oriented evaluation system.