Cross-Cultural Pragmatics of Interactional Competence

Abstract

Interactional competence involves knowledge of the relation between language forms and the social contexts in which they are applied. The paper aims at focusing on the concept of interactional competence within the framework of cross-cultural pragmatics. The study expresses its author’s belief that non-native language users’ interactional competence to use contextually and situationally appropriate linguistic forms to express the pragmatic intent in question is to be developed at the tertiary level of language studies. The case study was based on the analysis of the speech act of compliment. The research findings indicated that instances of miscommunication resulted from differing beliefs regarding the speech act production and perception. The research has resulted in a conclusion that non-native language learners’ interactional competence can be advanced if the contributions on the speech act theories and an empirical research carried out into the area of the speech act are considered in the developmental process of non-native learners’ interactional competence.