Discourse Completion Test Research Articles

An Investigation of Refusal Strategies as Used by Bahdini Kurdish and Syriac Aramaic Speakers

For the purpose of achieving a successful communication, issues such as the appropriateness of speech acts and face saving become essential. Therefore, it is very important to achieve a high level of pragmatic competence in speech acts. Bearing this in mind, this study was conducted to investigate the preferred refusal strategies Kurdish and Syriac native speakers use when faced with offers and requests from equal status interlocutors. The current study has used a modified Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) consisting of six situations (three of which elicit refusals to offerings and the other three to requests). Forty subjects participated in this study: 20 native speakers of the Kurdish language (10 male and 10 female students) and 20 native speakers of Syriac language (10 male and 10 female students). All participants are currently pre-graduate students attending Zakho University. The participants were asked to provide written data that express their refusals to these situations. The data collected have then been analyzed descriptively according to frequency and number of occurrences of semantic formulas used by Beebe et al (1990). The results showed that a) the Syriac Native Participants (SNP)s frequently preferred indirect and adjunct strategies for refusals rather than direct ones, b) the Kurdish Native Participants (KNP)s often preferred direct and indirect strategies more than adjunct ones, c) the results also revealed that gender has a great influence on the use of refusal strategies in various ways. Finally, this study concludes that both KNPs and SNPs tended to use more strategies when refusing requests than offers whereas gender has shown to play a significant role in the choice and number of the refusal strategies used by both groups of participants.

A Study of Apology Strategies in English: A Case Study on Jordanian and Asian Undergraduate Students at Zarqa University

This study investigates the similarities and differences of the speech act of apology in English between Jordanian EFL learners (English as a Foreign Learners) and Asian undergraduate students at Zarqa University (ZU). It aims to understand the culture difference between Jordanian and the Asian speech communities that both learners utilize when confronting apology situations. The researcher used an interview technique to gather the data. Data collected using a modified version of the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) developed by Sugimoto (1997). Subjects of the study included six Jordanian undergraduate students and six Asian undergraduate students. There were 10 situations used in the study developed by Sugimoto's (1997). The findings in this study introduced the similarities and differences of the apologizing strategies used by Jordanian undergraduate students and Asian undergraduate students. It found that the most frequently apology strategies used among the Jordanian and the Asian participants were account, and compensation. It shows also gratitude is less used among Asian participants when apologize by equal and lower status person. In regarding to that, the findings of this study are expected to be used in intercultural comparisons studies. This research hopes that tutors should be aware of their own culture and the cultures of their students to make this cultural training more successful. Learners should learn apologizing strategies in such a way to capture their semantics meaning as well as pragmatic use in order to employ them appropriately.

Politeness strategies in complaints in Italian: A study on IFL learners and Italian native speakers


 
 
 This paper reports on an ongoing study of Dutch native speakers learning Italian as a foreign language in a guided learning context. The study compares native and non-native realization patterns of complaints, both in terms of the type of expression of judgment and the request for reparation performed (following the classifications suggested by Nuzzo, 2007), and of the use of modifiers. Special attention is given to the potential effects of learners’ language proficiency levels on the native- likeness of their realization patterns and of the quantity and variety of modifiers they used. Methods consisted of a sociolinguistic questionnaire, a written discourse completion test, and a conditional inference trees analysis of the production of 23 learners attending a B1 level course, 19 learners attending a B2 level course, and 23 native Italian speakers.
 
 

Compliments and compliment responses in Israeli Hebrew: Hebrew university in Jerusalem students in interaction

By examining how Hebrew speakers respond to compliments, this study suggests a taxonomy of compliment responses, adds to the scarce knowledge about pragmatic patterns in Hebrew, and reveals parts of the “cultural script”/habitus of the Israeli speech community. A new variation of the classic Discourse Completion Test was devised and applied to compliment responses of Hebrew-speaking students. The findings suggest that Hebrew speakers tend to accept compliments more than any other politeness strategy choice, and their responses to compliments tend to be more diversified than in other cultures. A compliment's object had the most influence on strategy choice when responding to it, with an apparent differentiation between “external compliments” (appearance, performances, and possession) and “internal compliments” (physical appearance, talent, and personality), where the former is welcomed and the latter is not. A discussion about the specific socio-cultural history of Israel showed that the linguistic choices are part of a larger cultural performance of firgun, a relatively new socio-pragmatic practice that indicates a shift in Israeli politeness habitus.

The Speech Act of Request in the ESL Classroom

The Malaysian education system is at a time where effective classroom communication is seen as a vital step in enhancing the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL). Rural secondary school students in Malaysia seem to be unaware of their level of politeness when communicating in English. This study of the speech act of request which is related to the field of pragmatics and classroom culture, can be beneficial in understanding how students perceive polite interaction when speaking English. This ongoing study aims to identify the types of requeststrategies employed by the participants in making requests and explore the factors influencing their choice of strategies. The participants of the study are students and two language teachers of a rural secondary school in Kedah. Data collection was done by first recording naturally occurring data in the classroom. The data is then analysed based on Blum-Kulka and Olshstain’s (1984) CCSARP framework and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory. Subsequently, participants identified are administered the Discourse Completion Tests (DCT). Preliminary findings show that students seem to be less polite when speaking to peers and more polite when speaking to teachers. Teachers, on the other hand, speak less politely to students as they have more power. This study provides valuable insights to the study of classroom pragmatics in Malaysia and future research should be conducted in urban school settings to gain more comprehensive data in this area of study. Keywords: politeness; speech acts; requests; face threatening act (FTA); pragmatics

Enhancing Thai Engineering Students’ Complaints and Apologies through Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Approach (PCR)

Successful communication requires “Pragmatic Competence” or abilities to use appropriate language in transferring one’s needs while maintaining a positive relationship with the interactant (Thomas, 1995; Leech, 1983). This study was an attempt to investigate the pragmatic competence of Thai Engineering students when making complaints and apologies through twelve sessions of a pragmatic consciousness-raising approach (PCR). Perceptions toward the innovative teaching activities were also examined. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data from forty-five engineering students (n=45) at a university in Thailand. Pre-test and posttest written discourse completion tests (WDCTs) were administered and a semi-structured interview was conducted. Three native speaker raters scored the performances through WDCTs using assessment criteria from Hudson (2001) and Duan (2008). For data analysis, paired-samples t-test was employed to compare the mean scores of students, while the researcher employed a Grounded Theory’s color coding technique (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to generate the findings on students’ perceptions about the innovative methods implemented. The results revealed significant development of students’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities in both complaints and apologies. Furthermore, participants perceived the PCR class to be beneficial in four areas: having more awareness of the impacts of social factors in language use, realizing the favor of indirect strategies, more understanding of nonverbal communication, and provision of motivating class atmosphere. However, some participants concerned about three aspects: inadequate confidence to use expressions learned in class in real communication, insufficient endeavor to develop grammar knowledge, and the test abilities of the roleplay test. The results confirm the teachability of pragmatic and the benefits of PCR in EFL contexts; whereas, students’ concern about learning through the approach might be helpful for further teaching practices.

Apology strategies in English and Vietnamese

The paper examined the differences in apology strategies between native speakers of English and advanced Vietnamese ESL learners as well as the factors that might result in those differences through discourse completion tests (DCTs). The data were coded in terms of five apology strategies, and were analyzed according to four situational categories in relation to age, dominance, social distance, and weight of offence. The result indicated that the apologies of the Vietnamese ESL learners showed more politeness and respect for people from higher status, closeness to a friend, less courtesy to an equal and less respect (but greater intimacy) for their kid, a family member. By contrast, the degree of politeness, sincerity and respect of the apologies of the native speakers depended heavily on the weight of offence and the situation itself. The acts of apologizing of the Vietnamese group were significantly influenced by the hierarchical culture of Vietnam, and their restricted linguistic competence as well.

Telephone Conversation Closing Structure Across English and Persian

Due to the lack of paralinguistic information, politeness gains a considerable significance in telephone conversations (TCs). The use of politeness strategies can help interlocutors promote and/or maintain social harmony in telephone interactions. Using the Rapport Management Model proposed by Spencer-Oatey (2008), this study intended to primarily investigate the fundamental closing structures of TCs in Persian and English. Furthermore, it examined the effect of two contextual variables and time availability on the closing patterns and length of TCs. To this aim, 30 English natives, 30 Persian natives, and 30 Persian EFL learners were selected. A Discourse Completion Test (DCT) of 12 scenarios was developed considering contextual variables and time limitation. The obtained results demonstrated that the CPT (closing implicative environment + preclosing + terminal components) closing pattern may not be applicable in every context. Furthermore, telephone conversers change the pattern and length of TC closing part to maintain their rapport based on the aforementioned variables. The findings of the present study can guide the researcher to follow more complete and perfect politeness models.

Speech Act of Greeting for American Native Speakers of English and Saudi Native Speakers of Arabic: A Comparative Study

This study focuses on comparing the speech acts of native Arabic speakers of Saudi region and English speakers of America, which help depict the impact of the variables involved, namely status, setting, social distance and situation formality. This paper makes a significant contribution for future researchers, as it is of help to researchers in the speech act area specifically in terms of Saudi Arabic and American English. It will be also of help to those learning Arabic or English and those who teach it in these two countries. Thus, the outcome of this research will contribute to depict the differences and the similarities in the use of greeting strategies between two different groups of respondents from diverse linguistic and cultural domains. Data was collected using the discourse completion test (DCT), developed by Cohen, Olshtain & Rosenstien (1985). Fifty female respondents within the age group of 20-25 years were selected from each group to participate in research procedures. Although the inclusion of male respondents would have made the process complex, it would have provided with comparatively more accurate outcomes if managed properly. The findings showed that linguistic and cultural differences, variables of social distance, social status, settings and situation formality greatly influenced the decision-making of Saudi Native Speakers of Arabic and American Native Speakers of English, pertaining to their usage of greeting strategies as part of their speech acts. For example, differences can be observed between these two speakers in terms of their greeting strategies; American English speakers attach less significance to social and physical distance and hierarchy compared to Saudi Arabic speakers. Similarly, both the groups attach almost equal importance to their initiation words when greeting others. These differences and similarities help determine social status and the relationship between speakers.

REQUESTIVE STRATEGIES OF INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS

This study aims to investigate the realizations of requestive strategies used by Indonesian EFL learners. The respondents are 25 of junior students of the Department of English Education in the University of Kuningan. The data were collected through Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and interview. The collected data were analyzed by using the requestive strategies theory by Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989). The query preparatory is the most term of requestive strategy type used by Indonesian EFL learners in Department of English Education in some different situations on DCT (64.8%). Second is mild hints with 13.6%, third is mood derivable with 10.4%, forth is obligation statement with 7.5%, fifth is want statement with 2.4%, sixth is suggestory formulae with 1.1%, seventh is hedge performative with 0.3% and the last are performative and strong hints with nothings. The respondents incline used requestive strategies which is avoid conflict or threatening to the hearer. The study reveals that the social variables such as power, social distance and ranking of imposition really affect toward the realization of requestive strategies used by Indonesian EFL learners.Keywords: Requestive strategy, Indonesian EFL learners, Discourse Completion Test.

Politeness strategies in written communications: the issue of Iranian EFL learners

Abstract The approximation of the pragmatic knowledge of English language learners to native speakers has been a realm of concern for the scholars and researchers in applied linguistics. Thus, this research was an endeavor to figure out the association between the proficiency level and politeness strategies and external/internal modifications in written communication skills in the speech act of requests in Iranian English language learners. To this end, a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT), adapted from Rose (1994), including 8 situations was administered to elicit data from Iran Language Institute120 female and male EFL learners, 60 upper-intermediate and 60 intermediate. The data were sorted out using Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies taxonomy (Brown and Levinson 1987) and external/internal modifications developed by Faerch and Kasper (1989). The written request utterances provided by each participant were analyzed in terms of frequency and types of politeness strategies, namely, positive, negative, bald on record, and off-record as well as external/internal modifications utilized in requests. The Pearson Chi-Square test results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between upper-intermediate and intermediate learners’ type of politeness strategies and external/internal modifications.

The Effect of Teaching Interlanguage Pragmatics on Interpretation Ability of Iranian Translation Students

The present study sought to investigate whether Iranian translation students were successful in comprehending interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) features. Moreover, it tried to figure out whether teaching interlanguage pragmatics proved helpful for the improvement of interpretation ability of Iranian translation students. To this end, 30 students of undergraduate translation studying at Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, were chosen to participate in the study. Then, they were divided into two groups of control and experimental. The Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used to measure the participants’ language proficiency. Then, a Discourse Completion Test was administered to measure the participants’ interlanguage pragmatics. Using the SPSS 20 software, the ANCOVA and t test were run for the data obtained from both the pre-test and the post-test. The results revealed that ILP features are lacking in the university context. Furthermore, it was shown that ILP features were effective for improving Iranian students’ interpretation ability. In this sense, university professors can pay attention to this finding and, where required, they can incorporate ILP features into their courses so as to make attempts to render a more effective learning and teaching environment.

PEMILIHAN DAN PENGGUNAAN BAHASA ARAB OLEH MAHASISWA UNIVERSITAS CANAL SUEZ MESIR

<p>This research aims to describe students preference and the use of Arabic language at the academia, social interactions and media. The data were taken from 24 respondents who are still studying in Suez Canal University in Egypt. The main instrument used in this research named Discourse Completion Test (DCT), in the form of three questionnaires distributed randomly to the selected students as the sample. This research used indirect method with Likert scale to measure the language attitude. The preference and the use of Arabic by students in the field of academic, social interaction, and the media showed a varying result. In field of academic and media, students tend to choose and use BAF, while in the field of social interactions students tend to choose and use BAA.</p><p>The departments that have the highest percentage on the election and use of the Arabic in the academic are Math, Chemistry, Hospitality, Arabic, and History. Then, in the social interaction field, the percentage of preference and use of BAA by male students is higher than women. These results indicate that departments and gender had a role in the preference and use of the Arabic by students.</p>

Croatian EFL Learners’ Interlanguage Requests: A Focus on Request Modification

This paper explores the development of pragmatic competence in the interlanguage of Croatian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at three proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). It investigates the way Croatian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) use internal and external supportive moves to modify their requests. Data were collected using an oral Discourse Completion Test consisting of ten school-related situations. The research participants were 60 EFL learners aged between 11 and 18. The coding categories developed in the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP, Blum-Kulka et al. 1989) and adapted by Schauer (2009) were used to analyse the data. Overall results indicated that the request production of EFL learners showed little variation regarding the type of modification and frequency of their use. Results also indicated weak evidence of pragmalinguistic development across levels, particularly in the use of grounders. The infrequent use of request modification suggests that pragmatic instruction should be included in FL classrooms to facilitate the development of L2 pragmatic ability.

Comparative study of terminating conversation strategies used by graduate TEFL students and graduate native English speaking students

In every interaction everyone needs to use strategies to terminate the conversation and there are possible differences among people. This study had insight to terminate the conversation and the way graduate native English-speaking students and graduate TEFL students end their conversation and what strategies they use in ending their conversation. This study also examined the role of power and solidarity in ending conversations as well as the role of gender in the use of those strategies. To collect the data, 50 graduate TEFL students were randomly selected from Islamic Azad University of Najafabad, Isfahan University of Technology and Islamic Azad University of Khorasgan as well as 27 graduate native English-speaking were randomly selected from UCL University and Kings College University of London. Students were asked to complete a discourse completion test (DCT) designed by the researcher. They were supposed to read nine scenarios and reply the questions. The data was analyzed based on Liddicoats’ (2007) taxonomy. The results revealed that graduate native English-speaking used announcing closure and arrangements more than graduate TEFL students before terminating their conversation, male and female students use these strategies for terminating the same. Also the result showed that power (especially for higher status) plays an important role in choosing these strategies.

Effects of Task Repetition and EFL Proficiency on English Speech Act Production

Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) studies substantiate the teachability of some aspects of second language (L2) pragmatics. However, there are controversies over the most effective instructional methods. Therefore, following a comparison group design, the present study aims to investigate the relative efficacy of two conditions of output-production task repetition on high- and low-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ production of speech acts. The main effects of the instructional conditions, EFL proficiency level, and the potential interaction between them are examined. Two classes of English-major students take speech act lessons involving output-generation task repetition as follows: (1) the implicit task-repetition (ITR) group is provided with visually enhanced input plus a consciousness raising task before repeating the output-generation tasks, and (2) the explicit task-repetition (ETR) group is provided with input plus metapragmatic information before repeating the output-generation tasks. The learners’ speech act production is assessed through a written discourse completion test (WDCT) across a pretest and a posttest. The results demonstrate significant gains for both groups from the pretest to the posttest. Moreover, the ETR group significantly outperforms the ITR group in the posttest. Furthermore, EFL proficiency level is found to have a significant effect on learners’ speech act production, with high-level learners outperforming low-level learners. The results reveal no significant interaction between the effects of instructional condition and EFL proficiency level. Regarding pedagogical implications, the findings attest the efficacy of output-generation task repetition in L2 speech acts instruction, particularly when task repetition is coupled with explicit instruction.

English

Complaint is an under-researched speech act in the field of interlanguage pragmatics. Making a complaint runs the risk of impairing the relationship between speaker and hearer as it requires the speaker to express displeasure and frustration to what is believed to be the responsibility of the hearer. The speaker, therefore, has to use appropriate linguistic forms bearing in mind social conventions to make the hearer take some action of repair or to avoid interactional conflicts. For L2 learners, making complaints in a second/foreign language is more difficult as they may lack both sociocultural and L2 knowledge. This study investigated the ability of Chinese EFL learners to produce complaints and its relationship with their L2 proficiency. Thirty-two Chinese university students and five native speakers of American English completed a Free Discourse Completion Test (FDCT); English proficiency was measured by learners’ performance in TEM-4. Data elicited from the FDCT were analysed using a holistic rating scale for the overall appropriateness of complaints and a coding framework for complaint strategies and modifications. Results showed that learners were unable to produce appropriate complaints and L2 proficiency significantly influenced the overall appropriateness of complaints. Differences were also identified in strategies and external and internal modifications used by learners of different proficiency levels. The study suggested that the production of complaints by Chinese learners is greatly influenced by their native culture. In addition to improving L2 proficiency, lessons on cultural differences should be introduced for them to improve the ability to complain in English. Keywords: L2 proficiency; speech act of complaint; complaint strategies; Chinese EFL learners; Chinese culture DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2017-2301-05

Effects of Task Repetition and EFL Proficiency on English Speech Act Production

Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) studies substantiate the teachability of some aspects of second language (L2) pragmatics. However, there are controversies over the most effective instructional methods. Therefore, following a comparison group design, the present study aims to investigate the relative efficacy of two conditions of output-production task repetition on high- and low-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ production of speech acts. The main effects of the instructional conditions, EFL proficiency level, and the potential interaction between them are examined. Two classes of English-major students take speech act lessons involving output-generation task repetition as follows: (1) the implicit task-repetition (ITR) group is provided with visually enhanced input plus a consciousness raising task before repeating the output-generation tasks, and (2) the explicit task-repetition (ETR) group is provided with input plus metapragmatic information before repeating the output-generation tasks. The learners’ speech act production is assessed through a written discourse completion test (WDCT) across a pretest and a posttest. The results demonstrate significant gains for both groups from the pretest to the posttest. Moreover, the ETR group significantly outperforms the ITR group in the posttest. Furthermore, EFL proficiency level is found to have a significant effect on learners’ speech act production, with high-level learners outperforming low-level learners. The results reveal no significant interaction between the effects of instructional condition and EFL proficiency level. Regarding pedagogical implications, the findings attest the efficacy of output-generation task repetition in L2 speech acts instruction, particularly when task repetition is coupled with explicit instruction.

Beyond sayingthanks

AbstractThis study explores how American English and Peninsular Spanish speakers respond to a compliment. Participants completed an online discourse completion test with nine different complimenting scenarios. A total of 14 different strategies for responding to a compliment were found in the data. Based on verbal reports on language use, it was found that Peninsular Spanish speakers do not compliment as often as American English speakers do. The data analysis also revealed that both language groups clearly prefer to accept a compliment, but whereas American English speakers regard a simple ‘thank you’ as an appropriate compliment response, Peninsular Spanish speakers prefer to agree with the complimented assertion by making a semantically fitted comment. Other differences include the importance of returning a compliment in American English and the need to scale down the illocutionary force of the compliment among Peninsular Spanish speakers.

A Pragmatic Study of Speech Acts by Iranian and Spanish Nonnative English Learners

This study was an attempt to investigate Iranian and Spanish intermediate nonnative English learners’ request strategies to their faculty. To this aim, 74 (50 Iranian and 24 Spanish) nonnative English intermediate learners participated in this study. A discourse completion test (DCT) was used to elicit the request strategies used by the participants. The findings suggested the participants employed the conventionally indirect request strategy to their faculty in a higher percentage. The results revealed that the effect of L1 was not significance on the choice of request strategies by the participants to the faculty.