“Could you help me with these bags, brother? My shoulders are falling.†Transfer in IL Requests Performed by Algerian EFL Learners
Abstract
The present study attempts to investigate the pragmatic transfer in interlanguage requests performed by Algerian EFL learners. For data gathering, a three-item Discourse Completion Task has been administered to two controlling groups of native speakers: Arabic and English and two learner ones at two proficiency levels: low-proficient and high-proficient. The responses have been coded and analysed. The findings show that the performance in Arabic and English exhibits two types of differing politeness systems: positive-face-based and negative-face-based respectively. In learners’ production, pragmatic transfer has been operative in the employment of request strategies i.e. the weighing of the situational variables (sociopragmatic) and the wording of these strategies (pragmalinguistic). In addition to transfer, interlanguage production has been affected by lack of pragmatic knowledge, interlanguage-specific features, and language constraints. Proficiency has not given marked advantage to high-proficient learners over the low-proficient. In this paper, we have considered practical implications for intercultural communication and speech acts’ pedagogy in EFL classroom.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abdul Sattar, H. Q., CheLah, S., & Suleiman, R. R. R. (2009). Iraqi graduates’ production and perception of requests: A pilot study. The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture, issue 29, 56-70.
Abdulwahid, G. Q. (2003). A Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Acts as Produced by Native Speakers of Arabic. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
Al-Ali, M. N., & Alawneh, R. (2010). Linguistic mitigating devices in American and Jordanian students’ requests. Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(2), 311-339.
Al-Aqra’, M. Y. (2001). Performance of EFL Students in Requesting Speech Act: English-Arabic translation. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. An-Najah National University, Palestine.
Alcón E, Safont MP, & MartÃnez-Flor, A. (2005). Towards a typology of modifiers for the speech act of requesting: A socio-pragmatic approach. Ræl, Revista Electrónica de LingüÃstica Aplicada, 4, 1-35.
Alfattah, M. H. A., & Ravindranath, B. K. (2009). Politeness strategies in the interlanguage requests of Yemeni learners. Iranian Journal of Language Studies (IJLS), 3(3), 249-266.
Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1999). Exploring the interlanguage of interlanguage pragmatics: A research agenda for acquisitional pragmatics. Language Learning, 49, 677-713.
Beebe, L. M., & M. C. Cumming. (1996). Natural speech acts data versus written questionnaire data: How data collection method effects speech act performance. In S.M. Gass and J. Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language (pp. 65-88). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1991). Interlanguage pragmatics: The case of requests. In Robert Phillipson, Eric Kellerman, Larry Selinker, Michael Sharwood Smith and Merrill Swain (eds.), Foreign/Second language pedagogy research: A commemorative volume for Claus Faerch, (pp. 255-272). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Blum-Kulka, S., & Levenston, E. A. (1987). Lexical-grammatical pragmatic indicators. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 9(2), 155-170.
Blum-Kulka, S., & Olshtain, E. (1986). Too many words: Length of utterance and pragmatic failure. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 8, 165-179.
Blum-Kulka, S., & Olshtain, E. (1984). Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech act realization patters (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics, 5(3), 196-213.
Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cenoz, J., & Valencia, J. (1996). Cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics: American vs. European requests. In F. Bouton Lawrence (Ed.), Pragmatics and Language Learning, Monograph Series, 7, 47-53.
Cohen, A. (1996). Investigating the production of speech act sets. In Gass and Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language (pp. 21-43). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Cohen, A. (1998). Speech acts. In McKay and Hornberger (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language teaching (pp.383-42). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, A. (2005). Strategies for learning and performing L2 speech acts. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(3), 275-301.
Cohen, A. (2006). Interlanguage pragmatics: A reply to Garcés-conejos Blitvich. Intercultural Pragmatics, 3(3), 359-364.
Dendenne, B. (2013). The pragmatic suitability of the Algerian ELT secondary school textbooks: A focus on speech acts. Revue Sciences Humaines, No. 40, 125-146.
Edmondson, W., & House, J. (1991). Do learners talk too much? The waffle phenomenon in interlanguage pragmatics. In Phillipson, Robert, Eric Kellerman, Larry Selinker, Michael Sharwood Smith and Merrill Swain (Eds.), Foreign/Second language pedagogy research: A commemorative volume for Claus Faerch (273-286). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (1997). Learning to communicate in the classroom. In Rod Ellis (Ed.), SLA Research and Language (173-195). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Faerch, C., & Kasper, G. (1989). Internal and external modification in interlanguage request realization. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (Eds.), Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies (221-247). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Garcés-conejos, B. (2006). Interlanguage pragmatics: A response to Andrew Cohen’s “Strategies for learning and performing speech acts†published in Vol. 2, No 3, of intercultural pragmatics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 3(2), 213-223.
Gass, S. M., & Neu, J. (Eds.). (1996). Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Golato, A. (2005). Compliments and Compliment Responses: Grammatical structure and sequential organization. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.
Hassall, T. (2001). Modifying requests in a second language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), 39, 259-283.
Jung, E. H. S. (2004). Interlanguage pragmatics. In C. L. Moder and A. Martinovic-Zic (Eds.), Discourse across languages and cultures (99-116). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Kasper, G. (1992). Pragmatic transfer. Second Language Research, 8(3), 203-31.
Kasper, G., & Schmidt, R. (1996). Developmental issues in interlanguage pragmatics. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18(2), 149-169.
Maeshiba, N., Yoshinaga, N., & Kasper, G. (1996). Transfer and proficiency in interlanguage apologising. In Gass and Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language (155-190). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Maalej, Z. (2010). Addressing non-acquaintances in Tunisian Arabic: A cognitive-pragmatic account. Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(1), 147-173.
Márquez Reiter, R. (2000). Linguistic politeness in Britain and Uruguay: A contrastive analysis of requests and apologies. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing.
Martinez-Flor, A. (2007). Analysing request modification devices in films: Implications for pragmatic learning instructed foreign language contexts. In Alcon Solar and Safont Jorda (Eds.), Intercultural language use and language learning (pp. 245-279). Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer
Nazzal, A. (2005). The pragmatic functions of the recitation of Qur’anic verses by Muslims in their oral genre: The case of Insha’ Allah, ‘God’s Willing.’ Journal of Pragmatics, 15(2), 251-273.
Robinson, M. S. (1992). Introspective methodology in interlanguage pragmatics research. In G. Kasper (Ed.), Pragmatics of Japanese as native and target language (pp. 27-82).Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Sabaté i Dalmau, M., & Curell i Gotor, H. (2007). From "Sorry very much" to "I'm ever so sorry:" Acquisitional patterns in L2 apologies by Catalan learners of English. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(2), 287-315.
Salazar Campillo, P. (2007). Examining mitigation in requests: A focus on transcripts in ELT coursebooks. In Alcon Solar and Safont Jorda (Eds.), Intercultural language use and language learning (pp. 207-222). Dordrecht (Netherland): Springer.
Schauer, G. A. (2007). Finding the right words in the study abroad context: The development of German learners’ use of external modifiers in English. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(2), 193-220.
Scollon, R., & Scollon W. S. (2001). Intercultural communication: A discourse approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tagushi, N. (2006). Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English. Journal of Pragmatics, 16(4), 513-533.
Takahashi, S., & Beebe. L. (1987).The development of pragmatic competence by Japanese learners of English. Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Journal, 8, 131-155.
Takahashi, S. (2000).Transfer in interlanguage pragmatics: New research agenda. Studies in Language and Culture, 11, 109-128.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4, 91-112.
Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics. Requests, complaints and apologies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Usó-Juan, E. (2007). The presentation and practice of the communicative act of requesting in textbooks: Focusing on modifiers. In Alcon Solar and Safont Jorda (Eds.), Intercultural language use and language learning (pp. 41-57). Dordrecht (Netherland): Springer.
Vellenga, H. (2004). Learning pragmatics from ESL and EFL textbooks: How likely? TESL-EJ, 8(2), 1-17.
Wierzbicka, A. (1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Woodfield, H., & Economidou-Kogetsidis, M. (2010). ‘I just need more time’: A study of native and non-native students’ requests to faculty for an extension. Multilingua, 29, 77-118.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
ISSN 1305-578X (Online)
Copyright © 2005-2022 by Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies