Pragmatical Failure for Communication in Thai Language by Chinese Students

Abstract

         This research had two objectives: to investigate the causes of failure to communicate Thai language by Chinese students and to correct those failures from 40 Chinese third year students. Data were collected through participating observation and taking note of communicative failure in real situations between students and Thai teachers in and out of the classroom. The conceptual framework for analysis was based on the pragmatic failure by Thomas (1987) and the illocutionary by Searle (1975).

The result revealed that the communicative failures in the Thai language among Chinese students, both between students and teachers and among Chinese students, could be categorized into three types: 1)usage failure, 2) intentional communication, and 3)intentional interpretation. Usage failure consisted of wrong meaning, wrong pronunciation, and wrong arrangement. Intentional communication consisted of completely mispronounced illocutionary and partially mispronounced illocutionary. The intentional interpretation was divided into two subtopics. the completely wrong-interpreting illocutionary points and the partially wrong- interpretating illocutionary points.

The cause of pragmatic failure in Thai language communication among Chinese students came from the pragmatic transfer that occurred during cross-cultural communication. Methods of correcting the pragmatic failure of Chinese students should suggest the principles of communication in Thai language in the context of Thai society and culture while simultaneously studying Thai language to develop Thai communication skills correctly. These methods would enable Chinese students’ ability to select the pattern of intentional communication appropriately in various situations.