A Study of Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure

Cross-cultural communication means communication between people from different cultures. We use the term cross-cultural communication instead of intercultural communication because it is too restrictive. This term implies a comparison between cultures (for example, different styles of leadership). More precisely, cross-cultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event. The labels race, ethnic groups, and co-cultural communication are three forms of cross-cultural communication. The learners …

…and inadequately presented. Culture is found to be a major source of pragmatic failure, and language learners are not well-informed of, nor sensitive to the cultural differences which are manifested in speech behavior as well as in other social behavior, language learning should not be limited simply to linguistic performance, but should include some understanding of culture of its native speakers. Language learners should be aware of different cultural distinctions and develop cross-cultural communicative competence.