The development of comprehension in interlanguage pragmatics

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misty Cook ◽  
Anthony J. Liddicoat
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Pragmatic Performance

Abstract In the past, research in interlanguage pragmatics has primarily explained the differences between native speakers’ (NS) and non-native speakers’ (NNS) pragmatic performance based on cross-cultural and linguistic differences. Very few researchers have considered learners’ pragmatic performance based on second language comprehension. In this study, we will examine learners’ pragmatic performance using request strategies. The results of this study reveal that there is a proficiency effect for interpreting request speech acts at different levels of directness. We propose that learners’ processing strategies and capacities are important factors to consider when examining learners’ pragmatic performance.

Cross-linguistic differences and their impact on L2 sentence processing

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARRIE N. JACKSON ◽  
PAOLA E. DUSSIAS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Morphosyntactic Feature

Using a self-paced reading task, the present study investigates how highly proficient second language (L2) speakers of German with English as their native language process unambiguous wh-subject-extractions and wh-object-extractions in German. Previous monolingual research has shown that English and German exhibit different processing preferences for the type of wh-question under investigation, due in part to the robust case-marking system in German – a morphosyntactic feature that is largely absent in English (e.g., Juffs and Harrington, 1995; Fanselow, Kliegl and Schlesewsky 1999; Meng and Bader, 2000; Juffs, 2005). The results revealed that the L2 German speakers utilized case-marking information and exhibited a subject-preference similar to German native speakers. These findings are discussed in light of relevant research regarding the ability of L2 speakers to adopt native-like processing strategies in their L2.

scholarly journals INVESTIGATING AGE–BASED COMPLIMENTS IN PERSIAN

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
Vahid Shahidi Pour ◽  
Gholam Reza Zarei
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
Effect Of Age ◽  
Future Reference

The present study was an attempt to investigate differences in the use of compliments in Persian across age as a social variable. Data was gathered through a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) with imaginary situations in which 200 native Persian speakers were asked to put themselves in those situations and give compliments. The results indicated that the most frequently used compliment strategies by Persian native speakers were explicit unbound semantic formula and non-compliment strategies. However, the participants used 'other' strategies, future reference, contrast, and request strategies the least. The results also suggested the effect of age on the distribution of compliments. While the younger participants preferred non-compliment strategies the most, the older participants preferred explicit unbound semantic formula strategies the most. However, despite minor differences, all age-groups rarely tended to use future reference, contrast, request, and 'other' strategies. The results cashed light on the cultural and socio-cultural factors affecting the way people offer compliments.Keywords: Pragmatic competence, Speech acts, Compliments, Discourse Completion Task (DCT), Social variables

Capturing the variation in language experience to understand language processing and learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-109
Author(s):  
Judith F. Kroll ◽  
Andrea Takahesu Tabori ◽  
Christian Navarro-Torres
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Marked Change ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Early Research ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
The Past

Abstract A goal of early research on language processing was to characterize what is universal about language. Much of the past research focused on native speakers because the native language has been considered as providing privileged truths about acquisition, comprehension, and production. Populations or circumstances that deviated from these idealized norms were of interest but not regarded as essential to our understanding of language. In the past two decades, there has been a marked change in our understanding of how variation in language experience may inform the central and enduring questions about language. There is now evidence for significant plasticity in language learning beyond early childhood, and variation in language experience has been shown to influence both language learning and processing. In this paper, we feature what we take to be the most exciting recent new discoveries suggesting that variation in language experience provides a lens into the linguistic, cognitive, and neural mechanisms that enable language processing.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Perspectives on Understanding Strangers

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Nikolett Várhegyi ◽  
Péter Furkó
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Mixed Strategies ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
English Major ◽  
Request Strategies

Abstract The present paper approaches the theme of “understanding strangers” through discussing some of the methodological issues in interlanguage pragmatics (ILP), with special reference to Hungarian-English Interlanguage (IL) requests. Written discourse completion tasks (WDCT) were used to collect data from 20 English major university students. The CCSARP Project’s 9-scale request strategies table proposed by Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989) was incorporated into the research, the proposed categories were extended by labels relating to mixed strategies and responses where no answers were provided. The structure of the paper is as follows: after a brief overview of the literature in the field of ILP with a special focus on WDCT, the validity of the methodology is highlighted through the discussion of issues relating to labelling/coding categories as well as interannotator (dis)agreements. By analysing and comparing utterances on the basis of our annotation output and validating the results with the aid of ReCal, we have confirmed that WDCT is a reliable and valid tool for testing ILP competence in speech acts performance.

scholarly journals Lithuanian and English request strategies and politeness

2009 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Inga Hilbig
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Linguistic Group ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Indirect Requests ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
University Undergraduates ◽  
Significant Attention

  Requests are among the most studied speech acts in the area of interactional pragmatics and linguistic politeness. Empirical studies have proliferated over the past decades; however, although requests in many Western languages, including English, have received significant attention, this paper is the very first attempt to explore request strategies in Lithuanian. The research is based on an assumption about three main universal directness levels in requests as well as on a distinction between positive (closeness, solidarity) and negative (distance, deference) politeness systems. The data has been collected by means of the Discourse Completion Test, which is an open-ended questionnaire with socially divergent situations to prompt requests. It was filled in by 100 Lithuanian university undergraduates and 100 English university undergraduates. The findings demonstrate that while both groups mostly opted for conventionally indirect requests (e.g. indirect questions about the hearer's ability or willingness to fulfil a request), the Lithuanian responses spread much wider along the directness-indirectness continuum, the respondents employing notably more direct (e.g. imperatives, explicit performatives) as well as a slightly larger number of non-conventionally indirect strategies (hints). Indirect structures do not necessarily convey politeness, just as blunt requests per se are not impolite. No linguistic group of people can be legitimately considered more or less polite than the other, but rather polite in their own socio-culturally acceptable way. Conventionally indirect requests are commonly associated with the negative positive politeness system, whereas direct requests with the positive politeness orientation. The results of the present investigation reveal that Lithuanians are more inclined towards positive politeness, but this is still to be confirmed by further research.

Disagreement Realizations: Some Methodological Concerns

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Hady Hamdan
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Communication Breakdowns

Interlanguage pragmatics is concerned with how nonnative speakers use and develop their L2 pragmatic competence (Kasper 1996: 145). In this context, realizations of face threatening speech acts that such speakers perform are examined and contrasted with those of native speakers of the same target language. This has been done with a view to minimizing communication breakdowns and developing a better mutual cross-cultural understanding. Yet, despite the large number of studies conducted in this field, only a few have manage to achieve their purpose. This is often the case due to some methodological flaws that characterize such studies. The current study sheds light on these methodological flaws so that future research yields more representative, credible and informative findings. In particular, the researcher provides a critique of the methodological perspectives adopted in contrastive cross-cultural research on disagreement realizations by reviewing eight studies that have examined disagreement strategies in English by speakers of different language backgrounds.

scholarly journals Sequence Organization of Requests among Australian English and Saudi Arabic Speakers: A Contrastive Study

Arabica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 761-784
Author(s):  
Saad Al-Gahtani
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Sequence Organization ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Saudi Arabic

Abstract Previous research on cross-cultural pragmatics has primarily focused on how native speakers of different languages perform speech acts in relation to politeness and directness. However, Gabriele Kasper (2006), among others, has called for adopting a more discursive approach rather than analyzing data according to the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (ccsarp) coding scheme. Therefore, this paper used Conversation Analysis for Interlanguage Pragmatics to investigate sequence organization of requests in Australian English and Saudi Arabic using role-play scenarios. It specifically examined pre-expansions, pre-pres, accounts in request turn, insert-expansions, and post-expansions, and the extent to which the social variable power affects them. The results showed that both languages shared some regularities in aspects of sequence organization but differed in others. Power influenced the production of some regularities in both languages.

Exploring the Boundaries of the Number–Temporal Order Association

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Ganor-Stern
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Numerical Comparison ◽  
Negative Number ◽  
Comparison Task ◽  
Negative Numbers ◽  
The Past

Past research has shown that numbers are associated with order in time such that performance in a numerical comparison task is enhanced when number pairs appear in ascending order, when the larger number follows the smaller one. This was found in the past for the integers 1–9 ( Ben-Meir, Ganor-Stern, & Tzelgov, 2013 ; Müller & Schwarz, 2008 ). In the present study we explored whether the advantage for processing numbers in ascending order exists also for fractions and negative numbers. The results demonstrate this advantage for fraction pairs and for integer-fraction pairs. However, the opposite advantage for descending order was found for negative numbers and for positive-negative number pairs. These findings are interpreted in the context of embodied cognition approaches and current theories on the mental representation of fractions and negative numbers.

Salvaging the Mother Tongue in Exile

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Tomás Espino Barrera
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Progressive Loss ◽  
First Language Attrition ◽  
Lost In Translation ◽  
Deliberate Effort ◽  
Deep Sense

The dramatic increase in the number of exiles and refugees in the past 100 years has generated a substantial amount of literature written in a second language as well as a heightened sensibility towards the progressive loss of fluency in the mother tongue. Confronted by what modern linguistics has termed ‘first-language attrition’, the writings of numerous exilic translingual authors exhibit a deep sense of trauma which is often expressed through metaphors of illness and death. At the same time, most of these writers make a deliberate effort to preserve what is left from the mother tongue by attempting to increase their exposure to poems, dictionaries or native speakers of the ‘dying’ language. The present paper examines a range of attitudes towards translingualism and first language attrition through the testimonies of several exilic authors and thinkers from different countries (Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory, Hannah Arendt's interviews, Jorge Semprún's Quel beau dimanche! and Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez, and Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation, among others). Special attention will be paid to the historical frameworks that encourage most of their salvaging operations by infusing the mother tongue with categories of affect and kinship.

EVALD – a Pioneer Application for Automated Essay Scoring in Czech

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Kateřina Rysová ◽  
Magdaléna Rysová ◽  
Michal Novák ◽  
Jiří Mírovský ◽  
Eva Hajičová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Automated Essay Scoring ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Supervised Training ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Essay Scoring

Abstract In the paper, we present EVALD applications (Evaluator of Discourse) for automated essay scoring. EVALD is the first tool of this type for Czech. It evaluates texts written by both native and non-native speakers of Czech. We describe first the history and the present in the automatic essay scoring, which is illustrated by examples of systems for other languages, mainly for English. Then we focus on the methodology of creating the EVALD applications and describe datasets used for testing as well as supervised training that EVALD builds on. Furthermore, we analyze in detail a sample of newly acquired language data – texts written by non-native speakers reaching the threshold level of the Czech language acquisition required e.g. for the permanent residence in the Czech Republic – and we focus on linguistic differences between the available text levels. We present the feature set used by EVALD and – based on the analysis – we extend it with new spelling features. Finally, we evaluate the overall performance of various variants of EVALD and provide the analysis of collected results.

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