Discourse Completion Test Research Articles

The Impact of Knowledge of Multiword Units on Pragmatic Knowledge of Iranian EFL Learners

This study investigated the impact of multiword knowledge of chunks on Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic perception of the illocutionary act of request. The research was triggered by the need for EFL learners to enhance their ability to use English effectively in different social interactions. Two research instruments: a Multiword Chunk Test and a Discourse Completion Test were employed to collect data for this systematic inquiry. Major findings derived from the study highlighted the fact that Iranian advanced EFL learners with higher repertoire of multiword lexical knowledge demonstrated higher pragmatic ability and outperformed in expressing the speech act of request. On the account of findings, it is inferred that knowledge of multiword lexical items is of paramount importance for interactions in different contexts in general and expressing the politeness strategies in particular. It can be argued that insufficient and limited knowledge of multiword units could be a major hindrance to effective learning and communication, resulting in pragmatic failures in many intercultural communication situations.

The Pragmalinguistic Competence in Requests: A Comparison between One Native and Two Non-native Speakers of English

Speech acts are a very important part of pragmatics in any language. There are many types of acts (e.g., request, complain, question, etc.) associated with the speaker’s utterances. Searle (1972) calls production of linguistic communication ‘a speech act’ (137). The present study examines how two Arab learners of English at two levels of proficiency modify requests compared to a native speaker. The performances by the three informants were compared in terms of internal modification (lexical and phrasal downgraders) and external modification (supportive moves) used. The data were collected by means of a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Overall, the results revealed that although the advanced-level learner outperformed the intermediate-level learner in using lexical and syntactic mitigators, both learners underuse internal and external modifiers compared to the native speaker. This study addressed three questions that are associated with three directional hypotheses: Hypothesis 1, intermediate or advanced learners of a second language underuse internal modifiers compared to L2 native speakers. Hypothesis 2, advanced learners could vary the syntactic form of the request while the intermediate learners relied heavily on modals and the politeness marker 'please'. Hypothesis 3, second language learners have been said to display verbose pragmatic behavior by producing frequent and lengthy supportive moves (Hassel, 2001).

The Realization of Complaint Strategies among Iranian Female EFL Learners and Female Native English Speakers: A Politeness Perspective

<p>Speech acts are interesting areas of research and there has been much research on speech acts. Complaint is a type of speech act and how to use it in interaction is important to EFL learners. The complaint strategies employed by Iranian female EFL learners and female English native speakers were compared in this study. Also, the effects of contextual variables (Social distance and Social power) on the choice of complaint strategies by Iranian female EFL learners and female native English speakers were studied in this research. Thirty Iranian female EFL learners and thirty female native English speakers participated in this study. The two instruments which were used in this study included Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The (DCT), as an open-ended questionnaire was administrated to them to elicit complaint speech acts. Then, the collected data were analyzed according to a modified taxonomy of complaint strategies proposed by Trosoborg (1995). The results indicated that there was a significant difference between Iranian female EFL learners and female native English speakers in terms of using complaint strategies. Iranian female EFL learners used indirect complaint, while female native English speakers used the direct complaint more frequently; and contextual variables had a great influence on complaint strategy choice by participants of two groups.</p>

Saudi and Jordanian Undergraduates' Complaining Strategies: A Comparative Intralanguage Educational Linguistic Study

The present study is an attempt to explore, investigate, and compare the complaint strategies among two groups of Arabic native speakers, Saudi and Jordanian undergraduate students. To achieve the goals of the study, a discourse completion test (DCT) was developed and distributed to 150 male participants randomly selected from the governorates of Irbid and Riyadh universities to participate in the study. The findings of the study showed that Saudi and Jordanian university male students do complain to others using a wide range of strategies. Their complaints fell into four categories: Calmness and Rationality, Offensive Act, Opting-out, and Direct Complaint respectively. It was also found that Saudi university students' complaint comes first, while Jordanian university students' complaint comes second. The findings further revealed that there were some statistically significant differences and similarities at (α≤ 0.05) among the Saudi and Jordanian university male students' complaint strategies to others due to the study variables. Conclusions, implications, and suggestions for further research are reported.

Realization Patterns of Request Strategies in Sudanese Arabic and English

<p>This study tried to identify the Sudanese university students’ preferences of request strategies. It explored the claim of the universality of the speech act’s three levels of directness i.e. direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventionally indirect. It contrasted and compared the subjects’ choice of strategies in Arabic and English languages. It also investigated the impact of some social factors on the subjects’ strategy choice. The data collected from the subjects showed that they used direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventionally indirect requests when they responded to English and Arabic Discourse Completion Tests. This finding consolidated the universality claim of the three levels of directness. The data also showed that the subjects preferred to use direct requests more than the conventionally indirect ones and hints. The collectivist culture of the students’ society influenced their choice of direct strategies as it is based on solidarity, intimacy, etc. The results also showed that the different social variables i.e. the social distance between the interactants, the power one interlocutor has over the other, and the degree of request imposition had impact on the subjects’ choice of strategies. </p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><strong>:</strong> Pragmatics, Request Strategies, Speech acts, Sudanese university students, Sudanese Colloquial Arabic.</p>

Reconsidering the development of the discourse completion test in interlanguage pragmatics

A survey of the field of Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) shows that the Discourse Completion Test (DCT)2, also referred to as a ‘discourse completion task’ or a ‘production questionnaire’, has been the most frequently used instrument to evaluate second/foreign language learners’ ability to perform speech acts in a target language, despite the harsh criticism leveled against its low construct validity and its failure to represent the features of authentic discourse. Interestingly, focusing on the statement of objectives of a number of ILP studies using DCTs, one can notice that such studies rarely refer to the DCT as a language test. In addition, an overview of the DCT design process as described in several ILP studies shows that ever since its adaptation for the study of pragmatic ability (Blum-Kulka, 1982), there has been a tendency to use or adapt one of the existing DCT versions used in previous studies based on the argument of comparability of results. While a number of ILP researchers tried to improve the design of the DCT by the inclusion of rejoinders or by enhancing the prompt material (e.g. Billmyer and Varghese, 2000), few attempts have been made to reconsider the DCT development process. McNamara and Roever (2006: 253) urge for the need for “more research on testing of sociopragmatic knowledge and design of discourse completion tests for testing purposes.”The present paper starts with an overview of the literature about DCTs with special reference to the cognitive validity of the instrument and to previous studies dealing with DCT structure and content. Then, with reference to research in the fields of language testing and psychometrics, it shows that, whether used for research or instructional purposes, the DCT shares several qualities with language tests. As such, it is argued that the DCT should be treated as a language test and not as a questionnaire and should, thus, undergo a rigorous developmental process. Based on recent models of language test construction, the paper concludes with an overview of the stages of DCT development.

The refusal speech act in a cross-cultural perspective: A study of Iranian English-language learners and Anglo-Australian speakers

This study aimed to investigate the refusal strategies of Iranian English-language learners and Anglo-Australian students to shed light on possible areas of cross-cultural miscommunication. Data were collected through a discourse completion test. Sociocultural norms underlying refusals of Iranian students were also investigated through focus group interviews (FGIs).In interaction with addressees of higher social power, both groups of participants used more indirect strategies. However, while making refusals to status equals, the performance of the Iranian and Australian participants differed from each other to a degree that could lead to intercultural miscommunication. The FGIs revealed that first language cultural schemas of tă'ărof (ritual politeness) and ru-dar-băyesti (state/feeling of distance-out-of-respect) greatly affected the refusals of the Iranian students.

Examining internal structure of Discourse Completion Test (DCT) on Arabic Learners of English

Examining internal structure of Discourse Completion Test (DCT) on Arabic Learners of English Huma Ejaz Abstract This study aims at finding out whether Arabic learners of English (Emarati Females in particular) produce target-like compliment responses in English and whether pragmatic transfer can occur. Discourse completion tests (DCTs) and interviews were used to study the strategies employed when responding to compliments by native speakers (NSs) and Arabic non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. Findings suggest that Arabic (L1) expressions and strategies were sometimes transferred to English (L2). This study also indicates that Emarati female learners of English transfer some of their L1 pragmatic norms to L2 because they perceive these norms to be universal among languages rather than being language specific. It also indicates that Arabic NNSs of English have some misconceptions about NSs that affect the way they respond to their compliments. Some important cultural and pedagogical implications are discussed at the end of the paper. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/rah.v5n1a7

A contrastive pragmatic study of politeness strategies in disagreement between native speakers of English and Chinese EFL learners

AbstractThis paper attempts to make a contrastive cross-cultural study of a special speech act— “disagreement.” Participants are 35 American undergraduates and 42 Chinese undergraduates respectively with the data eliciting technique—DCT (discourse completion test). Findings show that Chinese undergraduates tend to use different politeness strategies according to different social distance and social power while American undergraduates prefer to use positive politeness strategy most followed by negative politeness strategy, regardless of social distance and social power. The results of the study reveal cultural differences between the U.S. and China that lead to the distribution of diverse politeness strategies and also offer insights into what Chinese EFL learners are struggling with during their development of interlanguage pragmatic competence.

Intonational phonology and politeness in L1 and L2 Spanish

AbstractThis study makes a foray into the politeness strategies used by English learners of Spanish by comparing a corpus of invitations and requests recorded by 14 adult English learners of beginner-level Spanish as part of their course assignment to the data recorded by 12 native speakers. The native speakers’ data was collected using discourse completion tests, which elicited offers and requests in scenarios controlled for social distance, power, and the cost of the request or offer. All the data was analysed pragmatically, by quantifying the occurrence of politeness strategies, and phonologically, by transcribing pitch accents and boundary tones in line with the guidelines of the Autosegmental Metrical framework. The results show that, depending on the situation, native speakers combine the use of different lexical and morpho-syntactic devices with the use of specific intonational patterns. Most learners at beginner level correctly use a limited range of morpho-syntactic politeness strategies appropriate to their level, and these are frequently reinforced with intonation. However, our data also show that beginner learners often transfer the intonational patterns of their first language.

The Effect of Social Status and Gender on Realization of Refusal of Suggestion among Iranian EFL Intermediate Learners

The current study aimed at exploring the dependence of realized and applied strategies in refusal of suggestion on the people of different levels of social status (i.e., equal, low and high) and the gender differences. Teaching communicative rules, social conventions and values of the target nation can help EFL learners to avoid pragmatic failures. One of the important factors in realization of refusal strategies is the speaker's knowledge of the refusals usage to save the interlocutor's face and to be polite. The participants of this study consisted of 60 (30 females and 30 males) intermediate English Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Tehran, Iran. Discourse-completion test (DCT) with 18 situations was used. Chi- square indicated that learners employed more indirect strategies to people of equal social status. They used more direct strategies to people of low social status, and we can claim that they applied the same types of direct and indirect strategies to people of high social status. Learners utilized more adjunct strategies to people of equal social status and the frequency of realized and applied strategies in refusal of suggestion was not statistically different between the female and male participants in each of three levels of social status.

STRATEGI TINDAK TUTUR PERMINTAAN OLEH PENUTUR BAHASA ARAB LAKI-LAKI LIBYA

This research explains the strategies of politeness in requesting expression and utterance politeness level by male speakers of Libya Arabic.The aim of this study is to understand the strategies of request politeness and politeness level. This study using qualitativedescriptive method to analyze the data. This study involved six Libyan male students in six situations. The data collected is using a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The dataare analyzed according to the model sproposed by Blum Kulka and Elite Olstain(1989) and Rahardi (2005). The findings show that first strategy used by Libyan Arabic male students is direct strategy through the mood derivable 5,5%, explisit performatives 5,5%, and scopestating 22%. Two conventional indirect strategy shows that suggestory formula 14% and query preparatory 53%.

Investigation of the effects of the social power and social distance on the realization of apology between Jordanian and English cultures

The current study investigated the influence of context-external variables; social power (High, Equal and Low) and social distance (Familiar and Unfamiliar) on the perception of Jordanian and English speech act of apology. Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and Scaled Response Questionnaire (SRQ) were used to elicit data from three groups: 40 Jordanian L2 speakers in Malaysia, 40 Jordanian non-English speakers in Malaysia and 40 English native speakers from British Council in Jordan. The three groups of respondents were asked to assess four context-internal variables i.e. the severity of the offence, the possibility of the offender apology, the difficulty of the apology by the offender and the likelihood of apology acceptance by the offended party. Results of the study were accomplished using one way ANOVA and Tukey HSD post hoc statistical tests. The findings revealed that Jordanians have high sensitivity toward hierarchical power and social distance more than English native speakers. Moreover, results revealed that there are negative sociopragmatic transfers from L1 to L2 by JL2Ss based on their four-context internal variables perception. Findings could be used to increase the cultural awareness toward some similarities and differences between both cultures

Most Common Refusal Strategies Used by Students of English Teaching as a Foreign Language

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>El presente artículo explora las estrategias de rechazo de peticiones y ofrecimientos más usadas por un grupo de estudiantes de la Enseñanza </span><span>del Inglés de la Sede del Pacífico de la Universidad de Costa Rica. Tal análisis se realizó mediante versión modificada de un Test de Discurso </span><span>compuesto de seis situaciones comunicativas: tres peticiones y tres ofreci</span><span>mientos. La investigación señala las estrategias indirectas como las pre</span><span>dilectas en todas las situaciones; además, las estrategias en las cuales el </span><span>interlocutor pospone lo ofrecido y ofrece excusas y motivos se encuentran </span><span>como las usadas más frecuentemente. </span></p></div></div></div>

Promoting Task‐Based Pragmatics Instruction in EFL Classroom Contexts: The Role of Task Complexity

Robinson's (2001) Cognition Hypothesis claims that more complex tasks promote interaction and language development. This study examined the effect of task complexity in the learning of request‐making expressions. Task complexity was operationalized as [+/− reasoning] following Robinson's framework. The study employed a pretest–posttest research design and was conducted over 6 weeks. Korean junior high school students from 3 classes (N = 73) were assigned to one of the following groups: simple, complex, or control. Both task groups performed a pretest, 2 collaborative tasks, and 2 posttests, whereas the control group performed the pre‐ and posttests only. Learners’ oral interaction during tasks was audiorecorded and analyzed by the number of pragmatic‐related episodes (PREs). Learners’ knowledge of request expressions was measured by a discourse completion test (DCT). The results indicated that task complexity levels influenced the occurrence of PREs, but no difference was found in the quality of task outcome between the simple and complex groups. In terms of learning outcomes, both task groups outperformed the control group, but no difference was found on the immediate posttest. However, the complex group maintained its gain on the delayed posttest.

Speech Acts Strategies of “Refusing” by Indonesian in France Language

<p>Learning a foreign language is not just focused on learning the language grammatically, but also pragmatically that is spoken in accordance with the proper context. Mistakes in particular speech act speech act can have an impact on the problem of refusing to face up to conflict. This paper wants to see how the strategy of rejecting speech acts committed by Indonesian students who study French. Strategies analyzed by the selection vocabulary, effectiveness of sentences, sentence structure and politeness. Respondents are 30 students majoring in French at the University of Medan were selected based on purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The results show that in the choice of vocabulary, many respondents use the verb is not appropriate to express rejection. Respondents were also frequent repetition of words in a sentence that makes the sentence to be long and rambling. In refusing, respondents are very polite, especially in the interaction between faculty and students. However, politeness is only indicated with concomitant use of words such as <em>madame (madame),</em> <em>monsieur (sir)</em> and <em>excuse the expression (z) -moi (pardon me), je suis désolé (e)</em> (I regret). Whereas for the polite form sentences in French can be used with <em>conditionel </em>mode, and other strategies such as the use of the phrase <em>impersonnel</em>, neutral pronoun use on, or the passive sentence. These strategies do not look at the answers of the respondents.</p>

On the relationship between critical thinking and indirect request strategy use of EFL learners

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between EFL learners’ critical thinking and their indirect request strategy use. To this end, one hundred learners learning English as a foreign language at private language institutes in Sanandaj, Iran, were selected as the participants of the study. The participants took the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) form B developed by Facione and Facione (1993) and the English Discourse Completion Test (EDCT) adopted from Rose (1994). Pearson product-moment correlation and linear regression analyses were carried out to analyse the data. The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis indicated that critical thinking significantly correlated with the indirect request strategy use of EFL learners. The results of linear regression analysis revealed that critical thinking was a strong predictor of the indirect request strategy use of EFL learners. The findings imply that EFL learners who are competent in critical thinking would frequently use indirect request strategies.

The effect of gender on refusal of suggestion in formal and informal situations among Iranian learners

<p>The knowledge of the speech acts of refusals has crucial role in our daily communication, because of the interlocutor’s face, politeness, and face threatening act. This study aims to investigate the gender differences in realization of the usage of proper strategies of refusal of suggestion in formal and informal situations. The participants consisted of 60 (30 females and 30 males) in intermediate level of language proficiency, in Zaban Negar institute of Tehran, Iran as EFL context. The instrument which is used in eliciting the data is Discourse Completion Test (DCT) that is in open ended form and composed of 18 situations that included refusal to a person of acquaintance, intimacy, and stranger among female and male learners. In this study, there are two DCT which are designed separately for female and male groups, and participants should put themselves in each situation and answer the question up to 20 minutes. Data was analyzed due to the frequency types of refusals which are applied to interlocutor's social distance by calculating the frequency statistics and in order to find any significant difference and to compare the differences chi-square was computed. The findings revealed that the frequency of applied refusals of suggestion was different among the learners to people with different levels of social distance. According to chi square analysis, the realization of applied strategies of the refusal of suggestion depends on the different social distances. The frequency of realized and applied strategies in formal and informal situation in refusal of suggestion is not statistically different between the female and male participants.</p><p>Keywords: speech acts of refusals, suggestion, gender, formal and informal situation, refusal strategies</p>

La Caracterización de los Cumplidos en una Población Universitaria

This article describes the characteristics of compliments in a university population in Medellin, Colombia. As a research instrument, a discourse completion test (DCT ) was administered to 740 participants. The DCTs were analyzed using Cratilo software; gender and relationship with the university (student, professor, and employee) were taken into account as variables. Results show that informants prefer to use prototypical exclamatory sentences introduced by interjections

The effect of input-based practice on the accurate and speedy performance of EFL refusals: The role of proficiency and lexical access ability in focus

This study examined the effect of input-based practice on the development of the accurate and speedy recognition and production of English refusals among Iranian EFL learners. It was, also, interested in the possible role of general language proficiency and lexical access ability as a cognitive skill on the enhancement of pragmatic accuracy and speed. Seventy-six Persian learners of English were assigned to either input-based or control group. Before the treatment, a lexical access test and a proficiency test were taken. After a five- session treatment, a Pragmatic Listening Judgment Test (PLJT) and an Oral Discourse Completion Test (ODCT) were run. The results indicated the positive effect of input-based practice in speedy recognition and accurate production of English refusals. In addition, general L2 proficiency and lexical access ability correlated significantly with the pragmatic accuracy and pragmatic speed of the learners, respectively, both in the recognition and production of English refusals.