Pragmatic Failures in Cross-Cultural Communication: Their Causes and Prevention

Abstract

The paper provides an insight into the causes of pragma­tic failures (both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic) in cro­ss-cultural communication and suggests some effective means to assist language students to develop not only linguistic but also pragmatic competence which will help them to meet practical communicative needs: to better interpret and express meaning in a target language. This will undoubtedly contribute a great deal towards intercultural understanding. Exposing learners to pragmatics in their second or foreign language helps them to expand their perception of the target language, thus preventing possible misunderstandings.