An Investigation on Second Language Learners’ Production of Conventional Expressions in L2 Pragmatics

Aihemaituoheti Wujiabudula

doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.5p.43

Abstract

This study is designed to elicit second language learners’ production of conventional expressions in L2 pragmatics. A questionnaire was conducted to students who were required to write the oral responses towards 19 scenarios instead of answering the scenarios orally. In prepared scenario questionnaire, a production task was consisted of 19 scenarios, which demonstrate various speech acts. Such as, expressions of gratitude, apologies, warning, leave-taking, requests, condolences, declining offers, acceptance of offers, acceptance of request, acceptance of invitation, declining an invitation, an agreement, deflecting thanks… etc. Twenty four second grade students from Translation and interpretation department in an private university completed the questionnaires voluntarily, with no class credit and compensation available for participating in this research. No level differences were taken into consideration, and it is assumed that all participants are non-native upper-intermediate and advanced English users. Content analysis was applied to measure the frequency and rate in production of conventional expressions.

Highlights

Formulaic language has been a hot research topic by many researchers over the past decades
All collected data were identified in the production database; all the responses were coded for the second time to clarify the frequency of appearance of conventional expressions in situational dialogue
Aforementioned examples are the case for other 18 scenarios; some conventional expressions demonstrate variability in terms of what is recorded in the formula literature (Nattinger & Decarrio, 1992)

Summary

Introduction

Formulaic language has been a hot research topic by many researchers over the past decades. Under the umbrella of formulaic language, conventional expressions has been taken into researchers’ consideration and it has become a major research areas in second language acquisition. Conventional expressions in sociolinguistics plays an important role in L2 language comprehension and acquisition. It is very difficult to say that everyone, even advanced speakers have trouble learning it seamlessly, even some learners feel uncomfortable using some conventional expressions (Bardovi-Harlig, 2012). It might be difficult for some others to link the meaning of these expressions to their target language, which they cannot control the form

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion