DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS IN TEACHING ENGLISH: COMPLAINING IN ENGLISH AND ARMENIAN CULTURAL CONTEXTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/FLSP.2021.19.115Keywords:
cross-cultural pragmatics, cultural awareness, cross-cultural communicative competence, teaching cross-culturally, illocutionary forceAbstract
The present paper promotes to optimize ways of developing the cultural
awareness of the Armenian students of English. Proceeding from the assumption
that the cultural element should be implemented in the English language
classroom, the paper seeks to show that the Armenian students' culturallyinduced behaviour can be enhanced by teaching them how to communicate
effectively in cross-cultural settings. For the purpose of the cross-cultural
pragmatic analysis, one speech act, complaint, has been picked out. The choice
of this expressive speech act can be explained by the fact that it is often used in
everyday face-to-face communication and displays a high degree of cultural
sensitivity. The main result of the research is the postulation that the linguistic
expression of the illocutionary force is culture specific. The paper also indicates
that the teacher can contribute to the growth of cultural sensitivity of the Armenian
students of English by teaching them how to transfer the pragmatic competence
appropriately in cross-cultural communicative settings.
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