An Analysis of Iranian EFL Learners’ English Written Requestive E-mails

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Zarepour ◽  
Masoumeh Imani Saidloo
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Mail ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Institutional Communication ◽  
Iranian Students ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Pattern Coding

Electronic mail is one of the widely used medium for institutional communication particularly in academic institutions. The main focus of this study was determining requesting strategies and mitigating elements used by the Iranians’ EFL learners in English written requestive e-mails to their professors. This study also determined opening and closing strategies and supportive moves. To this aim, 61 e-mail were collected using DCT and analyzed by means of CCSARP (Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Pattern) coding scheme. The results showed that Iranian students, under the effect of L1 norms, used more direct strategies and to soften the force of requests they tended to use mitigating elements and pre-request supportive moves. It had been concluded that Iranian EFL students have lack of pragmatic knowledge; therefore, it is necessary to make them aware of norms of requestive e-mails written by English native speakers.

scholarly journals The Effects of Explicit/Implicit Instructions on the Development of Advanced EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Knowledge of English: Apology Speech Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Pasand Shark
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Real Life Situation ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

The current study explored the effects of explicit and implicit instructions on the development of advanced EFL learners’ pragmatic knowledge in terms of apology speech act. A total of 10 English native speakers and 40 advanced EFL students participated in this study. The Iraqi Kurdish EFL learners were selected from grade 12 in British International School in Erbil/ Iraq and their level was determined by Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) proficiency test. These 40 participants were divided randomly into two; explicit group (EG) and implicit group (IG) Later, they were provided a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT) as a pre-test, which consisted of 10 different situations of apology and were based on the participants’ real-life situation, each situation included 3 options and only one answer could be selected which considered to be the most appropriate answer to them. The aim was to show if there were any significant differences between EG and IG. The English native speakers were given the same (MDCT) and were asked to choose the most appropriate answers. After the treatment, (EG) and (IG) were provided the same MDCT as a post-test. The findings revealed that the results of EG and IG were significant and they showed improvements after the treatment, and the EG outperformed the IG in post-test and delayed-test.

Politeness in power-asymmetrical e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Hee Kim ◽  
Hikyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Employee Groups ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
American Employees ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies ◽  
E Mail

AbstractPrevious research on politeness tends to examine the inadequacy of non-native speakers’ pragmatic knowledge. In this study, we broaden our focus to the influence of different lingua-cultural values on politeness in simulated workplace e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees. By exploring differential perceptions towards power-asymmetry, this study investigates how and why politeness strategies are realized similarly and/or differently in and around the speech acts of requests in English. By quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the elicited data, the study suggests that lingua-cultural values influenced perception and production in power-asymmetrical situations. Findings reveal that power is a more prominent factor than familiarity for Korean employees, but to a lesser extent for American employees when doing politeness in e-mail requests. Results showed that the underlying reasons for formulating requests differed not only between Korean and American employees but also between two Korean employee groups that differed according to depth of intercultural experience. This study contributes to recent research strands in intercultural pragmatics and communication by arguing that pragmatic strategies to express politeness in relation to power are culture specific with existing and newly reconstructed lingua-cultural values coming into play.

scholarly journals Pedagogical Practices to Aid Korean EFL Learners with Language Anxiety

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 200-206
Author(s):  
Jan Marie Catbagan ◽  
Adam Agbunag ◽  
Ian Atijera ◽  
Alexea Apigo ◽  
Jean Alecs Banaticla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Special Science ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Korean Efl Learners

In current research on EFL, a great deal of effort has been devoted to establishing the role of psychological factors in the success or failure of the learners. Among these psychological factors are affective factors with “anxiety” as one of their sub-categories. EFL students often have difficulty interacting with native speakers in school. Some EFL students avoid interactions with native speakers because of their frustration or embarrassment at their poor English. Teachers are best placed to engage in effective instructional practices when they can competently select and use high-quality resources and/or approaches that have been built around a strong evidence base. Conventionally, the objective of this descriptive study is to determine the Pedagogical Practices to Aid Korean EFL Learners with Language Anxiety of LCSSHS, how and why their teaching strategies help to aid them with their studies. The researchers floated questionnaires to the Korean Students of Lorma Colleges Special Science High School from Grade 7 to 4th year High School. The questionnaire used is a standardized test by Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J (1986). Results indicated that lack of sufficient input for learning FL/L2 in the environment where the target language is not the first language, and lack of opportunities to frequently process the limited (sometimes filled with errors) input, can cause language anxiety at the output (speaking) stage for ESL/EFL learners. The researchers also formulated lists of pedagogies that will serve as tools to help not only the teachers but also the Korean EFL learners in their studies.

scholarly journals The correlation between cognitive styles and written corrective feedback preferences among Iranian and Turkish EFL learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 669-685
Author(s):  
Parivash Jamali Kivi ◽  
Ronald M. Hernández ◽  
Jorge Luis Escalante Flores ◽  
Doris Fuster-Guillén
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Cognitive Styles ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Iranian Students

This study aimed at finding the correlation between Iranian and Turkish EFL learners’ cognitive styles and their preferences for different WCF types. Sixty out of seventy-five EFL students at the intermediate level in two contexts (Iran and Turkey) were selected through the Oxford Placement Test. There were two instruments in this research: The Learning Styles Questionnaire, and CF questionnaire. The researcher gave detailed instructions on how to complete the surveys. The findings demonstrated that there was a correlation between EFL students’ cognitive styles and their WCF preferences in both Iran and Turkey contexts. The second research question results indicated that there was a relationship between learners’ cognitive styles and their preferences for different types of errors to be corrected. The results of the third research question showed that the correlation between Iranian students’ cognitive styles and their preferences for different CF frequencies was not significant. The last research question results showed that the correlation between Turkish students’ cognitive styles and their preferences for different CF frequencies was not significant.   Keywords: Cognitive Styles – EFL Learners – Preferences – Written Corrective Feedback.

scholarly journals Iranian EFL Learners’ Realization of Condolence Speech Act: An Interlanguage Pragmatics Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Maryam Sharif ◽  
Lotfollah Yarmohammadi ◽  
Firooz Sadighi ◽  
Mortaza Yamini ◽  
Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Addition Level

This study was an attempt to compare and contrast the realization patterns of condolence speech act in English and Persian and to examine Iranian EFL learners’ realization of this speech act in English. The study was further interested in investigating whether Iranian EFL learners’ realization of condolence speech act is associated with their level of L2 proficiency. To this end, a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was administered to 82 undergraduate Iranian EFL students in English. The participants were divided into three levels of language proficiency (elementary level, intermediate level, and advanced level) based on their scores on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). For baseline comparisons, the EFL learners also received the translated version of the same DCT in Persian, and the English DCT was administered to 20 native speakers (NSs) of American English. The data were analyzed based on Elwood’s (2004) coding scheme. The results revealed that English and Persian NSs and Iranian EFL learners had access to the same condolence strategies, yet they differed in the semantic formulas, content, or forms they adopted to formulize their condolence expressions. In addition, level of L2 proficiency was found to be associated with Iranian EFL learners’ realization of condolence speech act. 

Pragmatic Knowledge and Its Reflection in ESP Textbooks: The Case of Unauthentic Textbooks

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 701
Author(s):  
Zohre G. Shooshtari ◽  
Anahita Bordbar ◽  
Reza Banari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
Academic Interests ◽  
Knowledge Incorporation

Textbooks play a crucial role in language teaching particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms since they are considered as an important and primary source of linguistic input. EFL textbooks are expected to develop EFL students’ knowledge, no difference in linguistic or pragmatic competences (Gholami & Mahboobrezaei, 2011). As some scholars believed pragmatics is the fifth skill in language learning, then, it is essential to incorporate it like an integral component of EFL textbooks. However, there exists little knowledge on how well pragmatic perspectives of language are taken into consideration in expanding EFL textbooks generally and Iranian English for specific purposes (ESP) textbooks particularly. In fact, ESP textbooks are written by non-native authors and are considered as unauthentic textbooks. This study, therefore, attempted to explore pragmatic knowledge incorporation into ESP textbooks that have been published for computer engineers by SAMT publication as university textbooks. This study was also an attempt to investigate the frequency and rate of ‘politeness principle’ and ‘irony principle’ from the subcategories of inter-personal rhetoric as the umbrella term in two textbooks in the field of psychology. Book A was an authentic book written by natives for native speakers; however, book B was written by Iranians writers for Iranian university students (SAMT book). This paper then presented some results abstracted from the whole research project. EFL teachers and researchers whose professional and academic interests lie in syllabus design and ESP field may benefit from the findings of the study.

scholarly journals Kajian Kesantunan dalam E-Mail Permohonan yang Ditulis oleh Penutur Jepang dan Pembelajar Indonesia

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Hani Wahyuningtias
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Electronic Mail ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Linguistic Politeness ◽  
E Mail

Nowadays electronic mail (e-mail) is a communication tool that is often used in everyday life. One of the utilizations of e-mail is used in practical purposes such as making a request. This paper provided views on linguistic politeness in submitting an e-mail containing the request based on e-mail data written by native speakers of Japanese (J) and the Indonesian Japanese language learners (IJL). The data was analyzed using the theory of politeness expressed by Brown and Levinson. This paper focused on the strategy that what more likely was to be used by J and IJL in the expression of request. In the final part, it concluded the view about what should be considered in connection with the linguistic politeness in Japanese e-mail containing request. It was intended for learners of foreign language, especially Indonesian people, to know the limitation of politeness, so that IJL will not repeat the same mistakes in the future.

scholarly journals Interlanguage Pragmatics of Non-Institutional Criticism: A Study of Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (42) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Nassier A. G. Al-Zubaidi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Contextual Variables ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Context Of Learning ◽  
Strategy Types ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

Criticism is inherently impolite and a face-threatening act generally leading to conflicts among interlocutors. It is equally challenging for both native and non-native speakers, and needs pre-planning before performing it. The current research examines the production of non-institutional criticism by Iraqi EFL university learners and American native speakers. More specifically, it explores to what extent Iraqi EFL learners and American native speakers vary in (i) performing criticism, (ii) mitigating criticism, and (iii) their pragmatic choices according to the contextual variables of power and distance. To collect data, a discourse-completion task was used to elicit written data from 20 Iraqi EFL learners and 20 American native speakers. Findings revealed that though both groups regularly used all strategy types, Iraqi EFL learners criticized differently from American speakers. When expressing criticism, Iraqi learners tended to be indirect whereas American speakers tended to be direct. In mitigating their criticism, Iraqi learners were significantly different from American speakers in their use of internal and external modifiers. Furthermore, both groups substantially varied their pragmatic choices according to context. The differences in their pragmatic performance could be attributed to a number of interplaying factors such as EFL learners’ limited linguistic and pragmatic knowledge, the context of learning and L1 pragmatic transfer. Finally, a number of conclusions and pedagogical implications are presented.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Analysis of TESOL EFL Students’ Use of Logical Connectors in Spoken English

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 625
Author(s):  
Hao Wu
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
The Past ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Logical Connectors

In the past several decades, the compilation of learner corpora and the application of corpus linguistics have been extensively employed to improve learners’ use of logical connectors. However, the use of logical connectors in EFL learners’ spoken discourse remains under-researched. To investigate this field, the researcher built an EFL TESOL student spoken English corpus consisting of 27 spoken English samples of 12,241 words in total. Then, this study adopts corpus-based contrastive analysis and computer-aided error analysis to compare the tokens and the frequencies of the logical connectors with those in the native spoken English corpus of MICASE. Finally, underuse, overuse, and misuse in the TESOL student corpus were exemplified and explained.Findings reveal that the TESOL students tended to use a smaller set of logical connectors but used them more frequently than the English native speakers. Additive coordinating conjunctions such as and, so, and but were the most overused logical connectors. Moreover, the underuse of if, when, so that, and though shows that adverbial clauses were less frequently employed in their spoken discourse. A detailed explanation and pedagogical implications are also listed to help learners understand how to contextualize logical connectors at both syntactic and discourse level.

EFL Students’ English Pragmatic Knowledge: Evidence from University of Gulian

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 2175
Author(s):  
Sahar Moradi ◽  
Maryam Danaye Tous ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

This study aimed to investigate the extent of Iranian EFL students’ pragmatic knowledge, and if there were any significant differences among EFL learners at different years of study (the freshmen, the sophomores, and the seniors) on this knowledge. To this end, 78 EFL students of University of Guilan (Rasht-Iran) were tested using a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT), (Birjandi & Rezaei, 2010). The results showed that, their extent of pragmatic knowledge wasnot at satisfying level. Also, the results showed that there were significant differences between the freshmen and seniors in this regard.

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