scholarly journals Evaluating EFL University Learners’ Pragmatic Competence: Brown and Levinson’s Negative Politeness Strategies as a Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-381
Author(s):  
Ali Yousif Mohammad ◽  
Hussein Ali Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
University Life ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Negative Face

ABSRACT          Pragmatic competence forms a basic pillar in learning and teaching   the communicative use of a foreign language (FL). Evaluating the FL pragmatic knowledge is a challenging and complex area of language testing. Far from the grammatical content of language, the current study aims to evaluate EFL learners' pragmatic competence in terms of communicating the linguistic expressions of negative politeness. Accordingly, it investigates EFL university learners’ ability to show social distance and realize power relations towards addressees. The study also presents the negative politeness strategies on the basis of Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory.             It is hypothesized that learners are pragmatically unaware of showing negative face towards addressees. It is further assumed that learners show tendency to go on record without redressive action, which often threatens addressees’ negative face. Added to that, learners are not aware of the appropriate use of politeness strategies followed according to the English culture. To investigate this, a Discourse Completion Test consisting of hypothetical situations that are familiar to learners' university life has been formulated.          The study concludes that learners experience pragmatic failures while engaging in situations where there is a need to show negative face, and utter direct speech acts frequently. In addition, learners do not distinguish between the appropriate politeness strategies (positive, negative and off record) as far as the cultural orientation of the English language is concerned. They further disregard the appropriate use of address forms that constitute a paramount aspect of negative politeness.

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF REFUSAL EXPRESSIONS IN JAPANESE AND BAHASA AT WORKPLACE

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Maria Gustini
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Age Range

This article examines Contrastive Analysis of Refusal in Indonesian language and Japanese language. Up to now, there have been no contrastive researchs which compare refusal speech acts within Indonesian language and Japanese language, focused on working situations. This article reports on a study to investigate differences and similarities in the politeness strategies of refusals between Japanese language (JS) and Indonesian language (IS). This study employed politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987). Therefore the participants of this research were Indonesian and Japanese who currently work in company, school, etc. This research used descriptive method and collecting data using DCT (Discourse Completion Test) in Indonesian and Japanese. Therefore, the research subjects were those who already worked with the age-range from 22 to 50 years. 40 native speakers of Indonesian (IS) and 40 native speakers of Japanese (JS) participated in this study. All participants were asked to fill out a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) which written in the form role-play questionaire, consisting of 3 situations. DCT situations were categorized based on power and familiarity/social distance between speaker and hearer. Results are as follows: (1) JS and IS using apology, reason, fuka, and requeirment in refusal act. (2) IS explain reason clearly in refusal act. Other hand JS using aimai reason. (3) JS used expressions of apology appropriately according to their power (hierarchical position), while IS made appropriate use of these expressions according to relative social distance. (4) IS tend to using requeirement in each refusal act.

scholarly journals Pronouns, Address Forms and Politeness Strategies in Odia

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Kalyanamalini SAHOO
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Linguistic Usage

This study discusses how various politeness strategies are implemented linguistically and how linguistic usage is related to social and contextual factors in the Indic language Odia. The study extends the validity of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1978) with reference to Odia speech-patterns and shows that Odia usage of politeness would be more differentiated according to the social relationship and gender than the content of the message.  In Brown and Levinson’s model, individual speech acts are considered to be inherently polite or impolite.  However, in Odia, it is found that communities of practice, rather than individuals, determine whether speech acts are considered polite or impolite. Thus, politeness should be considered as a set of strategies or practices set by particular groups or communities of practice as a socially constructed norm for themselves.

scholarly journals A Linguistic Landscape Study of Signage on Nimmanhemin Road, A Lanna Chiang Mai Chill-Out Street

MANUSYA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiwahporn Thongtong
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Chiang Mai ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Thai English

This study investigates how the linguistic landscape both creates and reflects a tourist space on language choices in creating signs on Nimmanhemin Road in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In addition, the study explores what linguistic devices are used in the creation of signs on Nimmanhemin Road. Sign data are collected from both sides of Nimanhaemin Road. Every sign in front of stores was photographed and analyzed in terms of language choices and linguistic devices. The study reveals that tourism in Chiang Mai has influences on language choices in sign creation. Monolingual, bilingual and trilingual signs can be found on Nimmanhemin Road, normally written in Thai, English and / or Chinese. In terms of linguistic strategies, transliteration, word formation, lexical relations, speech acts and politeness strategies are demonstrated in my findings. The study has both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it challenges commonly held notions of bilingual organization of information and language prominence. Practically, the study has pedagogical applications and the study findings can be used for English language instruction.

Realization of Speech Act of Permission by Kurdish EFL University Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-30
Author(s):  
Yaseen Alzeebaree
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Private University ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
State Universities ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Convenience Sampling

This study aims to examine Kurdish EFL university students’ development of L2 pragmatic competence by investigating their performance of the speech acts of permission. The methodology of this study was a combined research method, which comprises a quantitative and a qualitative method (mixed method). Total of 97 participants were involved in this research study. 83 (33 males and 50 females) were from four state universities and one private university in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and 14 were native speakers of English. A discourse completion test (DCT) was used to elicit the required data from participants. The study used convenience sampling for the participants because both native and non-native participants were selected on the basis of their availability. The data were coded and analysed quantitatively in terms of overall strategy use and strategy patterns. The findings revealed that there were differences in the frequency and percentages of strategies and semantic formulae in performing the speech act. KEFLUS tended to use more direct and explicit. There were more politeness and implicitness in NSE' behaviours in performing the speech act, which might have resulted from the lack of pragmatic competence of KEFLUS.

scholarly journals Modals, Speech Acts and (Im)Politeness: Interactions in Shakespeare’s Plays

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minako Nakayasu
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Negative Face

ABSTRACT This paper accounts for how modals are interrelated with speech acts and (im)politeness, to offer a new perspective to the interactions in Shakespeare’s plays. A variety of strategies to save or attack the hearer’s positive or negative face are taken into account within the frameworks of Brown & Levinson (1987) and Culpeper (1996), and the interplay between these strategies is observed in relation to the modals. Furthermore, this study analyses how speech acts performed with the aid of modals are associated with (im)politeness strategies, based on the inventory of speech acts proposed by Nakayasu (2009). It has been shown that there are more strategies to save or attack the hearer’s positive face in Shakespeare which are employed with the use of modals. The analysis reinforces the proposal by Kopytko (1993, 1995) that social interactions in Shakespeare’s time were positive politenessoriented, going further to extend the analysis to impoliteness, and suggests the interrelated nature of modality, speech acts and (im)politeness.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Politeness Strategies of Disagreement: The Case of Students of English Education Study Program in one State Islamic University in Sumatera, Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-269
Author(s):  
Witria Windika
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
State University ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Written Test

The pupoposes of this study were (1) to find out the realizations of politeness strategies of disagreement by the sixth semester students of English Education students of Islamic State University in Sumatera, and (2) to figure out the most common types of politeness strategy used by them. The study employed qualitative research. The data were taken through a written test and Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The sample was taken by using cluster random sampling method which consisted of 12 male students and 12 female students. The study revealed that female and male English language learners experienced four types of politeness strategy: positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on-record politeness, and off-record politeness with negative politeness as the most frequent strategy used by female and male English language learners. The result of the study showed that negative politeness was dominant politeness strategy which had value of 63,33%. The second place was bald-on-record (23,33%), the third place was positive politeness  (11,67%), and the last one was off-record (1,67%). The conclusion of this study indicated that in expressing politeness strategy for disagreement, both female and male respondents tended to perform negative politeness strategy.

scholarly journals Discourse of discipline: Communicative strategies in coaches' speech

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Gordana Vekarić ◽  
Ivana Trbojević-Milošević
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Strategic Model ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Relationship Of

The great importance sport plays in modern society has resulted in analyses of many aspects of its social dynamics. The relationship of its main actors, in this case the coaches and athletes, was most often discussed form pedagogical, psychological and sociological stances and a relatively small number of studies referred to their communication, or rather its linguistic expression. The aim of this research was to describe the pragmatic mechanisms and the strategy of disciplining that coaches use when talking to athletes in two typical situations in sport: in training and at a competition. The research corpus, collected by a Discourse Completion Test, consists of authentic responses from 93 coaches of both genders. The corpus for analysis included 196 responses, categorised as clusters of speech acts which according to the strategic model could be categorised as examples of the disciplining strategy. Qualitative analysis provided an insight into the types of speech acts used in the analysed speech sequences, the functioning of politeness strategies used to mitigate the pressure on the interlocutors face, conversation implicatures and presuppositions which enable interpretation of the intended meaning that shapes coaches' discourse. The results of the analysis imply that coaches prefer using a more direct strategy in both observed situations, but also that by combining politeness strategies and indirectness they frequently disguise their communicative intentions, which most often refer to disciplining and requiring a change in the behaviour of the athlete. The conclusions we reached could be practically used in the education of coaches, by raising awareness of the importance of the aspects of linguistic production that would be appropriate in training and competitive situations, since the choice of linguistic strategies can improve the interaction of coaches and athletes.

scholarly journals Intercultural pragmatics in the Global Englishes context: Some implications for developing intercultural communicative competence

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-31
Author(s):  
Magdalena Sztencel
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Global Communication ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Intercultural Pragmatics

The prevalent use of English as a lingua franca raises questions about the consequences for the practice of English Language Teaching. This paper investigates some of the pedagogical implications from the perspective of intercultural pragmatics. I argue that developing politeness strategies is an important aspect of enhancing learners’ intercultural communicative competence. This is illustrated with the examples of speech acts such as requests, conditional threats and conditional promises. I draw attention to some fundamental misconceptions that may arise from an inadequate interpretation of cross-cultural findings, and argue that in order to establish which politeness strategies to use in the context of global communication, the focus of intercultural investigations needs to be shifted from studying lingua-cultural differences to studying lingua-cultural similarities.

A contrastive pragmatic study of politeness strategies in disagreement between native speakers of English and Chinese EFL learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu Yan
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Chinese Undergraduates

AbstractThis paper attempts to make a contrastive cross-cultural study of a special speech act— “disagreement.” Participants are 35 American undergraduates and 42 Chinese undergraduates respectively with the data eliciting technique—DCT (discourse completion test). Findings show that Chinese undergraduates tend to use different politeness strategies according to different social distance and social power while American undergraduates prefer to use positive politeness strategy most followed by negative politeness strategy, regardless of social distance and social power. The results of the study reveal cultural differences between the U.S. and China that lead to the distribution of diverse politeness strategies and also offer insights into what Chinese EFL learners are struggling with during their development of interlanguage pragmatic competence.

scholarly journals Gender’s Politeness Strategies of Making Requests and Giving Compliments in Classroom Setting Sociopragmatic Perspeective

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 765-777
Author(s):  
Rima Fitria Ningrum ◽  
Suharsono Suharsono ◽  
Suwono Suwono
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Classroom Setting ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Teachers ◽  
Preliminary Identification ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Difference Form ◽  
The Difference

This present study investigates the form of politeness strategies of making requests and giving compliments performed by different gender in a classroom setting, single teacher and single student, in sociopragmatic perspective. Particularly, this study aims to 1) describe the form of politeness strategies of making requests used by male and female teachers 2) describe the form of politeness strategies of giving compliments performed by male and female teachers, 3) describe the difference form of their politeness strategies of those 2 speech acts  and 4) evaluate the factors that may underlie the choice of their politeness strategies of those 2 speech acts in classroom setting. Therefore, the examples of the politeness strategies of 2 speech acts employed by distinct gender were provided in this study. To identify those politeness strategies, Brown and Levinson’s theory (1987) was used as a preliminary identification. In obtaining the data, video recording transcript and interview transcript are collected and then analyzed. The data were the utterances of 2 female and 2 male teachers in classroom setting. The findings show that female teachers tend to use negative politeness strategies more in making requests and both gender tend to use positive politeness strategies in giving compliments in the classroom setting. Their choices were underlied by their closeness to their participants which determined by the character of their participants, the time needed to get close to their participants, the interest of their participants and the topic discussed with their participants. This indicates that the teachers are aware of their pragmatic competence, yet, to create friendlier atmosphere both gender need to advance their ability in using other politeness strategies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document