基于言语行为理论的英语专业四级听力理解测试探究

安徽财经大学外国语学院英语系毕业论文

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Rationale

Speech act theory is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. It was originated with the British philosopher J. L. Austin in the late 50’s of the 20th century. According to his model, a speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology. An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speakers’ intention; it is the act performed in saying something. A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something. However, what speech act theory is most concerned with is the illocutionary act which attempts to explain the ways by which the speaker can mean more than what they say. And speech act theory, as one of the most important research subjects in pragmatics, provides the rationale for how to intake and apprehend the conversations under certain circumstances. It is, therefore, of great significance to the listening comprehension in TEM4. As is known to us all that the listening comprehension in TEM4 is a complex mixture and involves various aspects, and each listening aspect involved is often regulated or directed by certain rules. Speech act theory is the very one of them, and it may well serve as a gateway to help students of English majors to grasp the denominator overtones of speakers, so much so that students can fully and absolutely understand what the speaker intends to mean, and then promptly find out the right answer to the question given. Based on the framework of speech act theory, this paper is mainly an attempt to analyze and interpret the listening comprehension in TEM4 in order to improve the language competence of English majors by the application of the theory. The

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安徽财经大学外国语学院英语系毕业论文

paper begins with an introduction of listening comprehension in TEM4 with its current situations, its roles and significance in English learning. Then it puts forward the idea of “listening comprehension in TEM4 as a demanding skill”, and afterward through the presentation of J. L. Austin’s speech act theory, Searle’s five classifications of speech acts together with the method of detailed analysis, it highlights the fact that speech act theory plays a very important role in the apprehending of English listening. Furthermore, the paper employs many a concrete and representative example from the listening comprehension in TEM4 to bring out the point that English majors of grade four can truly improve a lot in their listening comprehension section by the further study and apt application of the speech act theory. So long as they can intake the very message they have just heard, they can find the right answer to the question given as quickly as possible.

1.2 Literature Review

The listening comprehension is an indispensable section of TEM4, yet for many students it is not an easy task to cope with, especially for the English majors who are required to have a pretty good command of it. Speech act theory, however, as an important theory in the pragmatic study of language, may well serve as a bridge from which listeners can get access to the denominator overtones of the speaker and comprehend what the speaker truly intends to mean. Hence, this field is well worth our studying.

As J. L. Austin (1975) states in his book How to Do Things with Words that a speaker might be performing three kinds of acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. This is the very basic theory of speech acts, which is also the rationale of the whole thesis.

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安徽财经大学外国语学院英语系毕业论文

As Dai Weidong (戴炜栋 2002:7) concludes in his book A New Concise Course on Linguistics for Students of English, Speech Act Theory that speech act theory provides great philosophical insight into the nature of linguistic communication. In the light of this theory, when we are speaking a language, we are doing something, or in other words performing acts; and the process of linguistic communication consists of a sequence of acts.

Searle (2002) points out in his book Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts that the simplest cases of meaning are those in which the speaker utters a sentence and means exactly and literally what he says. In such cases the speaker intends to produce a certain illocutionary effect in the hearer, and he intends to produce this effect by getting the hearer to recognize this intention in virtue of the hearer’s knowledge of the rules that govern the utterance of the sentence. But notoriously, not all cases of meaning are this simple: In hints, insinuations, irony, and metaphor- to mention a few examples- the speaker’s utterance meaning and sentence meaning come apart in various ways. One important class of such cases is that in which the speaker utters a sentence, means what he says, but also means something more.

Dong Qiming and Lin Li(董启明、林立 2006:5) say that there are generally three types of examination questions in TEM4’s listening comprehension: the detailed one, the implied one, and the generalized one, which altogether make up 15 percent of the whole test. And the implied one is definitely the most difficult one for students to handle.

Yang Ningfang(杨宁芳 2008:7)describes that J. L. Austin’s three classifications of speech acts- locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act- have great significance both to linguistic study itself and to all aspects of other foreign

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安徽财经大学外国语学院英语系毕业论文

language acquisition.

Wang Ping (王萍2008:3) points out in her paper that speech act theory is one of the most important subjects in pragmatic research, and the application of the theory will help the students to improve their English ability comprehensively and understand the illocutionary speech act in a much better way.

Song Yueqin(宋月琴 2008:4) states that the improvement of listening comprehension ability is a long, continuous process. However, it shows much room for improvement if students can apply some theory in the right channel. This theory is speech act theory, which is one of the most important contents of pragmatics, and focuses on the phenomenon of conveying more than what is said.

Wang Lihao(王丽皓2001:4) holds the point that to achieve communicative goal is the ultimate attempt for the language learning of students, and a student’s English listening ability can be the best manifestation of his or her integrative language competence. And listening teaching should be ranked among the most important parts in English teaching. Under the help of setting, situation and context, students can get across to what the speaker intends to mean behind the literal meaning.

All those people and their works mentioned above render to me the very inspiration which contributes to the original idea of my writing the thesis. What’s more, their thoughts and views have such a great influence on me that many hints and clues are taken from theirs. However, the interaction between speech act theory and the listening comprehension in TEM4 is a new field that needs further study. Although some thoughts and theories are still in the childhood, they have already come into prominence. This paper is intended to explore tentatively the interaction between

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安徽财经大学外国语学院英语系毕业论文

speech act theory and the listening comprehension in TEM4 so as to improve the listening competence of English majors by the appropriate application of the theory.

1.3 Layout of the Thesis

The thesis can be divided into four parts. Chapter1 is the introduction part. Chapter2 is mainly about the presentation of listening comprehension in TEM4 with its current situations, its roles and importance together with the basic theory of speech acts. Chapter3 is definitely the body part. It is devoted to the analysis of the interaction between speech act theory and the listening comprehension in TEM4 by employing many a concrete and representative example from it, and the thesis highlights the point that speech act theory can serve as a gateway to help students of English majors to grasp the denominator overtones of the speaker, and apprehend thoroughly and absolutely the speaker’s true intention. Chapter4, which is also the last part, is set to make a conclusion of the whole thesis.

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