Based on a cross-cultural comparison of requesting behavior between Koreans and Americans, the study tried to determine the extent of pragmatic transfer and the impact of individual subjective motives that may influence pragmatic language choice. Two different groups of subjects participated in this study: 30 Korean participants for Korean (KK) and also for interlanguage (KE) data who were studying English as a Second Language (ESL) in a U.S. university, and 30 American college students (AE). Data were collected by using a questionnaire with a Discourse Completion Task (DCT). Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 13 Korean ESL learners who showed the highest and the least amount of pragmatic transfer. Findings showed evidence of pragmatic transfer in the request responses given by Korean ESL learners in the level of directness, perspectives of head acts, and the frequency of supportive moves and internal modifiers. The requesting behaviors of KE group were realized through more direct strategies than those of AE group. KE speakers had a tendency to use hearer-oriented requests more frequently than AE speakers, but slightly less than KK speakers, indicating that L1 transfer is operative. Pragmatic transfer occurred in three supportive moves such as Promise of Reward, Appreciation, and Apology and in three internal modifiers such as play-down, consultative device, and downtoner. The interviewees in this study were conscious of differing rules for requesting. Learners’ judgment of L2 pragmatic norms, the learners’ perception of their own language and their attitudes of the learned language have a determining influence on language use. Furthermore, findings showed that purpose of learning the L2, learners’ different types of motivation, and the length of residence intention contribute to the extent of pragmatic transfer. Finally, impossibility to acquire native-like proficiency, fear of disloyalty to their own culture, and preference of L1 styles as a marker of cultural identity seemed to be factors that influence learners’ pragmatic choices. Findings of this study offer implications that language educators need to recognize and plan for the different target goals language learners may have and that second/foreign language speakers also possess a desire to express their own identity.

The purpose of the study was to investigate Chinese EFL interlanguage request behaviors in terms of both perception and production on the perspective of pragmatic transfer based on theoretical issues of Speech Act Theory, politeness theory and cultural dimension of individualism vs. collectivism. Data were obtained from three groups of participants: 30 native speakers of Chinese college students (CL1s), 30 non-English-major Chinese EFLs college students (Chinese EFLs) and 30 native speakers of English college students (EL1s). Data for analysis consisted of 5400 perception responses collected with the instrument of 5-point Scale-response Questionnaires (SRQ) and 1800 production responses collected with the instrument of 20-item Discourse Completion Task (DCT) varied with contextual factors of Degree of Imposition, Status and Distance. Responses of perceptions were analyzed in terms of Degree of Imposition, Degree of Difficulty, and the Likelihood of Request on performing the act. Responses of productions were coded into two parts: the head act of request strategies consisting of Direct (including Mood Derivable, Explicit Performative, Hedge Performative, Locution Derivable, Want Statement), Conventional Indirect (including Suggestory Formula, Query Preparatory), Non-conventional Indirect strategies (Strong Hint, Mild Hints) and external modifications (i.e. supportive moves) according to the coding schema of CCSARP (Blum-Kulka, House & Kasper, 1989). With qualitative and quantitative data analysis, some important findings were obtained. Regarding the perception task, CL1s and EFLs did not differ in their judgment on the Likelihood of Request, which further verified the validity of the questionnaire. However, CL1s generally perceived higher Degree of Imposition and Difficulty than did EL1s on requestive behaviors regardless of the shifting of contextual factors Status, Distance and Degree of Imposition and such perception reflected in their more frequent use of supportive moves than EL1s in all contexts. With regard to strategy use, the three groups yielded the same preference order: Conventional Indirect>Direct> Non-Conventional Indirect strategies in all contexts. Although CL1s were found to use more Direct strategies than did their EL1 counterparts, significant difference lay only in Low Imposition, Low Status and Low Distance situations. As for pragmatic transfer, negative pragmalinguistic transfers were found in Chinese EFLs¡¦ use of linguistic forms of Direct strategies such as Bare-imperative Help, Please+Imperative, Please+help and the Conventional Indirect strategy, Would you let me¡K? Negative sociolinguistic pragmatic transfers were found in Chinese EFLs¡¦ use of Direct strategies in Low Status/Distance situations, and the Conventional Indirect strategy of Can (Could) ¡K? /¯à¤£¯à (Neng bu neng )¡K? in Low Imposition/Distance and May I ¡K? Positive pragmalinguistic and sociolinguistic transfers were also found in either Chinese EFLs¡¦ Direct or Conventional Indiret strategies. The study ends up with some theoretical and pedagogical implications. It is suggested that both participants¡¦ requestive responses of production and perception be considered when analyzing interlanguage speech act behaviors in order to gain a better understanding of speakers¡¦ and learners¡¦ pragmatic awareness of speech act behaviors.

<p>The study of appropriateness in language use is part of pragmatics, and how speakers give and respond to complements is a source of data in such studies. Compliments are strategies to explicitly or implicitly ascribe qualities that are mutually appreciated by the speaker and the addressee of a compliment. When individuals from different cultures interact in conversations, including the giving and receiving of compliments, and their behaviour is based on different conventions, it may lead to misunderstandings. Earlier studies (Cedar, 2006 & Sharifian, 2005, 2008) suggest that pragmatic transfer can cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Second language users seem to transfer first language pragmatic rules into second language domains. This study will examine whether pragmatic transfer occurs in Swedish as first language into English as a second language in compliment responses. It will be assumed that pragmatic conventions are influenced by both linguistic and social norms. A Discourse completion task was used in order to obtain the data. The Discourse completion task consisted of one questionnaire in English, and one translated into Swedish, with situations where a compliment was given and the participant was instructed to imagine him/herself in that situation and give their most probable response to that compliment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between compliment responses given in Swedish and those given in English by native Swedish speakers. Thus, pragmatic transfer could have occurred. The Swedish participants’ compliment responses were also compared to compliment responses of Scottish English L1 speakers. The results are discussed in relation to other studies of pragmatic transfer in compliment responses, and suggestions for future research are considered.<strong> </strong></p>

The study of appropriateness in language use is part of pragmatics, and how speakers give and respond to complements is a source of data in such studies. Compliments are strategies to explicitly or implicitly ascribe qualities that are mutually appreciated by the speaker and the addressee of a compliment. When individuals from different cultures interact in conversations, including the giving and receiving of compliments, and their behaviour is based on different conventions, it may lead to misunderstandings. Earlier studies (Cedar, 2006 &amp; Sharifian, 2005, 2008) suggest that pragmatic transfer can cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Second language users seem to transfer first language pragmatic rules into second language domains. This study will examine whether pragmatic transfer occurs in Swedish as first language into English as a second language in compliment responses. It will be assumed that pragmatic conventions are influenced by both linguistic and social norms. A Discourse completion task was used in order to obtain the data. The Discourse completion task consisted of one questionnaire in English, and one translated into Swedish, with situations where a compliment was given and the participant was instructed to imagine him/herself in that situation and give their most probable response to that compliment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between compliment responses given in Swedish and those given in English by native Swedish speakers. Thus, pragmatic transfer could have occurred. The Swedish participants’ compliment responses were also compared to compliment responses of Scottish English L1 speakers. The results are discussed in relation to other studies of pragmatic transfer in compliment responses, and suggestions for future research are considered.

This study investigates the pragmatic transfer Chinese Latter-day Saint (LDS) missionaries speaking English display when responding to compliments in English conversations. Previous studies have shown that native American English speakers have a higher rate of compliment acceptance in their compliment response (CR) strategies. While, native Chinese speakers have a higher rate of denial in their CRs (. A common research question is whether or not CR strategies transfer from a Chinese English speaker's first language (L1) into their English conversations. To measure this, 40 missionaries from the LDS church participated in naturalized role plays. Half were native Chinese (10 male, 10 female), and the other half were native American (10 male and 10 female). Each missionary participated in two role play situations, once with a male researcher and once with a female researcher. These role plays were conducted in English. In each role play the researcher complimented the participant in four areas: 1) ability, 2) native culture/hometown, 3) the LDS church, 4) a small possession (e.g. watch, tie, skirt, etc). CRs were recorded then organized on a CR continuum. A series of univariate and related measures ANOVAs was used to measure significance. Results suggest that Chinese missionaries tend to downgrade and disagree with compliments more than American missionaries. Additionally, female Chinese missionaries tend to overgeneralize using the appreciation token when responding to compliments. Other significant findings include the effect of gender and compliment topic on the missionaries' CR strategies.

No description available.

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.

This study focuses on the pragmatic transfers that emerge in the English emails produced byChinese L2 English speakers. Despite doubts about taking Chinese English as a new variety, the study believes there are some common and unique pragmatic features existing in the English text produced by Chinese L2 English speakers. 104 emails written by 13 subjects with different English proficiency and different English exposure were collected. Questionnaires were sent out to the same subjects, trying to find out the factors that affect their pragmatic performance. The study accomplished the following main findings: 1) There are differences in the extent to which pragmatic transfer occurs among different subjects. 2) The individual subject’s pragmatic performance in English is not necessarily decided by the subjects’ English proficiency. 3) The extent of pragmatic transfer in the individual subject’s case seems to be much more complex situation than depending on any single factor of the following: English proficiency, exposure to English, or confidence in using English. 4) Some email writers have different extent of pragmatic transfer in the situations with different levels of tension. 5) However, whether the subjects have different extent of pragmatic transfer or not seems again to be too complex a situation to decide which of the factors (English proficiency, exposure to English, or confidence in using English) plays a decisive role.

This study investigated how the speech act of refusal is realized in Egyptian Arabic by intermediate and advanced American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. It also compared the performance of the learners to that of native speakers of Egyptian Arabic and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the learners' language proficiency and their pragmatic competence. In addition, it examined the extent of pragmatic transfer from L1 and whether there was a relationship between the degree of pragmatic transfer and the level of L2 proficiency. The study also examined how refusals are structured and organized at the discourse level. Four groups participated in the study: 10 native speakers of Egyptian Arabic, 10 native speakers of American English, 10 American learners of Arabic at the intermediate level, and 10 at the advanced level. Data were collected using enhanced open-ended role plays which consisted of 6 scenarios eliciting refusals of offers and requests in equal and unequal status situations. Both quantitative and qualitative data analytic methods were used for analyzing the interactions. Results show that there were important differences between the two learner groups and the native speakers of Egyptian Arabic with regard to the frequency of direct and indirect strategies and individual strategy use. For example, the learners used a higher percentage of direct strategies and a lower percentage of indirect strategies than the native speakers of Egyptian Arabic, especially in higher status situations. The learners also used a higher percentage of the Statement of Regret and Request for Information/Clarification strategies and a lower percentage of the Postponement and Hedging strategies than the Egyptians. With regard to differences between the two learner groups, the advanced students were able to engage in more negotiation and use an overall lower percentage of direct strategies and a higher percentage of indirect strategies than their intermediate counterparts. Evidence of positive and negative pragmatic transfer was observed in the two learner groups; however a higher degree of transfer was observed in the advanced students. Individual differences among the learners were found to play a major role in how refusals were realized.

The present study investigates pragmatic transfer by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at low and high proficiency levels in email requests. Data was elicited using an email production questionnaire consisting of four email situations, which vary along two social dimensions: relative power, either equal or higher, and size of imposition, either big or small. Four groups of participants, who were all university students, took part in the study. Thirty-seven Chinese native speakers of Mandarin and 35 Australian native speakers of English provided the baseline data. Thirty-five Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency level and 38 Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency level provided the target data. Altogether 580 emails were collected. Data was classified according to an adapted version of the coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). Email requests were analyzed at both the utterance and discourse levels. At the utterance level, directness level, strategy types and internal modifiers were examined. At the discourse level, external modifiers, including all the supportive moves in the opening, body, and closing of an email request were analyzed. Following Beebe et al. (1990), data was looked at in terms of the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were adopted. To determine evidence of pragmatic transfer, first, the Chinese baseline data and the English baseline data were compared. The EFL data was then compared with that of the two baseline groups. Pragmatic transfer was confirmed if the EFL data resembled the Chinese baseline data but differed from the English baseline data. In addition, the instances of pragmatic transfer displayed by the EFL groups at low and high proficiency levels were compared to examine the correlation between pragmatic transfer and language proficiency, that is, whether pragmatic transfer increases or decreases as learners’ language proficiency increases. Pragmatic transfer was investigated on both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic levels. Findings of the present study show that pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer occurred at the utterance and the discourse levels in all three areas: the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features, by both the low and high proficiency EFL learners. Moreover, a comparison of the performance of requests by the two learner groups indicates that the high proficiency learners had a greater amount of pragmatic transfer than the low proficiency learners. The findings of this study lend strong support to the positive correlation hypothesis proposed by T. Takahashi and Beebe (1987). The findings of the present study highlight the importance of the inclusion of pragmatic components in foreign language teaching. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed. Possible suggestions regarding how to improve the EFL learners’ pragmatic competence are provided.