The Pragmatic Competence of Chinese L2 Learners of Different L1s

In Reference to the Modal Auxiliary Neng Verb Group

Abstract

Research studies have shown there is growing attention on the importance of developing the learners’ L2 pragmatic competence. The article focus mainly on discussion how L2 learners of Chinese understand and use Chinese modal auxiliary verbs (Neng Verb Group) to achieve related pragmatic functions. It contains results and analyses from a quasi-survey of elicitation tasks designed for 70 college level Chinese second-language learners from three language backgrounds (English 19, Japanese 25 and Korean 26), all are at different Chinese language proficiency levels. The results show that the learners from different L1s have different patterns of Appropriateness and Replacement uses. There is significant difference between the learners’ Chinese language levels, which is there are significant differences between the basic level and the intermediate level, between the basic level and the advanced level, but not between the intermediate level and the advanced level. This “plateauing” provides insights from pedagogical perspective on how to interwoven the pragmatic knowledge into the language teaching.