Abstract
The speech act of requesting has attracted a lot of attention in recent research. Previous studies reveal that conventionally indirect request strategies are commonly used by second language (L2) learners. This study is relevant because the findings would improve the requests strategies and its responses between Chinese EFL learners and foreigners. The study also examines the role of cross-cultural pragmatic competence in Chinese students in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by considering the appropriateness of requests. It aims to find out the effects of knowledge of L1 culture on L2 pragmatic competence and how requests and its responses would contribute to pragmatic failure. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative approach to analyse data. The data were collected through a discourse completion test (DCT) from 72 undergraduates and postgraduate students. The modified DCT was composed of two parts. The first was mainly concerned with the demographic information of the participants and second was composed of 12 simulated situations eliciting the appropriateness of requests in various communication settings. The findings of present study revealed that Chinese learners do not differ markedly from native speakers in their use of strategies, but do differ significantly in the formulaic expressions they employ for making the requests. Unclear request strategies and responses were identified as contributing factors to pragmatic failures. However, the study recommended that instructors should engage learners of English as a second language in a lot of appropriate request strategies to build learners’ competence and ability to understand situations in different environments.
Highlights
1 This study takes it premise on the experience of most international students in the Nanjing Tech University
3.1 Research Questions The purpose of the present study is to find answers to the questions “does knowledge of L1 culture affect L2 pragmatic competence?” Secondly, do a request and its response contribute to pragmatic failure? This present study will seek to analysis the L1 cultural effects on Chinese Learners’ responses to request
With the age of the respondents, the survey revealed that 47% were within the age range of 18-25 years, 31% were from 26 to 30 years, 15% were between 31-35 years and 7% of the respondents were above 35years
Summary
1 This study takes it premise on the experience of most international students in the Nanjing Tech University. It was during the “Statistics for linguistics” class where my lecturer made a surprise request to me in the form of an invitation: Lecturer: “Can we have dinner after class?” Me: “Ok, that’s fine!” After this, I could clearly see the displeasure registered in his countenance. I was of the view that saying “Ok, that’s fine” was a good way of accepting his request and say thank you later, perhaps after the meal This became the subject of our discussion during our dinner. This chapter describes the background of the study, the problem statement, research objectives, and the importance of the study and how the study was organized
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