Abstract: Chinese non-English majors, in their intercultural communications, tend to make a great number of socio-pragmatic mistakes out of ignorance of English-Chinese different cultural backgrounds and values, which exerts a negative influence on their intercultural communications. This paper mainly discusses socio-pragmatic failure of non-English majors especially in the aspects of greetings, compliments, requests as well as apology-making and also attempts to analyze some possible reasons for their failure, such as different economic backgrounds, values, thinking modes and the negative pragmatic transfer that lead to socio-pragmatic failure in intercultural communication. In addition, some corresponding effective approaches for avoiding social-pragmatic failures in intercultural communication for non-English majors are also offered in hopes that they are able to understand English real-time expressions further within specific contexts so as to enhance their intercultural communication competence to a large extent.

Key words: Chinese non-English majors; intercultural communication; socio-pragmatic failure

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要：

1. Introduction.1

2. Literature Review.1

2.1 Language and Culture

2.2 Intercultural Communication

2.3 Pragmatic Failure

2.3.1 Definition

2.3.2 Classification

2.3.3 Development of Maxims 

3. Typical Examples of Non-English Majors’ Socio-pragmatic Failure in English-Chinese Intercultural Communication.4

3.1 Greetings

3.2 Requests

3.3 Compliments

3.4 Apology-making

4. Causes of Non-English Majors’ Socio-pragmatic Failure in English-Chinese Intercultural Communication7

4.1 Different Economic Backgrounds

4.2 Different Values

4.3 Different Thinking Modes

4.4 Different Customs

4.5 Negative Pragmatic Transfer

5. Countermeasures to Reduce Non-English Majors’ Socio-pragmatic Failure in English-Chinese Intercultural Communication.9

5.1 Cultivating Students’ Intercultural Awareness

5.2 Improving Students’ Intercultural Communication Competence

6. Conclusion10

Bibliography 12

Acknowledgements13