scholarly journals Speech Acts across Cultures: A Comparative Study of Chinese and Pakistani Students’ Request and Politeness Strategies

sjesr ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Amina Shahzadi ◽  
Abdul Ghaffar Bhatti ◽  
Munir Khan
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
Esl Learners

The examines are the different request strategies in English used by Pakistani and Chinese students according to social distance and power of interlocutors. Data comprises students from Pakistan and China enrolled in an undergraduate program at International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan. Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper's (1989) taxonomy of request strategies is taken as a theoretical framework to compare the request speech act patterns of Pakistani and Chinese students. This study analyzed the request speech act in terms of head act strategies used by participants. Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) categorized the request speech act into three request strategies i.e. direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventional indirect strategies. The study identifies similarities between Pakistani ESL learners and Chinese EFL learners in making use of mood derivable as the preferred strategies for making requests in situations of different social distance, power, and familiarity between the interlocutors.

scholarly journals A systematic literature review: Apology and request strategies in English by Libyan university students

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 1058-1074
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abulqasem Mohammed Elasfar ◽  
Dr. Hema Rosheny Binti Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
University Students ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Strategy Method ◽  
Review Procedure ◽  
Request Strategies

Much research has been done in the realization of apology and request speech act but very few have explored this in the context of Arabic language. We perform a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) process in this paper to gather and analyze studies to identify the diverse apology and request strategies preferred by Arabic learners of English and the influence of culture and social distance on them. The strategies employed and the speech acts along with the native and foreign dialects and pragmatism involved are researched. Following a predefined review procedure, we identified 15 literature papers within the years 2016-2020 presenting research on apology and request strategies preferred by Arabic learners of English. The studies are gathered from various resources and illuminate the apology and request strategies in different contexts. We analyzed the papers to understand the preferred strategy method chosen and the logic behind it. Moreover, this study presents a related discussion and conclusions.

scholarly journals FEMALE EFL LEARNERS’ REQUEST REALIZATION IN RELATION TO THEIR ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Artanti Puspita Sari
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Education ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Request Strategies

The choice of strategies and modifications of speech acts in conversational communication may be correlated with sociolinguistic factors, such as ethnicity, social distance and dominance. Requests, as a part of speech acts, provide an interesting focus in this research because requests are face threatening acts. This article was based on a research conducted in the period of April to June 2008. The subjects of the research were female EFL learners of English Education Study Program at Sriwijaya University Inderalaya in South Sumatera Indonesia. The investigation utilized a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, revealed that:(1) in terms of patterns, the female EFL learners of different ethnic groups performed similar request patterns, (2) in terms of correlation, the subjects’ ethnic backgrounds did not correlate with their strategies, yet, their ethnic backgrounds had correlation with the subjects' request modifications, (3) the subjects’ request strategies and modifications did not correlate with social distance and dominance. The information gained can be utilized as a basis for integrating cultures and social dimensions between speakers and hearers into the teaching of EFL as well as EIL to increase students’ intercultural and pragmatic competence.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Request Speech Acts in Badrudi, Persian, and English

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Somayyeh Daneshpazhuh ◽  
Mohsen Shahrokhi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Statistical Procedure ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Contextual Variables ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Request Strategies

<p>This study was an attempt to delve into how requestive speech acts were realized in English, Persian, and Badrudi by EFL Persian students at the upper-intermediate level who spoke Badrudi as well. To collect the required data three versions of a Discourse Completion Test in English, Persian and Badrudi were administered to the research sample (N=40). The collected data was codified and analyzed with regard to social power and distance as two contextual variables and further statistical procedure was run to sustain or reject the research hypotheses. The analysis of the data revealed that the presence of power in interactions influences the request realization by the participants as there were differences among the most frequent strategies in English, Persian, and Badrudi. Moreover, with respect to the presence of social distance the comparison among request strategies in English, Persian, and Badrudi indicated the participants opt for different strategies as the most frequent strategies. The results also revealed that with the presence of power and distance direct strategies were the most frequent ones, conventionally indirect ranked second and indirect strategies were used as the least frequent strategies in English, Persian, and Badrudi.</p>

scholarly journals An Analysis of Mitigating Devices of Request Used by Saudi EFL Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Fadi Al Khasawneh
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Cultural Study ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
English Program

This study aimed at exploring the linguistic mitigating devices of requests used by Saudi EFL learners. The participants of this study were 97 students enrolled in the English program at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. The data of this study were collected by Discourse Completion Test (DCT) questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study. The questionnaire contained five different situations of request and the factor of Social Distance (SD) was incorporated to investigate any differences of the learners’ request strategies attributed to this factor. The data were classified according to the Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984). The findings of this study revealed that the participants preferred to use internal mitigating devices more frequently than external ones. They also were more direct when making requests and it seems that social distance does not play a significant role in the students’ modification strategies of requests.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Speech Acts in the Inaugural Address of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the President of the Republic of Ghana on January 7, 2021

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
John Demuyakor
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Inaugural Address ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Republic

Speech acts as an important element during communication, because it explains the thoughts of the speaker(s). A speech act is more about what is performed when uttering words and not about individual words or sentences that are known to form the basic elements of human communication. An attempt to do something through speaking is what is known as a speech act and a lot of things can be done through speaking. A speech act is studied under speech act theory and is found in the domain of pragmatics. Using a qualitative research design, the key objective of this study is to analyze the types of speech acts adopted in the inaugural address of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo as the President of the Republic of Ghana for his second term on the 7th January 2021. This study analyzed the Inaugural Address using Searle’s theory of speech act as a theoretical framework with emphasis on Searle’s five categories of speech act. The study showed that out of a total of 74 locutionary / Statements in the inaugural address,assertive acts are 40.5% of the utterances, commissive acts are 25.6%, while directive, expressive and declarative have small portions, of 13.5%, 12.2%, and 8.2% respectively.

scholarly journals The Speech Act of Request in Computer-Mediated Communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Maria Miwita Rosari
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Law School ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Politeness Strategies

Through conversation ones establish relationship with others and keep channels open for further relationships. Politeness strategies and issues have been the focus of a number of studies. The way ones request for something to others depends on some factors such as the context they are in and the interlocutors they talk to. This article aims at developing the latest discussion on politeness phenomena by paying attention to the specifics of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) settings specifically an online discussion forum. This article attempts to identify how speech act of request is performed in Top Law School (TLS) online discussion forum. The data were analyzed to observe the forms of speech act of request and the types of speech act of request performed in the online discussion forum. The findings of this paper revealed that the forms of speech act of request are expressed by declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentence. Moreover, the types of speech act of request employed by the users are directive, indirective, and literal speech acts. The writer believes that the study will be beneficial and a good reference for future researchers in conducting research on pragmatics under the same topic. Hopefully, it will enrich readers’ knowledge and understanding of the speech act of request and the politeness in CMC.

scholarly journals Cross-Sectional Study of Refusal Speech Act Used by Iraqi Undergraduate Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-173
Author(s):  
Hutheifa Y. Turki ◽  
Juma’a Q. Hussein ◽  
Ahmed A. Al-Kubaisy
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Refusal Strategies

This paper is conducted to investigate how Iraqi EFL learners refuse different speech acts across different proficiency levels. It aims to examine the most appropriate strategies used by 2nd year students of English as compared to those of 4th year when refusing their interlocutors' invitation, suggestion, and offer. WDCT questionnaire was used to collect data from 40 Iraqi undergraduate students of English: 20 2nd year and 20 4th year. Adopting Beebe et al.'s (1990) theory of refusal, data collected was analyzed quantitatively using statistical analysis. The findings revealed that the 2nd year students of English were more frequent in using direct refusals than their 4th year counterparts. This means the latter were more aware of using refusals politely than the former. On the other hand, the findings showed that 4th year students more frequent in their use of indirect refusal strategies that the 2nd year students. This indicates that the EFL learners of low proficiency level might not bridge the gap between the pragmalinguistic strategies and the grammatical form of the target language. This means that they were not pragmatically competent of the use of the appropriate pragmalinguistic strategies. This implies that the 2nd year students need to pay more attention to pragmatics and use their refusal strategies appropriately. Thus, the paper recommends conducting further research on the use of refusal speech act in Arabic and English.

Social contact and speech act strategies in a Chinese study abroad context

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Tang ◽  
Naoko Taguchi ◽  
Shuai Li
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Contact Group ◽  
Chinese Study ◽  
Compliment Responses ◽  
Request Strategies

Abstract This study examined the relationship between reported amounts of social contact and speech act strategies among 70 learners of Chinese enrolled in a study abroad program in Beijing. The participants completed a computer-delivered spoken discourse completion task (spoken DCT) eliciting three speech acts: requests, refusals, and compliment responses. Speech act strategies were compared between two groups of learners who reported different amounts of social contact (high and low social contact) as assessed via a self-report survey. Results showed that both high and low social contact groups favored using similar strategies to achieve the three speech acts. However, the high social contact group produced speech acts in a more sophisticated way: with a wider variety of request strategies, multiple refusal strategies used in combination and more deflecting strategies in compliment responses, compared with the low social contact group. The findings suggest that social contact helped learners expand their pragmalinguistic repertoire and employ more varied speech act strategies.

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 Request Strategies in Everyday Interactions of Persian and English Speakers

SAGE Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401667947
Author(s):  
Shiler Yazdanfar ◽  
Alireza Bonyadi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Daily Interactions ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
American English Speakers

Cross-cultural studies of speech acts in different linguistic contexts might have interesting implications for language researchers and practitioners. Drawing on the Speech Act Theory, the present study aimed at conducting a comparative study of request speech act in Persian and English. Specifically, the study endeavored to explore the request strategies used in daily interactions of Persian and English speakers based on directness level and supportive moves. To this end, English and Persian TV series were observed and requestive utterances were transcribed. The utterances were then categorized based on Blum-Kulka and Olshtain’s Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Pattern (CCSARP) for directness level and internal and external mitigation devises. According to the results, although speakers of both languages opted for the direct level as their most frequently used strategy in their daily interactions, the English speakers used more conventionally indirect strategies than the Persian speakers did, and the Persian speakers used more non-conventionally indirect strategies than the English speakers did. Furthermore, the analyzed data revealed the fact that American English speakers use more mitigation devices in their daily interactions with friends and family members than Persian speakers.

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