Pragmatic competence: the speech act of request [Articol]

Abstract

In order to communicate efficiently in a foreign language it is not enough to know only the vocabulary and the grammar of the given language. Much more important is to know and use the sociocultural rules characteristic of the society whose language we are learning. The pragmatic errors made by students (even by those with a good linguistic competence) stress the importance of teaching the pragmatic aspects of the foreign language. The negative pragmatic transfer often causes misunderstandings in intercultural communication. This fact emphasizes that learning a foreign language does not mean just developing linguistic competence; pragmatic competence turns out to be of paramount importance. Cultural differences are well reflected in speech acts. Formulating a request is an example where the English and the Romanian cultures differ greatly as to the strategies applied. Not knowing and, consequently, not using the cultural rules of formulating a request in English might cause misunderstandings between a native speaker of English and a Romanian person.