Shadi Majed AlShraah; Enas Mohamed S. Aly; Saleem Mohd Nasim
Abstract
Interlanguage pragmatic studies predominantly focus on teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language. However, there is a substantial research gap in understanding the interlanguage characteristics of those learning English as a second language, particularly within the Saudi context. ...
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Interlanguage pragmatic studies predominantly focus on teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language. However, there is a substantial research gap in understanding the interlanguage characteristics of those learning English as a second language, particularly within the Saudi context. To bridge this critical gap, this paper undertakes a comprehensive examination of the interlanguage pragmatic competence exhibited by a cohort of 51 High Achievers (HAs) juxtaposed with 48 Low Achievers (LAs). A Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and the Scale-Response Questionnaire (SRQ) were administered to elicit request utterances. The paper concludes that HAs tended to use a wide range of linguistic forms in using mitigated request expressions significantly compared to LAs’ performance. Regarding the influence of contextual variables, HAs showed more awareness of both social power and distance compared to LAs. In conclusion, there is a robust connection between language proficiency and the pragmatic competence of request acts among Saudi learners.
Shuan Wei-Hong Ko; Zohreh R. Eslami; Lynn M. Burlbaw
Volume 3, Issue 1 , March 2015, , Pages 1-15
Abstract
The present study investigated learners’ interlanguage pragmatic development through analysis of 99 requestive emails addressed to a faculty member over a period of up to two years. Most previous studies mainly investigated how non-native English speaking students’ (NNESs) pragmalinguistic ...
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The present study investigated learners’ interlanguage pragmatic development through analysis of 99 requestive emails addressed to a faculty member over a period of up to two years. Most previous studies mainly investigated how non-native English speaking students’ (NNESs) pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic competence differed from native English speaking students (NESs) and compared learners with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds with NESs. In addition, most of the existing literature on developmental pragmatics has used elicited data. Naturally occurring data, in the form of emails, offer a more valid reflection of learners’ pragmatic competence. This study adopted speech event analysis approach, which seeks to account for all parts of requestive emails and recognizes the “work” each part does in the production of the speech event. Results indicated that, although NNES students did not show much pragmatic development in the frequency and type of strategies they used, the NNES students used a more deferential style in the opening and closing of their emails compared to native speakers. Additionally, the findings revealed the merits of analyzing natural data in interlanguage pragmatics and offered the benefit of recognizing email requests as a situated event.