商务活动中语用能力的培养策略

论文总字数：30840字

摘 要

现如今，对外贸易已经成为我国经济的重要组成部分。而商务英语作为商务谈判的主要手段，它在商务实践中有着重要地位。由于不同的国家之间存在着明显的文化差异，所以在商务交际中就会出现问题。因此，培养商务活动的语用能力是十分必要的。本论文主要研究了商务活动的语用能力的提升，语用能力的具体内容，以及语用能力对于商务交流的影响。本论文分析了商务活动的语用能力的发展现状以及为提高商务活动的语用能力的培养提出了一些策略。商务活动的语用能力的研究有着现实意义，提高商务活动的语用能力能够进一步的促进国家经济和文化的发展。

关键词：商务活动；语用能力；培养策略

Contents

1. Introduction .1

1. Literature Review............................................................................................1
2. The Introduction to the Pragmatic Competence ..........................................3

4 . The Necessity of Promoting the Pragmatic Competence..............................4

4.1. Enriching professional knowledge..................................................................4

4.2 Improving contextual competence...................................................................5

4.3 Clarifying learning objectives..........................................................................6

5. Strategies to Improve the Pragmatic Competence in the Business Activities..............................................................................................................6

5.1 Understanding the communicative context......................................................7

5.2 Learning cultural differences...........................................................................8

5.3 Building intercultural communication ability..................................................8

5.4 Increasing business activities.............................................................................9

5.5 Keeping pace with the trend of the times.......................................................10

6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………….......10

Works Cited………………………………………………………………….....12

1. Introduction

With the continuous development of the global economy, business trade activities are on the increase, and the demand for business English is also growing. However, negotiators may have serious pragmatic errors in the business activities between different countries. On account of the obvious cultural differences between different countries, it is necessary to cultivate the pragmatic ability in the business activities.

There are various elements to influence the pragmatic competence in the business activities, such as the use of vocabulary in negotiation, the grasp of negotiation context and so on. The basic way to improve the Business English pragmatic competence in China is to study the appropriateness of language use in business environment. In fact, pragmatic competence is an vital part of business communication. Business negotiation between people from different countries have been influenced by different cultures, so that it results in pragmatic failures. When we communicate with our partners, we need to consider different cultures, different contexts, different negotiation methods, and etc. Without good pragmatic ability, business negotiation will fail eventually.

In order to carry out business negotiation effectively, we must always pay attention to the application of pragmatic ability in the business activities and avoid the failure of business activities caused by pragmatic errors. Improving the pragmatic competence in the business activities can promote China"s economic and cultural development and further enhance China"s international status. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the improvement of the business pragmatic competence in business communication, the specific content of the business pragmatic competence. The thesis analyzes the current situation of the business pragmatic competence and puts forward the strategies to improve the pragmatic competence in the business activities.

1. Literature Review

Business pragmatic competence needs to consider some factors such as context, multiple interactions and multidimensional. Wang Lifei (2015) and Zhang Feirui (2015) stated the Business English is the lingua franca of international business. They think the business communication strategy needs to be prioritized. Trosborg(2005), Shaw (2014), Daniushina(2010) and the other people are the first foreign scholars to explore business pragmatic competence. Domestic scholars like Weng Fengxiang , Wang Lifei, Chen Xianglan and Ge Hailing put forward the basic idea of business language. They think that the Business English pragmatic competence mainly about the appropriateness of language use in business environment. They take pragmatics as the core theory and studies how to achieve business goals in business context through appropriate. They also focus on the connection between business pragmatic competence and context.

When conducting business communication, we must think about the context, the environment and other factors. These factors are restrictive to business communication. We need to try our best to realize others’ ideas and express ourselves clearly. Business English pragmatic competence refers to people’s ability of understanding other people and express ourselves. There are essential differences between Business English and Normal English. Firstly, their basic vocabulary is very different. The Business English has many technical terms. We need to use these terms in a specific context. Secondly, the Business English emphasizes on the proper use of language. Communication without context will become meaningless. Both sides of the conversation must understand the pragmatic variants in the business environment.

There are cultural differences between different countries. Understanding the culture of another countries can promote the success of business activities. For example, Li Wen(2014) finds the Koreans often use the language of thanks. The languages of thanks can be divided into two aspects: direct and indirect. They are used to enhance the speaker’s emotion. When we do business with Korean, we ought to consider the use of thank-you. Ding Nan makes analysis and comparison between the use of greetings in China and Spain. He finds the differences in body language and greetings. A lapse in action may cause the collaborators to terminate their cooperation with you. Therefore, we must strengthen our understanding of other countries’ cultures.

At present, the pragmatic failure happens a lot in the business communication. He Ziran (2012), a domestic pragmatics expert, thinks that pragmatic competence is the ability of language users to consider certain social and cultural factors, so that they can use appropriate language in the special context. Chen Xinren (2004) puts forward the comprehensive structure of pragmatic competence. It is composed of four parts. They are pragmatic language competence, social pragmatic competence, pragmatic cognitive competence and textual competence. But generally speaking, when learning, people generally focus on their own language ability. They neglect how to express the language accurately, and how to appropriately communicate with others. For example, they ignore the polite languages in business negotiations and dining etiquette and so on, so we must promote some basic pragmatic competence. The failure of pragmatic competence will directly resulted in the failure of business activities. The study of the pragmatic competence business activities includes a series of communicative behaviors such as refusal, statement, greeting, and etc.

3. The Introduction to the Pragmatic Competence

Pragmatic competence promotes the success of the business activities in the special business environment. It is the ability to use to meet with the success. In general, business people"s pragmatic competence is mainly manifested in whether people are able to understand others accurately. The communication contains words under different cultural background, expression, polite formulas, address forms and so on. People can make reasonable speculation and reaction. Meanwhile, they can also use the language to express their own thoughts properly. There are significant differences within China and other countries in the etiquette of business communication. Therefore, improving business pragmatic competence is what we must do now.

Pragmatic competence is the ability to understand others accurately and express oneself appropriately in context (He , 2011:65). Pragmatic competence mainly includes two aspects: one is the pragmatic language competence. We can make the words and sentences under the rules of languages. The other one is the ability of social pragmatics. We are able to use language appropriately under the condition of following the rules of language. The pragmatic ability of business people is mainly reflected in whether they can correctly understand the words of different cultural backgrounds, customary expressions, polite formula, salutations and other factors. When two parties are willing to communicate, they can naturally and appropriately express their thoughts in the target language. China and the west have different cultural backgrounds. The ethnic groups are also different, so there will be conflicts in communication.

In the traditional business practice, people unconsciously use the language rules of their mother tongue, their own expression habits, their own ways of thinking and even their own values to express their ideas. People have strong language skills, but their pragmatic abilities are quite inadequate. Therefore, pragmatic errors often occur in Business English. Nowadays, the pragmatic competence of the business in China is still very deficient. Our country must step up efforts to study this aspect.

4. The Necessity of Improving the Pragmatic Competence

The study of language is developing all the time. People do not consider the appropriateness of language expression in the early stage of first and second language acquisition. However, with the continuous development of culture, people gradually find the importance of pragmatic competence in language. As an important means of international communication, the study of business English"s pragmatic competence is of more practical significance. Communication with each other is indispensable for the development of business activities. In the communication process, greetings, context and so on are all factors we need to consider. Some conversations lose their meaning when they are out of context. Business English and common English have essential differences in terms of vocabulary, context, and etc. Cultural differences are between different countries, which lead to more and more pragmatic failures in business communication. In order to reduce the business pragmatic failure, it is very important to cultivate and improve people"s business pragmatic ability.

More and more pragmatic errors occur in business communication. In order to reduce the occurrence of pragmatic errors in business English, it is very necessary to cultivate and improve people"s pragmatic ability in business English. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

4.1. Enriching professional knowledge

To improve the business pragmatic ability in activities , we must enrich our business English professional English. Improving the pragmatic competence can promote the development of business activities, and thus promote the smooth progress of international communication. When people in peacetime mainly learn the basic knowledge of business English, they master the vocabulary, the grammar and so on. But these can not guarantee the success of business activities, and some small pragmatic errors, may lead to the failure of business communication. Both sides of the language must understand the pragmatic variants in the business environment. In the language communication, sometimes the technical terms is needed. If you can not use these technical terms, the communication will become meaningless.

In business negotiations, most of the speakers adopt the method of direct refusal. In this way, you can maintain long-term cooperation with other companies. The company can get long-term economic benefits. For example, we can use the “Our company can not do that..., no way and so on” to refuse directly. (Zhai, 52) In our business communication, we must always consider the reasonable use of vocabulary, appropriate context, and other factors that must be considered. Building the knowledge of language variants and the ability of dynamic context is an important prerequisite for business English pragmatics. The directness, temporary and instability of business communication require us to have the ability to solve problems on the spot. We must enrich our professional English knowledge.

4.2 Improving contextual competence

Business English contextual competence is the linguistic and non-linguistic factors that communicators use to achieve specific business intentions in foreign trade, international investment, international finance and other business activities. These factors are the basic language knowledge, business expertise, and so on. The context of business English can restrict our communicative behavior. Business communication needs a specific business context. Once it leaves the special context, business communication will become meaningless. Appropriate language, and appropriate environment is good for promoting the smooth progress of business communication. Context also serves as a reminder that we can depend on the context to understand the intentions of others. It is good for us to conduct business communication successfully. Pragmatic errors in Business English often occur in the special context, and the context of Business English is an important basis for judging pragmatic failure in the business activities.

In order to carry out business communication successfully, we must improve our contextual ability. It is correctly understanding others and correctly expressing our intentions. Therefore, when we learn about the cultural differences between different countries, we can not only improve our horizon, but also find fun in different cultures. The ability to use idioms not only increases one"s knowledge reserve, but also enriches one"s spiritual world. At the same time, due to the different cultures of different countries, it is easy to arouse people"s exploration desire, thus further enhancing their understanding of the business pragmatic ability. The learning is no longer a boring process. Under the way of learning, the gains are certainly considerable. Different communicative environments can lead to different communications. Therefore, the improvement of pragmatic competence is related to the mastery of contextual competence closely. The contextual cultivation of pragmatic competence is a necessary choice.

4.3 Clarifying their own learning objectives

Why is it that people mastering professional Business English fail to find a good job in a job hunting unit? Because people are unconsciously bound by the way of expression they are used to. They cannot successfully conduct business communication because they consider problems with their own values. It will lead to frequent pragmatic failures. What society lacks is business talents, people who know more about the pragmatic competence. The aim of improving people"s pragmatic competence in Business English can make them understand their lack of pragmatic competence.

Therefore, pragmatic competence in Business English is very important. The failure of business communication will not only affect the profits of the company, but also affect the embodiment of its own value. Cultivating and improving business English pragmatic competence can provide more opportunities for the work in the future and make me people stand out from the competition. There are essential differences between business English and common English. Business English is more used in international business communication. The communication is conducive to the economic and cultural exchanges between countries. There are many proper nouns in Business English, so if people want to strengthen their business English knowledge, people must strengthen the accumulation of those proper nouns. Read more professional books about Business English, news, and etc, these accumulation will be very helpful to the rational use of business English pragmatic ability. Business English is mainly used for business communication and negotiation, so that we must pay attention to highlight the business focus of the negotiation or communication, rather than other useless things. People must have a good foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and so on when we learn the English.If we are good at the Business English, but do not have good eloquence, it is meaningless. Professional knowledge covers many aspects, and knowledge is only a small part of it. The basic knowledge is essential to improve and cultivate the pragmatic ability of business English. Only with a good foundation can we greatly improve we pragmatic ability. Therefore, we must have the clear learning objectives to enrich our knowledge.

5. Strategies to Improve Pragmatic Competence in Business Activities

5.1  Understanding communicative context

Business English pragmatic competence includes professional knowledge, behavioral habits, interpersonal relationship, communicative competence, and etc. We can devote to the accumulating business English professional terms and polite expressions used in communication. We use language correctly in various contexts, various occasions, various environments to cater to the objects. We should also pay attention to the meaning and understanding of proper nouns, idioms and allusions, and folk proverbs in different countries to avoid pragmatic failures in communication. For example, a Chinese company sells batteries under the brand ‘ white elephant ’, which means nothing in Chinese but "expensive and useless" in English. So it is not popular in the west. Considering the actual context is the key to avoid pragmatic failures. When we communicate with different people in different situations, we must adopt the language suitable for the current context to express our opinions so as to achieve the desired effect.

5.2. Learning cultural differences

The accurately use of language is linked with the culture of the country. When we communicate with others, we ought to care more about the background and way of life. We should attach importance to the accumulation of the professional language knowledge, strengthen the introduction of British and American culture and the awareness of cross-cultural communication, such as the cultural development, etiquette, taboos and religious beliefs of western countries. Local enterprises can also invite business professionals to give lectures or presentations. Combining with their practical experience, we can carry out more in-depth research, and we can have a deeper understanding of the cultural factors behind the language and gradually improve our pragmatic ability.

For example, in business activities, we ought to focus on the necessary etiquette. Without proper etiquette, it will result in the termination of business communication, even if one’s English is very fluent. When we conduct the business communication, we should also know whether the other party has any matters. Ignoring these details can cause the termination of business communication. For example, Americans dislike to talking about their own lives with other people. The introduction of culture has to go through a long time of accumulation. We need the theoretical basis first, and then we can put these theories into practice, so that we can greatly improve the pragmatic competence.

5.3 Building intercultural communication ability

The study of language is developing all the time. People do not consider the appropriateness of language expression in the early stage of first and second language acquisition. As an important means of international communication, the study of business English"s pragmatic competence is of more practical significance. In the communication activities, we ought to try our best to consider the factors such as process, greetings, context and so on. Some conversations lose their meaning once they are out of context. There are cultural differences between different countries. We can take an example. When you meet someone you don"t know in China, you will ask about his age, family and so on. But in foreign countries, it is considered impolite and they will think you disrespect them. When we communicate with foreigners, we should always concentrate on whether we have used appropriate communication language. Inappropriate language will directly lead to the failure of communication.

In communication, not only we consider the language, but also body movements and communication etiquette, which can directly affect the results of communication. If our behavior causes misunderstanding of the other party, a small loss may be the failure of a business negotiation, and a big loss may be the loss of the whole company or even the country. Therefore, we must improve our intercultural communication ability. To improve intercultural communication competence, it is necessary to know more about the cultural differences between different countries and participate in practices. After all, even more knowledge needs to be proved by practice. Business communication needs specific business context. Once it leaves the special context, business communication will become useless. Context plays an important role in the communication so that we can rely on context to understand the intentions of others and thus successfully conduct business communication.

In our spare time, we can go to foreign companies to visit and practice more, learn from the experience of predecessors, learn more about how they communicate with others, and how to reduce or even avoid pragmatic mistakes. When we learn these cultural differences, we can also increase our own knowledge, improve our horizons, and find more fun in learning. Intercultural communication competence also directly reflects our own Business English pragmatic competence. Only by improving intercultural communication competence can we effectively improve Business English pragmatic competence.

5.4 Increasing business activities 

With the continuous development of modern economy, China does more business with other countries. The status of Business English in China is also improving. The pragmatic competence of Business English is the key to the Business English communication. However, due to the cultural differences between different countries, pragmatic errors in Business English occur frequently, and inappropriate languages expression directly affects the success or failure of business activities. Colleges students can work as an intern in a company for a period of time and integrate into the business environment, so that they can better understand the importance of pragmatic competence. The country should introduce more talents in this field and hold some lectures on Business English communication in local enterprises. These lectures can help people directly absorb the experience of business communication. In order to strengthen our understanding of Business English pragmatics and improve practical ability, people must take part in practice. Success is not achieved overnight. In order to reduce pragmatic errors in Business English, it is important to cultivate people"s pragmatic competence.

5.5 Keeping pace with  the trend of the times

Language is not immutable, with the development of the times, language culture is also in 

constant development. The Business English is also development in the history. Traditional business English can only adapt to the previous development sometimes, so we need to keep pace with the times, constantly update their knowledge reserve. We ought to focus on the latest business knowledge, and conform to the trend of the times. At the same time, we should also actively participate in the business activities. Only in that way can we improve our pragmatic competence in the Business English in the future. Please try your best.

Now, we must concentrate on developing our foreign trade and commerce. With the advancement of international economic globalization, environmental effect of trade has received more and more concerns. If negotiators lack the understanding of the latest trade, they will lose the opportunity to compete with others. Only with the latest news can you be more successful. The outdated pragmatic strategies will result in your failure. These failure may make the company and the country suffer huge losses.Therefore, people can turn a defeat into victory at a critical moment when they update their pragmatic competence constantly. Therefore, we must keep pace with the trend of the times.

6. Conclusion

This thesis mainly tells the necessity and importance of business pragmatic competence, so that people can improve their business pragmatic competence independently. The development of business activities is inseparable from the communication . In the communication process, greetings, context and so on are all factors we need to consider. Some conversations lose their meaning once they are out of context. There are many differences between Business English and common English in terms of vocabulary, context, and etc. The cultural differences will lead to more and more pragmatic failure in business communication. In order to reduce the Business English pragmatic errors, it is very important to cultivate and improve people"s Business English pragmatic ability. Pragmatic competence is the ability of comprehensive use of language. Nowadays, the failure of pragmatic competence in China is very common. But generally speaking, when learning, people generally pay more attention to their own language ability, and pay more attention to how to correctly express the language itself, rather than how to properly communicate with others. Because this, it occurs the pragmatic occurs frequently. The failure of pragmatic competence will directly affect the end results of the communication activities. Therefore, it is our responsibility to cultivate and improve people"s pragmatic competence. While improving people"s business pragmatic ability, it can also improve China"s economic and cultural level. The society needs more business professionals, who must have excellent pragmatic ability. Therefore, it is useful to cultivate and improve people"s pragmatic ability in the business activities.

Works Cited

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