A study of pragmatic failure in cross cultural communication among non native users of English on the internet

Abstract

This research study is envisaged to observe the occurrence of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural online communication. Due to innovations in Information Communication Technology (ICT) new modes of communication are emerging such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to allow people across the world, to stay in contact without any time and geographical barriers for sending and receiving messages. Language is the main instrument for the success of these online networks. Very often, people misinterpret and wrongly decode what is the real intended meaning of utterances and words. This can be referred to as pragmatic failure, as the inability or collapse in the understanding of what is meant by what is said by the speakers. Pragmatic failure on the online platform may occur due to a lack of language proficiency especially in English and cultural forces as the people come from different types or ways of communication or violation of pragmatic conventions. Therefore, the researcher observes the significance of the occurrences of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural online communication in Facebook groups of non-native English speakers, by a critical examination of the nature of interactions in the online platform, where the non-observance of pragmatic conditions leads to problems in communication. The theoretical framework of Speech Act analysis, analysis of Cooperative Principle and analysis of Politeness Principle was utilised in the study of selected samples on Facebook. The findings reveal that the occurrences of pragmatic failure are being observed as frequent in most of the samples. The cultural awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the users can be the reason for pragmatic failure in online cross-cultural communication. However, the prevalence of pragmatic failure can be due to the nature of online cross-cultural platform as in a large number of comments, users flout or violate conventions, but continue to interact. This marks a significant departure from conventional face-to-face interactions. newline