Why do foreigners nearly always sound wrong? Lubov Tsurikova Voronezh University, Russia

Foreign Language Learning Taught outside English speaking country English is a school subject with no recognised social function or status Little or no exposure to L2 outside classroom No real communication outside classroom Artificial (classroom) communication TESL vs TEFL Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL/TESOL) Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Second Language Acquisition Taught in English speaking country or country where English has special communicative or sociopolitical status Exposure to L2 outside classroom L2 needed for real communication outside classroom

In EFL setting both NNS teachers and students are separated from authentic English language culture share different frame of conceptualisation and discourse patterns usually act in communication according to their native interactive schemata Non-native Speakers lack socio-culturally conditioned pragmatic competence Non-native Speakers lack socio-culturally conditioned pragmatic competence EFL CONTEXT

Writing a Сard in English: Non-Native Speakers

Writing a Сard in English NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERNON-NATIVE SPEAKER

Experimental Data Authentic English Cards Authentic Russian Cards Cards written in English by Russian speakers - 134

Writing Christmas Cards

Writing Birthday Cards

Writing Cards in English and Russian: Different Text Format Дорогие Катя, Миша и Леночка! От всего сердца поздравляем вас с наступающим Новым Годом и предстоящим Рождеством! Желаем вам крепкого здоровья, удачи, успехов и радости! Пусть целый год вам сопутствует счастье! Оля, Саша, Лида To Gill and Pete With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year love xx Rosalind, Mike & Charlie Russian New Year/Christmas card British Christmas/New Year card

Writing Cards in English and Russian: Different Text Format Дорогая Эммочка! Поздравляем тебя с Днем рождения! Желаем здоровья, благополучия, оптимизма и удачи во всех делах! Оставайся всегда такой красивой, энергичной, чуткой и отзывчивой, какой мы тебя знаем! Обнимаем, с уважением, Микеровы To Gill Wishing you a very Happy Birthday. Ill be thinking of you on July 26. Much love Ted Russian Birthday cardBritish Birthday card

Writing Cards in English and Russian Social value of the ritual (attitudes towards certain conventions and practices) Circumstances of communication When to write Who to write Norms of discourse organisation What to write (content) How to write (conventional linguistic forms and their communicative meaning) Text structure (salutation + greeting + closing + signature) Text layout Punctuation Paragraph spacing Alignment Pragmatic Differences Important for Communication

Pragmatic Errors Writing Cards in English: Pragmatic Errors RUSSIAN Дорогая Эммочка! Поздравляем тебя с Днем рождения! Желаем здоровья, благополучия, оптимизма и удачи во всех делах! Оставайся всегда такой красивой, энергичной, чуткой и отзывчивой, какой мы тебя знаем! Обнимаем, с уважением, Микеровы RUSSIAN speaker of ENGLISH Andrew Happy birthday and every good wish for good health, happiness and success in the year to come from Gillian and Kelly Dear Tom! Im glad to congratulate you on this wonderful day! Youre 25 today! I wish you good luck and good mood during your whole life! Happy birthday to you! Your Natalya ENGLISH

projection of the speakers existing knowledge of the native language use and interaction patterns to similar communicative situations in the target language culture Pragmatic transfer :

Pragmatic transfers result in inappropriate language use PRAGMALINGUISTIC TRANSFERS cause errors resulting from failure to correctly identify or express the conventional meaning of linguistic forms related to mistaken beliefs about the language SOCIOPRAGMATIC TRANSFERS cause errors resulting from the failure to identify the situation correctly related to mistaken beliefs about the norms of behaviour in the society result in inappropriate language use

NORMS LANGUAGE SPECIFIC CULTURE SPECIFIC PRAGMALINGUISTIC SOCIOPRAGMATIC TRANSFERS TRANSFERS FAILURE TO IDENTIFY FAILURE TO IDENTIFY SITUATION OR EXPRESS SITUATION CORRECTLY MEANING MEANING CORRECTLY DEAL WITH MISTAKEN BELIEFS DEAL WITH MISTAKEN BELIEFS LANGUAGE NORMS OF BEHAVIOUR ABOUT THE LANGUAGE ABOUT THE NORMS OF BEHAVIOUR IN SOCIETY BOTH RESULT IN INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE USE INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE USE Pragmatic transfers

Non-native speakers tend to base their discourse choices on their native rules, values, beliefs and knowledge schemata As a result their communication style in the target language remains unauthentic and deviates from the normal communication style and expectations accepted in the target language culture(s) Grammatically correct but pragmatically problematic expressions produced by non-native speakers can be misleading and cause communication failure Pragmatic transfers in non-native speakers

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