Trilinguals' Identity Synergism Through Pragmatic Skills

Hadi Abedi,Esmaeel Ali Salimi

doi:10.17323/jle.2020.10165

Abstract

Recent studies on bilingualism and pragmatics paid little attention to trilingual speakers. This investigation examined the trilinguals' identity synergism by drawing on their linguistic repertoire and discursive identity through pragmatic skills. For this purpose, twenty advanced EFL learners with Persian and Turkish as their mother tongues were homogenized through IELTS and played roles in Persian, Turkish, and English languages. For modeling, three monolingual native speakers of the English language responded to the English version of written discourse completion tests taken from the same role-plays. The data underwent content analysis to extract and codify the themes. The results revealed a synergy among the trilinguals' discursive systems when performing apology, complaint, refusal, and request speech acts. Multidirectional transfers among the trilinguals' Turkish, Persian, and English languages developed a form of English communication that was different from that of the native speakers' model. Gestures and mimes were the non-verbal strategies employed more in the trilinguals' Turkish and English languages than their Persian. This study helps researchers and teachers gain insight into identity, pragmatics, and multilingualism.

Highlights

In recent decades, the cognitive aspects of language learning have been in the limelight of various ELT studies all over the world
In Kachru’s view (2003) concerning the varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts, English language speakers fall into three circles, i.e., the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle, with each one forming a local identity for its speakers all over the world (Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Modiano, 2008; Ochs, 2008)
The participants created some situations through Written Discourse Completion Tests (WDCTs) in the forms of some speech acts such as apologizing, refusing, complaining, accepting, and requesting in three languages, i.e., Persian, Turkish, and English

Summary

Introduction

The cognitive aspects of language learning have been in the limelight of various ELT studies all over the world. The Outer Circle or the norm-developing circle is the English of non-native and multilingual settings such as Malaysia, Singapore, India, Ghana, and Kenya, where English is the second language of the former colonies of the UK or the USA. The reflections of the world Englishes or the localized variants of English in the world have encouraged researchers to conduct some bilingual and multilingual studies. These inquiries have examined issues such as domain analysis, language choice, code-switching, and cross-cultural discourses (e.g., Hyrkstedt & Kalaja, 2003; Thumboo, 2002). It is noteworthy that no one expects people from countries like India, Nigeria, and Singapore, who have experienced a colonial past, to achieve native-like proficiency in English (Sridhar, 1986)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion