scholarly journals A Pragmatic Analysis of Requests in Irish English and Russian

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 121-137
Author(s):  
Martina Maria McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Units Of Analysis ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Request Strategies

This study focuses on contrastive pragmatics in the realization of the speech act of requests in Irish English and Russian in conversational and institutional settings. A quali-quantitative analysis was conducted to investigate how each language differs in realizing requests in each setting and to identify commonalities and differences between them. An original ten-question written discourse completion task (WDCT) was completed by 30 Irish English and 30 Russian native speakers, which generated data of 600 responses. Five units of analysis were coded, and descriptive statistics were used for comparison. Additionally, paradigms concerning politeness theories were used to explain marked differences between the request strategies of the test groups. Overall, the results indicated that Russian speakers make a clear distinction between conversational and institutional settings whereas Irish English speakers generally do not. In addition, high levels of social informality were evidenced by the Irish English speakers across settings while Russian speakers tended to enact identity in line with the context.

Development of sensitivity to phonological context in learning to spell in English

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadya Dich
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Word ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Word Spelling ◽  
L1 And L2

The study attempts to investigate factors underlying the development of spellers’ sensitivity to phonological context in English. Native English speakers and Russian speakers of English as a second language (ESL) were tested on their ability to use information about the coda to predict the spelling of vowels in English monosyllabic nonwords. In addition, the study assessed the participants’ spelling proficiency as their ability to correctly spell commonly misspelled words (Russian participants were assessed in both Russian and English). Both native and non-native English speakers were found to rely on the information about the coda when spelling vowels in nonwords. In both native and non-native speakers, context sensitivity was predicted by English word spelling; in Russian ESL speakers this relationship was mediated by English proficiency. L1 spelling proficiency did not facilitate L2 context sensitivity in Russian speakers. The results speak against a common factor underlying different aspects of spelling proficiency in L1 and L2 and in favor of the idea that spelling competence comprises different skills in different languages.

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

Grammar and pragmatics

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 137-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Håkansson ◽  
Catrin Elisabeth Norrby
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
High Level

This paper compares grammatical and pragmatic development in foreign language learners of Swedish. For the analysis of grammatical proficiency, data from translation tasks and essays were tested against the stage model proposed in Processability Theory, which identifies five stages of morpho-syntactic development for Swedish (Pienemann 1998, Pienemann and Håkansson 1999). For the pragmatic analysis a gap-fill task was used, inspired by the discourse completion task (Blum-Kulka 1982, Kasper and Roever 2005), but taking into consideration sequential aspects of the interaction. All tasks were piloted with a control group of Swedish native speakers. The results indicate a relationship between native-like pragmatic command and a high level of morpho-syntactic processability. The findings suggest that students whose grammatical processing capacity is restricted to lower levels find it difficult to contextualise their utterances in a pragmatically appropriate way.

scholarly journals Influence of Social Power and Distance on Request Strategies in Saudi Arabic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Jalal Almathkuri
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
Saudi Arabic ◽  
The Impact

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of social power and distance on the strategies involved in performing the speech act of request by native speakers of Saudi Arabic. The participants of this study are 26 males and 8 females; all are undergraduate students enrolled in different disciplines at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. Data for this study was collected through the use of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT). The results revealed that the direct strategy is the most preferred strategy employed in making requests by Saudi Arabic native speakers and the nonconventional indirect strategy is the least strategy. It is hoped that this study will facilitate the acquisition of Saudi Arabic pragmatics by non-native speakers in a way to eliminate the miscommunications they may encounter in relation to the sociocultural norms. 

scholarly journals PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF THE YEMENI EFL LEARNERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Qasem H. Al-Khadhmi ◽  
Mirza M. B. ◽  
Abdullah Ali Al-Eryani
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Refusal Strategies ◽  
Loading Scheme

<p>The present study aimed at investigating the pragmatic competence of the Yemeni Non-Native Speakers of English (YNNSs) through examining their performance in the speech act of refusals. The study followed the qualitative comparative analytic approach. For the purpose of attaining the required data for this study, forty (YNNSs) and forty American Native Speakers (ANSs) of English were involved. The questionnaire used for collecting data from the participants was a written Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which was developed by Beebe et el. (1990), employed for collecting the data related to the use of refusal strategies by the two groups of participants in English. The data collected from DCT was analyzed by using a loading scheme adapted from Beebe et al. (1990). This study revealed that the Yemeni NNSs were not pragmatically competent enough in English. In spite of the similarity between the two groups in their use of refusal strategies, the differences between them were more apparent. The total number of strategies used by the American NSs was almost double those used by the Yemeni NNSs in all refusal situations. This study recommends that instructors should design contextualized, task-based, oral activities and integrating the intercultural aspects of language into ELT textbooks. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0895/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals A Comparative Study: Australian English and Indonesian Complimenting Behaviours

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Atik Yuliyani
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
English Education ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
University Student ◽  
Response Type ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Australian English

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the similarities and differences between Australian English and Indonesian speakers on paying compliments. A total of 50 university-student informants participated in the study: 25 Indonesian native speakers and 25 Australian English native speakers. The data were collected through a written Discourse Completion Task (DCT) which consists of eight situational settings. The results showed some similarities and differences between Australian English and Indonesian speakers on paying compliment. The similarities included the fact that ability was the most frequently preferred topic for both Indonesians and Australians, both Indonesians and Australians were more likely to give explicit verbal compliment, and compliments occurred mostly from males to females. The differences were: firstly, Australians used implicit compliment as their second preference, while Indonesians used ‘no-response’ type. Secondly, Australian females gave more explicit verbal compliment than the males did, whereas Indonesian females and males gave almost equal amount of explicit verbal compliment. Thirdly, the second most frequent positive semantic carriers were adverbs in Indonesian, but verbs in Australian English. ABSTRAK Penelitian ini menyelidiki persamaan dan perbedaan antara Australia dan Indonesia dalam memberikan pujian. Sebanyak lima puluh mahasiswa yang terdiri dari 25 mahasiswa Australia dan 25 mahasiswa Indonesia terlibat dalam penelitian ini sebagai informan. Data dikumpulkan melalui instrument tertulis (DCT) yang terdiri dari delapan seting. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan beberapa persamaan dan perbedaan antara Australia dan Indonesia dalam memberikan pujian. Persamaannya meliputi kemampuan (ability) menjadi topik yang paling disukai oleh keduanya, baik Indonesia dan Australia lebih senang memberikan pujian lisan secara eksplisit, dan pujian terjadi sebagian besar dari laki-laki ke perempuan. Adapun perbedaannya antara lain: pertama, Australia menggunakan pujian implicit sebagai preferensi kedua sementara Indonesia menggunakan tipe ‘no response’. Kedua, wanita Australia memberi pujian lisan secara eksplisit lebih daripada laki-laki lakukan, sedangkan wanita dan pria Indonesia memberi jumlah yang hampir sama dari pujian lisan eksplisit. Ketiga, kata keterangan (adverbs) menjadi ungkapan semantik positif kedua yang digunakan Indonesia, sedangkan Australia menggunakan kata kerja (verbs) sebagai ungkapan semantik positif kedua. How to Cite: Yuliani, A. (2016). A Comparative Study: Australian English and Indonesian Complimenting Behaviours. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 3(1), 15-28. doi:10.15408/ijee.v3i1.3940 Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v3i1.3940

scholarly journals Measuring Vowel Duration Variability in Native English Speakers and Polish Learners

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Porzuczek
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Length Variation ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Statistical Measures ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
The Difference

This paper presents a set of simple statistical measures that illustrate the difference between native English speakers and Polish learners of English in varying the length of vocalic segments in read speech. Relative vowel duration and vowel length variation are widely used as basic criteria for establishing rhythmic differences between languages and dialects of a language. The parameter of vocalic duration is employed in popular measures such as ΔV (Ramus et al. 1999), VarcoV (Dellwo 2006, White and Mattys 2007), and PVI (Low et al. 2000, Grabe and Low 2002). Apart from rhythm studies, the processing of data concerning vowel duration can be used to establish the level of discrepancy between native speech and learner speech in investigating other temporal aspects of FL pronunciation, such as tense-lax vowel distinction, accentual lengthening or the degree of unstressed vowel reduction, which are often pointed out as serious problems in the acquisition of English pronunciation by Polish learners. Using descriptive statistics (relations between personal mean vowel duration and standard deviation), the author calculates several indices that demonstrate individual learners' (13 subjects) scores in relation to the native speakers' (12 subjects) score ranges. In some tested aspects, the results of the two groups of speakers are almost cleanly separated, which suggests not only the existence of specific didactic problems but also their actual scale.

A Tale of four measures of pragmatic knowledge in an EFL institutional context

Pragmatics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Rasoul Mohammad Hosseinpur ◽  
Reza Bagheri Nevisi ◽  
Abdolreza Lowni
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Context ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Efficient Measure ◽  
L2 Pragmatics ◽  
Natural Data ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
Pragmatic Assessment ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
Compare And Contrast

Abstract The upsurge of interest in L2 pragmatics studies has coincided with a growing interest in pragmatic assessment. Employing the most efficient measure of pragmatics has led many researchers to examine the existing measures to pinpoint the most useful ones. This study was an attempt to compare and contrast Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT), Oral Discourse Completion Task (ODCT), and Role-play with Natural methodology in an EFL institutional context to see which measure approximated Natural methodology. To this end, data (requests) were collected from 27 intermediate–level Iranian EFL learners in a natural classroom institutional context over 15 weeks, and then the WDCTs, ODCTs, and Role-plays with the same contextual features were selected to elicit the intended data. The participants’ requests were transcribed and analyzed in terms of Schauer’s (2009) request head act strategy taxonomy and its internal and external modification devices. The results of Binominal tests indicated that, in spite of some minor similarities, none of the elicitation measures could approximate the natural data. The participants’ employment of direct, non-conventionally indirect request strategies, and internal and external modification devices were more conspicuous in the WDCTs, ODCTs, and Role-plays than those in the Natural methodology. The study implies that data collection methods should be selected based on researchers’ objectives and research questions.

FEELINGS VS EMOTIONS: CATEGORISATION OF EMOTIONAL SPHERE BY RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKERS (THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (102) ◽  
pp. 133-142
Author(s):  
LARISA A. PIOTROVSKAYA
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Russian Speakers

The article compares reference of emotion terms (56 Russian and 64 English words), such as admiration , abhorrence , anger , fear , malice , by adult Russian and English native speakers (30 subjects in each group) to basic psychological categories, namely “feelings” and “emotions”. The analysis of classification experiment has revealed that there are critical differences between two groups. Russian speakers draw a distinction between two notions, i. e. “emotion” and “feeling”, far more so than English ones, whereas for English speakers the general word denoting different emotional phenomena is feeling .

scholarly journals «Scusi, guardi che stavo aspettando io per il parcheggio». Protestare in una prospettiva cross-culturale

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoriya Trubnikova
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Short Description ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Completion Task

The purpose of this article is to investigate complaint strategies used by Italian and Russian speakers as well as interlanguage complaints of Russians in an Italian L2 context. The sample of the study consists of 23 subjects from each group. The data for the research were elicited by means of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) involving five stimuli with a short description of a situation which codifies basic information on social variables. This research attempts to revisit the concept of appropriateness and has important implications for non-native speakers who are learning about speech acts.

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