| 5 |
Request Strategies by Second Language Learners of English: Pre- and Post-head Act Strategies
|
|
|
|
In: Studies in Literature and Language; Vol 5, No 2 (2012): Studies in Literature and Language; 16-28 ; 1923-1563 ; 1923-1555 (2012)
|
|
BASE
|
|
Show details
|
|
|
| 8 |
Requests made by L2 learners of Arabic: pragmatic development, methodological comparison, and politeness
|
|
|
|
Abstract:
© 2010 Dr. Saad Mohammed Al-Gahtani ; This study examines the speech act of request in Arabic; in particular, it investigates three inter-related issues: pragmatic development, the effect of methodology and politeness theory. Broken into four sub-studies, the investigation was carried out in institutional settings over a five-month period and included learners of various proficiency levels. The first and primary sub-study focuses on the development of requests performed by L2 learners of Arabic in natural data, i.e. institutional discourse, over a five-month period. The second sub-study examines the development of requests performed by L2 learners of Arabic in role-play data over a five-month period. The third sub-study focuses on the development of learners’ perceptions of head act strategies, whilst the fourth sub-study is concerned with the development of learners’ metapragmatic judgments of head act strategies in relation to politeness. When considering pragmatic development, the U-shaped developmental patterns found in the use of request strategies indicate that pragmatic development varies across languages and cultures and cannot be codified in a fixed universalist way, casting doubts on the universality of developmental stages proposed by Kasper and Rose (2002). Instead of looking at supportive moves, this investigation has followed Kasper’s (2006a) call for using a more discursive approach which can be achieved with the CA analytical approach. Signs of pragmatic development were found in the production of pre-expansions, pre-pres, insert-expansions, post-expansions, request-sequences, and even over the five-month period. Learners’ perceptions, on the other hand, did not show any development with the increase of proficiency level. With regard to the effect of the instruments employed in this investigation, whilst natural data may more closely resemble the way in which L2 learners perform the speech act of request in real life, role-play scenarios allow for a more accurate reflection of L2 learners’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic development. For L2 learners in real-life situations, the focus is on expressing a message in a clear and easy way, whereas in role-plays these learners tend to be more conscious of the language that they use, and therefore adopt linguistic features that cannot be found in natural data. Brown and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) claim of the relationship between politeness and directness works only when we examine the politeness level of head act strategies as a segmented form. To this extent, their claim is supported by the findings of this investigation. However, examining the politeness of head act strategies in conversation is an entirely different story. Directness level of head act strategies has a little effect on politeness in conversation where some linguistic aspects (such as pre-expansions, pre-pres, modification strategies, insert-expansions, post-expansions, multiple requests, accounts, etc.) can be used to influence the degree of politeness of the conversation.
|
|
Keyword:
Arabic; interlanguage pragmatics; requests; speech acts
|
|
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/35818
|
|
BASE
|
|
Hide details
|
|
|
|
|
