Pragmatics is a relatively independent branch of linguistics with the language meaning as the research object,mainly research how to understand and use the language in a particular context. Searle‟s indirect speech act is one of the core content in pragmatics.It plays a significant role in the listening in College English Test Level(CET for short).
Searle has introduced the notion of an 'indirect speech act', which in his account is meant to be, more particularly, an indirect 'illocutionary' act. Applying a conception of such illocutionary acts according to which they are (roughly) acts of saying something with the intention of communicating with an audience, he describes indirect speech acts as follows: \"In indirect speech acts the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the hearer.\" An account of such act, it follows, will require such things as an analysis of mutually shared background information about the conversation, as well as of rationality and linguistic conventions. In connection with indirect speech acts, Searle introduces the notions of 'primary' and 'secondary' illocutionary acts. The primary illocutionary act is
indirectly achieved by the secondary illocutionary. The primary illocutionary act is the indirect one, which is not literally performed. The secondary illocutionary act is the direct one, performed in the literal utterance of the sentence.
There is a simple example.‘It‟s cold here‟.The literal meaning (secondary illocutionary act) of this sentence is state the fact that here is cold and people do not feel warm enough.While the utterance meaning (primary illocutionary act) is related to it‟s specific context. For example,if the speakers are in outside, maybe the speaker of this sentence want to have a talk in room rather than outside. Or the speaker needs to wear a more coat or the speaker caught a cold. If the speakers are in the room, the utterance meaning of the sentence maybe to have others closed the window. The request is indirectly achieved by „statement‟. Thus it can be seen that the illocutionary of speech is varied according to its context. It is important to hearers to grasp related background of context and have reasoning ability in order to understand indirect speech act correctly. Because the process of listening comprehension is a complex information processing rather than collect and decoding Language unit simply. Therefore, in order to improving students‟ listening comprehension, students should learn how to use language accurately and reinforce their understanding of indirect speech act. Only in this way can
listeners based on the literal meaning reasoning the utterance meaning to ensure smooth communication.
The ultimate goal of CET is to measure the college students' comprehensive application ability more accurately. The part of listening occupied approximate 35% in CET. The largest proportion of it is to understand the important or specific details and reasoning. For example(January 2003,CET-4,No.3):
W:John,what are you doing on your computer? Don‟t you remember your promise?
M:This is not a game. It‟s only a crossword puzzle that helps increase my vocabulary.
Q:What is the probable relationship between the speakers? A) Colleagues. B) Husband and wife. C) Employer and employee. D) Mother and son.
From the above example,W thought that M is playing computer games again and wanted to stop M, while M responded that „This is not a game. It‟s only a crossword puzzle that helps increase my vocabulary.‟ Thus it can be seen that W‟s thought was not the fact. The literal meaning of W is to “inquiry”( what are you doing on your computer? Don‟t you remember your promise?),
while the utterance meaning is “blame”. The primary illocutionary act(blame) is achieved by the secondary illocutionary(inquiry). From the two speakers conversation, first we can know W‟s status is higher than M, W is in education, discipline position while M is to be taught. Then the speakers used the informal language, it indicated that they have a close relationship. We can learn it most likely is the dialogue between parents and children. So ,the answer is D) Mother and son.
Another example(January 2003,CET-4,No.9)
W: Listen to me, Joe, the exam is already a thing of the past. Just forget about it.
M: That‟s easier said than done.
Q: What can we infer from the conversation? A) The exam was easier than the previous one. B) Joe is sure that he will do better in the next exam. C) Joe probably failed in the exam.
D) The oral part of the exam was easier than the written part. In this example, W said to M that “Joe, the exam is already a thing of the past. Just forget about it.” M responded that “That‟s easier said than done.” Based on their conversation, M implied that thought the exam is already a thing of the past, but he still can't let go. From which we can infer that M‟s examination results are bad,
may not even pass the exam. Therefore the correct answer is C）Joe probably failed in the exam.
Another more example(June 2012, CET-6)
M: A famous Russian ballet is coming to town next weekend. But I can‟t find a ticket anywhere.
W: Don‟t be upset. My sister just happened to have one and she can‟t go since she has got some sort of conflict in her schedule.
Q: What does the woman mean?
A) Her sister will come to watch ballet performance. B) Her sister also want a ticket. C) She can get a ballet ticket for the man.
D) She will come to watch ballet performance with the man. In this example, M said that there will a famous Russian ballet is coming, but he can‟t find a ticket anywhere. This indicate that he want to have a ticket to watch ballet performance but have no one ticket. W‟s answer imply her sister has one ticket but she can‟t go since she has other more important things to do. So the correct answer is C) She can get a ballet ticket for the man.
In our daily communication activity, communication subjects are between in the interactive relationship. To speaker, communication is a kind of express behavior guaranteed to get association ; To hearer, communication is a process of recognize
speakers' intention, reasoning, and reading the words information. Only accurately understanding the implication of discourse, can we be fully understanding discourse meaning and communication successfully. So does listening in College English Test Level. Thus it can be seen that introduce the indirect speech act theory into listening can help students to improve the ability to understand the speech ultimately. Therefore, students should learn make detailed analysis of all kinds of indirect speech act examples and to understand language from the point of view of the text. Moreover, they also should observe and sum up the indirect speech act in the daily life and learn how to use it correctly in communicative activities.
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