I strongly agree the statement that pragmatics does not need to be given attention in learning English because its basic concept are universal in language. This is because the hearers assume simply that speakers have honored the conventions of interpretation in constructing their utterance while the speakers must make a twofold assumption. (Finegan, 2014, pg287).
In order to understand pragmatics better, first we need to know what is pragmatics. According to David Crystal, “Pragmatics is the study of language from the point of users, especially to the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction and the effects they use of language has on other participants in the act of communication” (Crystal …show more content…
Pragmatics competence is the knowledge of conditions and manner of appropriate use, in conformity with various purposes.(Chomsky, 1978) Teachers are responsible to give the pragmatics knowledge which is how an individual uses his own knowledge on English to construct utterances and sentences in order for him to use the knowledge to develop the pragmatics competence. The hearer will understand the utterance if and only if the speaker uses the suitable pragmatic competence. For example, when a pupil wants to go to toilet, he will ask the permission from the teacher by saying “Teacher, toilet.” From here, we know that this pupil has the pragmatic knowledge but he uses it in a wrong manner. The teacher in the classroom should correct the pupil’s sentence by teaching him the polite way to ask for permission such as “Miss, may I go to the toilet?” In this regard, the pupil will reflect himself and know that he uses the incorrect pragmatics competence and he will remind himself that not to repeat the same mistakes …show more content…
Different culture will use English differently. According to Brown (1994: 165), he describes the relationship between language and culture as follows: “A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language and culture.”. By knowing the culture, we can know why people think and speak the way they do. (David Elmes, 2013) In Malaysia, we learn English as a second language and therefore the learning of pragmatics of English is about intercultural communication. We do not teach culture of different races in the classroom because they might be more than three different races in the classroom and it is not easy for teachers to teach culture because there are no specific curriculums or subject that is teaching culture. Pupils will need a longer time to accept and understand the cultures that are different from themselves. For example, for most Chinese, when they want to greet, they will ask “ni chi bao le ma?” which means “Have you eaten?” in English whereas other people who practice other cultures will ask “How are you today?”. For those Chinese, they are not really asking have you eaten but they have indirect meaning which is to greet others. This greeting is developed in ancient Chinese and they think that that food is everything for them. Therefore, when they ask “Have you eaten?”,
In order to understand pragmatics better, first we need to know what is pragmatics. According to David Crystal, “Pragmatics is the study of language from the point of users, especially to the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction and the effects they use of language has on other participants in the act of communication” (Crystal …show more content…
Pragmatics competence is the knowledge of conditions and manner of appropriate use, in conformity with various purposes.(Chomsky, 1978) Teachers are responsible to give the pragmatics knowledge which is how an individual uses his own knowledge on English to construct utterances and sentences in order for him to use the knowledge to develop the pragmatics competence. The hearer will understand the utterance if and only if the speaker uses the suitable pragmatic competence. For example, when a pupil wants to go to toilet, he will ask the permission from the teacher by saying “Teacher, toilet.” From here, we know that this pupil has the pragmatic knowledge but he uses it in a wrong manner. The teacher in the classroom should correct the pupil’s sentence by teaching him the polite way to ask for permission such as “Miss, may I go to the toilet?” In this regard, the pupil will reflect himself and know that he uses the incorrect pragmatics competence and he will remind himself that not to repeat the same mistakes …show more content…
Different culture will use English differently. According to Brown (1994: 165), he describes the relationship between language and culture as follows: “A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language and culture.”. By knowing the culture, we can know why people think and speak the way they do. (David Elmes, 2013) In Malaysia, we learn English as a second language and therefore the learning of pragmatics of English is about intercultural communication. We do not teach culture of different races in the classroom because they might be more than three different races in the classroom and it is not easy for teachers to teach culture because there are no specific curriculums or subject that is teaching culture. Pupils will need a longer time to accept and understand the cultures that are different from themselves. For example, for most Chinese, when they want to greet, they will ask “ni chi bao le ma?” which means “Have you eaten?” in English whereas other people who practice other cultures will ask “How are you today?”. For those Chinese, they are not really asking have you eaten but they have indirect meaning which is to greet others. This greeting is developed in ancient Chinese and they think that that food is everything for them. Therefore, when they ask “Have you eaten?”,