The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaint speech act set used by Turkish EFL learners speaking to a commiserating and contradicting teacher. For this purpose, four kinds of data sources were used: twenty native English speakers&amp / #8217 / role-plays, twenty five Turkish native speakers&amp / #8217 / role-plays, forty students&amp / #8217 / role-plays and two native speakers&amp / #8217 / judgments on the students&amp / #8217 / production. The subjects were given two different situations. Their role-plays were audio taped and transcribed. The subjects&amp / #8217 / complaint speech act sets were analyzed, using a coding scheme from a previous study in the literature. The baseline and the interlanguage data were compared using SPSS to see to what extent they were similar and different, and to see whether or not the Turkish EFL learners made positive and negative transfer, and whether there were any features unique to the interlanguage of the learners. The findings of the study revealed that Turkish EFL learners produced a complaint speech act set when speaking to a commiserating and contradicting teacher. The components of the complaint speech act set realized by the learners were &amp / #8216 / complaint&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / justification&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / candidate solution: request&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / candidate solution: demand&amp / #8217 / , and &amp / #8216 / explanation of purpose&amp / #8217 / . When speaking to the commiserating teacher, the students made positive transfer in using the components &amp / #8216 / explanation of purpose&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / complaint&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / justification&amp / #8217 / , and &amp / #8216 / request&amp / #8217 / . They made negative transfer in using &amp / #8216 / demand&amp / #8217 / . The students speaking to the contradicting teacher made positive transfer in their use of the components &amp / #8216 / explanation of purpose&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / complaint&amp / #8217 / and &amp / #8216 / justification&amp / #8217 / . The component &amp / #8216 / demand&amp / #8217 / was subject to negative transfer.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-170).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hamburg, 2001. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

This dissertation examines (1) whether there are differences in how sympathy is expressed in situations of differing gravity by native speakers (NSs) of Spanish and English, as well as intermediate second language (L2) learners of Spanish; and (2) Spanish NSs' thoughts regarding learners' nonstandard reactions to these situations. The data collection involved an informal conversation eliciting sympathy and a retrospective interview. Sympathy is examined not only as an emotion but also as a means to achieve social or conversational goals. Hence, the analysis involves both linguistic and sociological theories. Using aspects of Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969), Conversation Analysis (Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974) and Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), and following Clark's (1997) ideas on the process of giving sympathy, it was found that when reacting to an interlocutor's hardships, speakers may experience genuine overt sympathy, covert sympathy or surface sympathy, which are influenced by social and politeness factors, personality differences and conversational structure. Results also indicate that differences exist in how sympathy is expressed by NSs of English and Spanish, particularly for low gravity situations. For high gravity situations, speakers of both languages tended to rely more on the use of formulaic expressions. Also, learners were often unable to react due to linguistic limitations. Some learners transferred pragmatic knowledge from their L1 to their L2, while others had acquired sufficient L2 pragmatic information to react appropriately. Finally, it was seen that NSs are more lenient regarding pragmatic errors committed by non-NSs of the language, but many consider that failing to express compassion in certain contexts could negatively impact the communication or relationship between interlocutors. The findings suggest that learning to express emotion such as compassion is an important part of achieving L2 communicative competence and, since cultural and pragmatic differences exist among languages, learners should be exposed to real-life, communicative situations in order to acquire such emotive skills. This dissertation contributes to the fields of second language acquisition and pragmatics by combining cognitive, affective and social factors to show how they interact with language production and comprehension. / text

The primary aim of this study is to determine the level of syntactic development in English of South African matriculants. The ESL standard in South Africa has been criticised, but no objective data are available. This study provides relevant data, based on an index, and indicates shortcomings in learners' syntactic competence. Poor school-leaving standards in English are a cause of great concern in South Africa, and complaints about school leavers' standard of English have increased over the last few years. Yet, apart from generally being labelled as "poor", little is known about the actual level of development reached by ESL learners. Comments are often based on subjective impressions. This study focuses on syntactic development in writing and aims to determine the level of syntactic development of Grade 12 ESL learners in an objective way. Interlanguage, the concept of 'stages of development’ and fossilization are discussed. The need for an index that can measure language development objectively is considered. General means of measuring syntactic development are evaluated and an index formula is established by means of statistical analyses. This formula is based on the T-unit and assigns numerical values to levels of development. The index formula is used to determine the level of syntactic development of a group of Grade 12 ESL learners. The compositions that were analysed were obtained from six provinces in South Africa. Index values are calculated for Higher and Standard Grade, for the group as a whole, and each of the six provinces. An Error Analysis is conducted and error frequencies are reported. Problem areas in syntax are identified. The implications of the findings are considered and recommendations are briefly made for the teaching and learning of grammar. / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

The purpose of the study was two-fold. First, it investigated, described, and analyzed tense shifts and the roles of the present tense forms in IEIL autobiographical discourse. Second, as a contribution to the study of English interlanguage of Indonesian EFL learners it presents some pedagogical implications for the EFL teaching and learning in Indonesia and offers suggestions for further research. The data used for the study were twenty-six essays containing 1700 verb phrases in 937 sentences, which were written by twenty-six freshman EFL learners of the University of Sriwijaya in Palembang, Indonesia, in 1986.The results of the study show that tense use in IEIL is systematic, on one hand, and variable, on the other. Shifts of tense from past to present are generally predictable. The present tense usually functions to present the writer's evaluation or opinion, habitual occurrences, general truth, or factual descriptions functioning as permanent truth in relation to the writer's childhood. Occasionally, the present tense functions as the Historical Present to narrate past events. The past tense, on the other hand, usually functions to describe past truth and, at times, to narrate historical events such as the writer's date and place of birth.Variability also characterizes IEIL autobiographical discourse. That is, IEIL writers do not completely follow the present and past tense rules. For instance, they usually use the present tense to express habitual occurrences, but at other times they use past tense accompanied by such expressions as "on Sundays," "on holidays," "whenever," etc.In addition, the following conclusions have been drawn: (1) IEIL autobiographical discourse largely contains description expressed in the past tense; (2) discourses are highly recommended to be used as the first material in teaching linguistic phenomena such as tense shifts to Indonesian EFL learners; and (3) following the IL theory and principles, EFL teachers should not treat EFL learner's should treat them as a sign that they are in fact in the process of learning.deviants as a sign of improper usage and harmful but instead should treat them as a sign that they are in fact in the process of learning. / Department of English

This study investigates the fossilization and defossilization in the developing interlanguage of ESL students. The subjects were a group of 13 Japanese SL learners who studied at a U. S. University in an exchange program during 1994-95. The students' use of copula, auxiliaries, morphemes and syntactic structures was examined to see the degree to which there were interlanguage changes during the period. A close examination of SL production in form-focused contexts indicates that fossilized errors are more likely to occur when a number of particular conditions are not satisfied, involving a relatively automatized system of conveying meaning, an easy control of topic and a high degree of understanding of the target linguistic structure. / Department of English

The primary aim of this study is to determine the level of syntactic development in English of South African matriculants. The ESL standard in South Africa has been criticised, but no objective data are available. This study provides relevant data, based on an index, and indicates shortcomings in learners' syntactic competence. Poor school-leaving standards in English are a cause of great concern in South Africa, and complaints about school leavers' standard of English have increased over the last few years. Yet, apart from generally being labelled as "poor", little is known about the actual level of development reached by ESL learners. Comments are often based on subjective impressions. This study focuses on syntactic development in writing and aims to determine the level of syntactic development of Grade 12 ESL learners in an objective way. Interlanguage, the concept of 'stages of development’ and fossilization are discussed. The need for an index that can measure language development objectively is considered. General means of measuring syntactic development are evaluated and an index formula is established by means of statistical analyses. This formula is based on the T-unit and assigns numerical values to levels of development. The index formula is used to determine the level of syntactic development of a group of Grade 12 ESL learners. The compositions that were analysed were obtained from six provinces in South Africa. Index values are calculated for Higher and Standard Grade, for the group as a whole, and each of the six provinces. An Error Analysis is conducted and error frequencies are reported. Problem areas in syntax are identified. The implications of the findings are considered and recommendations are briefly made for the teaching and learning of grammar. / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Newcastle, 1999. / Department of Modern Languages. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 309-390). Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-83). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.