2.3 Pragmatic Competence

As an integral and indispensable component of overall language competence，pragmatic competence concerns the ability to use available linguistic resour-ces（pragmalinguistics）in an appropriate fashion with particular context（sociopragmatics）. Put briefly，pragmatic competence is how to do things with words appropriately（Kasper & Rose，1999）. He & Chen（2004）confirmed that pragmatic competence emphasizes appropriateness in communication，which includes all knowledge needed in discourses and based on context.

According to Bialystok（1993），pragmatic competence includes the following：1）the speaker’s ability of how to use language for different purposes；2）the listener’s ability of how to understand the speaker’s real attempts；and 3）the rules commanded by which utterances come together to create discourse.

Si（2001）held that pragmatic competence for China’s EFL learners includs the following three aspects：pragmalinguistic competence，sociopragmatic competence and the awareness of the difference between the use of the English and the Chinese.

Pragmatic competence can be achieved by both sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic knowledge（Leech，1983）. The former emphasizes socially appropriate language use：sociopragmatically competent language users can use the social rules for “what you do，when and to whom” appropriately，and they can take into consideration the social variables like relative power，social distance，and degree of imposition（Brown & Levinson，1987）. Those users are also familiar with the mutual rights，taboos，obligations，and conventional courses of action applied in a particular speech community（Thomas，1983）. While the latter focuses on the “the more linguistic ‘end’ of pragmatics”（Crystal，2003）. What Clark（1979）called as conventions of means and conventions of form is the major concern of pragmalinguistic competent users，which refers to linguistic strategies for implementing speech intentions and the linguistic items needed to express these intentions.

Kasper（1992）and Thomas（1995）stressed that it is not easy to conclude from instances of pragmatic failure whether to blame sociopramatic knowledge or pragmalinguistic knowledge. An instance of pragmatic failure could be caused by either a sociopragmatic misjudgment or a lack of pragmalinguistic knowledge. The development of pragmalinguistic knowledge and sociopragmatic knowledge does not necessarily go hand-in-hand：learners can be more developed in their sociopragmatic ability than their pragmalinguistic ability or vice versa（Scarcella，1979；Hill，1997；Rose，2000）.