American Native Speakers Research Articles

A Genre-Analysis of Complaint Letters: A Case Study of English and Arabic Language

The study purports to examine the generic structure of complaint letters among natives and non-natives of English. A corpus of 80 letters was collected from Algerian Arabic users, EFL learners as well as American and British native speakers of English. The researcher provided the participants with three complaint situations, and they were required to choose only one and write a complaint letter about it. Our analysis drew upon Swales (1990) and Bhatia’s (1993) approach to genre analysis to describe to move structure of such genre. The results revealed that complaint letters in Arabic and English adhere to the same generic structure composed of seven moves and fifteen steps. It was found that several factors, particularly culture, and the correspondents’ social rank significantly influence the overall structure of complaint letters.

Students' Needs for Autonomous Learning through Self-Access Center Resources and Activities: A Survey on the Target and Learning Needs of SAC Users

The Self-Access Center (SAC) is one of the infrastructures for realizing the self-access approach as one of the modes of learning beyond the classroom (LBC) that is essential to the manifestation of the student-centered approach in language education. This study looked at the target needs of English department students for independent learning using SAC resources and their learning needs for independent learning using SAC activities. There were 51 university students participated in the study using a mix of questionnaire and interview data collection techniques. The study revealed that the student's primary necessity for autonomous learning resources of SAC was materials for specific English skills out of the classroom supported with the use of sufficient internet resources and a native speaker as a resource. It is to fulfill their short and long terms goals to attend in SAC. It was also discovered that the students preferred individual reading, free writing, native American speaker advisors, and listening activities. Vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar need to be progressively integrated into these programs since many of them wish to be overseen by Native American speakers, notably for the American English pronunciation model, and non-native speakers for English grammar.

Small Talk in English and Chinese – A contrastive case study

AbstractIn this paper, we present a contrastive pragmatic analysis of Small Talk in English and Chinese. We use a radically minimal, finite and interactional system of speech acts to study DCTs conducted with U.S. American native speakers of English and native speakers of Chinese. Our analysis points to a number of important differences between Small Talk in the two linguacultures contrasted, such as a reliance on routines in English Small Talk, and an overall reliance on the speech act Remark in Chinese. The influence of the classic sociolinguistic variables Power and Social Distance for the enactment of Small Talk is also shown to be different in English and Chinese.

Study of High-Proficiency Chinese EFL Learners’ Strategy Applications in Constructive Feedback

AbstractIn cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics, constructive feedback (CF), defined as “the identification of a problematic action and advice on how to change or correct the problem” (Nguyen & Basturkmen, 2010, p. 125), has received little attention. To fill this gap, similarities and differences between native Chinese speakers, native American speakers, and high-proficiency Chinese EFL learners’ CF are explored in this study. In particular, how these learners’ strategy applications in CF differ from those of American and Chinese speakers is examined. Data were collected through discourse completion tests (DCTs) owing to their advantages in controlling social variables and their efficiency in eliciting rich data within a limited time (Leech, 2014). In total, 42 participants were randomly selected from three groups: 14 native Chinese speakers, 14 native American speakers, and 14 high-proficiency Chinese EFL learners. The results revealed significant differences in strategy employment in CF among the three groups, with the highest disparity elicited in hedge strategies. Here, EFL learners resembled American speakers in six of the eight hedge strategies. However, they had the same percentage in terms of compliments as the Chinese speakers. With regard to supportive moves, there were no significant differences among the three groups. As a pioneering investigation, the aim of this study is to call for further research on CF.

Request Modifications as Produced by Moroccan EFL Learners and American Native Speakers of English

This cross-cultural comparative study aimed to investigate the production of request modifications by American native speakers of English (ANSE) and Moroccan EFL learners (MEFLLs). With this aim in mind, the researcher employed two research instruments, namely a discourse completion test and a semi-structured interview. The former was the main research instrument, whereas the letter was mainly employed to explore the motives behind the participants’ use of certain modification strategies. Furthermore, sixty seven informants participated in the current study. Thirty MEFLLs and thirty ANSE responded to the ten given situations, while four MEFLLs and three ANSE were interviewed. This study adopted Blum-Kulka et al.’s (1989) coding scheme. The findings revealed that ANSE preferred syntactic downgraders, whereas MEFLLs selected lexical/phrasal downgraders. With regards to external modifiers, the two groups significantly differed in their use of mitigating supportive moves. That is, MEFLLs preferred combination and preparators, while ANSE favoured combination and grounders. The two groups used few aggravating supportive moves, and they did not display any significant differences in their use of external modifiers. However, they were used by ANSE more than MEFLLs. This paper ends with some suggestions to textbook designers and EFL teachers.

Variation Patterns in Interlanguage Pragmatics: Apology Speech Act of EFL Learners vs. American Native Speakers

Abstract Pragmatic competence consists of both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic components. The choice of pragmalinguistic strategies aligned with sociopragmatic norms may vary based on situational, cultural, and individual variables. The relationship between these important aspects of second language pragmatic competence, however, is underdeveloped in the literature. To fill this gap, the present paper is aimed at investigating the pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic variations of the Iranian EFL learners from different proficiency levels. A written discourse completion task (WDCT) was adopted for collecting data. Data were analyzed using the coding categories for apologies developed in the previous benchmark studies. The findings of the study provided evidence showing both sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic development across the levels of language proficiency. The findings can be used for the development of pragmatics-focused materials in L2 and pragmatics instruction.

The role of prior and actual situational context in conversational routines produced by Chinese learners of English

Abstract This study aims to investigate the effects of English proficiency (EP) and study-abroad (SA) experience on routine production among 143 Chinese university English learners. The interplay of learners’ mastery of prior context (PC) and actual situational context (ASC) knowledge reflected their productive competence of routines (PCR). Participants were divided into three groups based on their EP levels and length of SA experience: high EP without SA, low EP without SA, and high EP with SA. A pilot study with 41 American native speakers was conducted to determine the target response set as the baseline. A seven-item computer-animated production task was used to elicit routines that revealed learners’ mastery of ASC and PC knowledge. The findings revealed that EP was only necessary for learners’ PC knowledge and PCR. SA experience, alongside SA and EP interaction, had a significant impact on both sides of ASC and PC knowledge, as well as learners’ overall PCR.

The Use of Politeness Strategies in the Realization of the Speech act of Disagreement by EFL Learners

This study aimed to investigate the differences between the politeness strategies used by university EFL learners and American native speakers in making disagreements. Using Brown and Levinson’s (1978) model, the study examined the variables of gender, social status, and social distance. The participants were 63 EFL learners (41 females and 22 males) and 20 native speakers (10 females and 10 males). The EFL learners who took part in this study were EFL learners who were studying in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Bahrain. They were in their fourth, fifth, or sixth year of study. The data was collected using a Discourse Completion Task adopted from a previous study done by Khoirunnisa and Hardjanto (2018) and modified by the researcher to fit the needs of this study. The results of this study showed that the reason why EFL learners seemed more or less polite was that native speakers chose to apply higher or lower percentages of politeness strategies to fit the needs of the different situations, whereas EFL learners used similar percentages of those strategies in most of the situations. This was due to EFL learners’ insufficient competence in the English language. Further, EFL learners were still aware of the necessity of using different politeness strategies in different situations, and thus there were some changes in their use of them depending on the situation. Moreover, the study revealed that female EFL learners used slightly more positive politeness strategies than male EFL learners. In terms of importance, gender was shown to be more important than social status in determining the types of politeness strategies employed by EFL learners.

The effects of proficiency and study-abroad on Chinese EFL learners’ refusals

ABSTRACT L2 pragmatics have explored the effects of different factors on different aspects of learners’ pragmatic performance, but often not simultaneously. In addition, syntactic complexity is rarely examined in L2 pragmatics. This cross-sectional study aimed to conduct a multidimensional analysis to explore the effects of proficiency and study-abroad (SA) on Chinese EFL learners’ refusals. Data were collected from 90 Chinese university students via a computer-animated elicitation task. The participants were divided into three groups: low-proficiency learners without SA experience and advanced learners with/without SA. The scenarios were kept consistent in imposition and social distance but varied in social status. Each participant interacted with a computer-animated native-speaker interlocutor in the scenarios. 20 American native speakers also participated in the study; their responses were used as the comparison data. Participants’ performance was evaluated in five aspects: appropriateness, syntactic complexity, refusal strategies, adjuncts and internal modifiers. Results revealed that there were significant effects of L2 proficiency on appropriateness and of SA on syntactic complexity. The interactions of the two factors and social status were also analysed in learners’ employment of refusal strategies and internal modification. Implications for pragmatic instruction and feasible suggestions for future research are discussed.

A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of American Native Speakers of English and Moroccan EFL University Students’ Production of the Speech Act of Request

The purpose of this study was to investigate the production of request strategies, request sub-strategies, and request orientations by Moroccan EFL learners (MEFLLs) and American native speakers of English (ANSE). To achieve this objective, the researcher adopted a mixed approach by collecting data through a semi-structured interview and a discourse completion test. The DCT is composed of ten situations adopted from Blum-Kulka et al.’s (1989) Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns project and modified by Khamam (2012). Thirty MEFLLs and thirty ANSE responded to the discourse completion test, while four MEFLLs and three ANSE were interviewed. Furthermore, to analyse said and unsaid requests, this study relied on Blum-Kulka et al.’s (1989) coding scheme and Marti’s (2006) model. The results showed that MEFLLs differed from ANSE in several ways. MEFLLs were more direct than ANSE, as they used direct request strategies and hearer-oriented requests more than ANSE. However, the two groups preferred the conventionally indirect request strategy to the other request strategies. Regarding request sub-strategies, the two groups frequently selected the query preparatory strategy. Nevertheless, it was chosen by ANSE more than MEFLLs.

A cross-cultural study of condolence strategies in a computer-mediated social network

Among the various speech acts, an under-investigated one is condolence speech act. The present study sought to investigate the verbal strategies of expressing condolence used by (1) Iranian native speakers of Persian, (2) Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, and (3) American native speakers of English. Accordingly, a total of 200, 42, and 50 responses were collected respectively from the informants who responded to an obituary post followed by a picture consisting of a situation related to the news of a celebritys death on Instagram (In the case of Iranians: Morteza Pashaii , a famous singer in the case of Americans: B. B. King , an American singer-songwriter). After creating a pool of responses to the death announcements and through careful content analysis, the utterances by native Persian speakers, EFL learners, and native English speakers were coded into seven, nine, and seven categories, with expression of affection ( n = 109, 46.38%), wishes for the deceased ( n = 34, 59.64%), and wishes for the deceased ( n = 32, 23.70%) being the most prevalent ones, correspondingly. Moreover, tests of Chi-square revealed that there was a statistically significant difference among the three groups. The results showed that there were significant differences among the participants in terms of using condolence strategies in Expression of affection (love and grief), Wishes for the deceased, Expression of shock, use of address terms, expression of gratitude, Offering condolences, expression of happiness for his peaceful death, and Seeking absolution from God categories, with Expression of affection being the most prevalent one among Iranian Persian speakers. The findings have pedagogical implications for EFL teachers as wells as textbook and course designers.

Comparative Study of Voice Onset Time in English Word-Initial Stop Consonants Produced by Uzbek and American Speakers of English

The purpose of this study is to shed light on a comparative study of Voice Onset Time (VOT) values produced by Uzbek speakers of English and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to determine significant differences in terms of the VOT value in pronunciation of voiced and voiceless stop consonants in word-initial positions. Scholarly sources on the comparative study of Uzbek and English phonetics suggest that most of the Uzbek stop consonants possess similar qualities to those of English stop sounds (Abduazizov 1992; Yusupov 2013). A descriptive comparison of Uzbek and English consonants demonstrates the difference between the two languages in isolated forms rather than in speech. This study is motivated by the fact that little is known about recent studies on the instrumental comparative study of English plosives produced by Uzbek speakers of American English. In addition, so far, no studies have been carried out in VOT analysis of English sounds produced by Uzbek speakers. The research was conducted through voice recording and analyses of data collected from Uzbek speakers and American native speakers. Recordings of 3240 overall tokens were collected and analyzed using Praat phonetic software. The mean VOT values obtained from both subject groups have been compared and statistically tested using the Independent Samples t-test. The research findings show that Uzbek subjects’ and American native subjects’ VOT values differ significantly. However, there are a few words (9 out of 52) where the differences in the VOT values of the two subject groups are not statistically significant. The research presents implications for teaching pronunciation of English plosive sounds in word-initial positions where a stop consonant followed by a vowel sound to Uzbek speakers of English by taking into account the periodic measurement of consonants. In addition, there are implications for future research that might explore other features of VOT produced by Uzbek language speakers. Keywords: Voice Onset Time; stop consonants; voiced; voiceless consonants; Uzbek

PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF THE YEMENI EFL LEARNERS

<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>

The Effect of Bilingualism on Production and Perception of Vocal Fry

(1) Determine the difference in vocal fry phonation in English and Spanish productions among bilingual young adults, (2) Characterize the effect of spoken language and native language on vocal fry production among English-Spanish bilingual speakers, (3) Identify the effect of first and second language knowledge of the listener in the voice perceptual assessment, and (4) Define the effect of the environment of the assessment (in situ vs. online), in the voice perceptual assessment. Exploratory cross-sectional study of 34 bilingual (Spanish-English) speakers and six inexperienced listeners. Participating speakers produced two speech samples (one in English and one in Spanish). Six inexperienced monolingual and bilingual listeners performed the voice perceptual assessment of vocal fry, General grade of hoarseness, and Roughness using a 4-point rating scale. Bilingual speakers used vocal fry more often when they were speaking in English (around 3%) compared with their production in Spanish (around 2%). Bilingual native English speakers used vocal fry more often during their productions in both languages compared with bilingual native Spanish speakers. Bilingual listeners had the highest agreement when identifying vocal fry in both languages. Differences in production of vocal fry between native speakers of American English and native speakers of Spanish may be evidence of transferring of vocal behavior (such as vocal fry) from one language to the second one. In addition, being a bilingual listener may have an important effect on the perceptual identification of voice quality in English and Spanish, as well as vocal fry in English.

Pragma-linguistic and Socio-pragmatic Transfer among Iraqi Female EFL Learners in Refusing Marriage Proposals

In the framework of this study, the phenomenon of transfer is probed pragma-linguistically and socio-linguistically concerning marriage situations among Iraqi EFL learners. The study also strives to look at the refusal strategies most commonly employed by Iraqi female English as a foreign Language (EFL) learners compared to their counterparts, American native speakers of English. The study involved 70 female participants who answered a Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which contained ten marriage proposals to be refused. Each situation entailed refusal of a person from a higher, an equal, and lower status. The researchers adapted Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss Weltz’s (1990) taxonomy of refusal for analyzing the data comprehensively. The study’s findings indicated that Iraqi female EFL learners followed similar patterns of refusing marriage situations to American speakers. The most prevalent strategies used by the two groups were “reasons/ excuses and explanations,” followed by “statements of regrets,” and then “non-performative statements” with slight variation in frequency. However, the Iraqi learners’ native language and culture affected how they formulated their refusal; hence they manifested pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic transfer in particular areas. The areas of pragma-linguistic transfer included the literal translation of words, expressions, and structures into their refusal in English. As for the socio-pragmatic areas, the transfer occurred in certain Arabic culture features like elaboration, exaggeration, repetition, endearing terms, and many others in expressing the target language, English.

A Cross-Cultural Study of Refusal Speech Act by Persian L2 Learners and American Native Speakers

Refusals are utterances spoken to perform the action of refusing. This face-threatening act has a significant function in societal interaction. This pragmatic study investigated Iranian English learners’ (IELs) behavior in realizing refusals on the basis of a cross-cultural comparison of American native speakers (ANSs) and Iranian Persian speakers (IPSs) in terms of production performance. Data came from 40 ANSs, 40 IPSs, and 40 IELs, elicited from a DCT varied with contextual factors of power and distance. Data were analyzed in terms of frequency and content of semantic formulas. Results indicated that, although all the groups employed a similar range of refusal strategies in responding to the refusals elicited by different initiation acts, cross-cultural variation was evident in the frequency and content of semantic formulas. In some cases, the IPSs and the IELs refused similarly in Persian and English, but differently from the ANSs, suggesting pragmatic transfer in the Persian groups. These differences in Persian and English refusals may cause pragmatic failure when Persian speakers rely on their L1 culture-specific refusal strategies in interacting with English native speakers. Thus, the development of L2 students’ pragmatic knowledge should become one of the priorities of the educational system.

Cultural Diversity in Native and Non-Native Speakers of English Communication

With the advancement of technology ,the study of cross-cultural communication via on line has become an important and researchable topic in linguistic theory and its applications.The aims of this study are two- fold (a) exploring the influence of cultural diversity on on-line interaction between American native speakers (NSs) and Iraqi non-native speakers (NNSs) of English which, together with other factors might potentially lead to what Thomas(1983) calls "pragmatic failure" (PF), a main cause of communication breakdowns and (b) specifying which type of PF occurs more frequently between the two groups along with the reasons behind such failures. To achieve these objectives , a number of online chats conducted between (10) American speakers of English and (8) Iraqi graduate students of English were collected and analyzed on the basis of Thomas' (1983) division of PF in an attempt to verify the assumption that pragmatic failure is a result of cultural diversity between the two groups of participants.Results revealed that the cultural differences between the two groups could be a major cause of misunderstanding ie. PF., a finding which can be of value to textbook designers and teachers of English as a foreign language (FL)who are required to improve students' pragmatic ability in classroom by focusing not only on their grammatical competence but also on their pragmatic competence.

INVESTIGATING COMPLIMENT RESPONSE STRATEGIES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE UNDER THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL STATUS

The present study seeks to investigate the effect of the social status on the use of compliment response (CR) strategies in American English and Vietnamese. To this end, two sets of data were collected with the help of a discourse completion task (DCT) illustrating twelve situational settings in which compliments were produced by ones of higher, equal, and lower status with the informants. Statistical analysis provides descriptive statistics results in terms of CR strategies on macro- and micro-level, i.e. these findings demonstrate the CR strategies of acceptance, amendment, non-acceptance, combination, and opting out. Furthermore, inferential statistics have revealed if there is a global standard in the use of CRs between American and Vietnamese native speakers. Finally, the results suggested a significant effect for the treated intervening social variable of status in determining the type of CRs.

Interlanguage Pragmatics of Non-Institutional Criticism: A Study of Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

Criticism is inherently impolite and a face-threatening act generally leading to conflicts among interlocutors. It is equally challenging for both native and non-native speakers, and needs pre-planning before performing it. The current research examines the production of non-institutional criticism by Iraqi EFL university learners and American native speakers. More specifically, it explores to what extent Iraqi EFL learners and American native speakers vary in (i) performing criticism, (ii) mitigating criticism, and (iii) their pragmatic choices according to the contextual variables of power and distance. To collect data, a discourse-completion task was used to elicit written data from 20 Iraqi EFL learners and 20 American native speakers. Findings revealed that though both groups regularly used all strategy types, Iraqi EFL learners criticized differently from American speakers. When expressing criticism, Iraqi learners tended to be indirect whereas American speakers tended to be direct. In mitigating their criticism, Iraqi learners were significantly different from American speakers in their use of internal and external modifiers. Furthermore, both groups substantially varied their pragmatic choices according to context. The differences in their pragmatic performance could be attributed to a number of interplaying factors such as EFL learners’ limited linguistic and pragmatic knowledge, the context of learning and L1 pragmatic transfer. Finally, a number of conclusions and pedagogical implications are presented.

Apologies in EFL: An Interlanguage Pragmatic Study on Moroccan Learners of English

This study explores the strategies Moroccan Learners of English (MLEs), American English Speakers (AEs)), and Moroccan Arabic speakers (MAs) use when performing the speech act of apology. The study basically investigates the interlanguage of MLE as compared to other groups. Equally important, the aim is to study whether MLEs displayed pragmatic transfer when using apology strategies. To this end, A written discourse completion test/ task was administered to the participants both native and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in order to elicit apologies through five hypothetical situations. The productions of Moroccan EFL learners were analyzed to see where they stand between native speakers norms and Moroccan Arabic norms in terms of strategies choices. In the analysis of the data, all responses were categorized according to Trosborg’s (1995) apology speech act set. The results show that Learners of English in higher education significantly deviated the overall desired strategies as compared to American native speakers of English. Meanwhile, some developmental patterns towards native like norms were perceived.