A Pragmatic Research of Chinese International Students’ Speech Act of Gratitude

1. A Pragmatic Research of Chinese International Students’ Speech Act of Gratitude P64361 CHEN CHENZI

2. Introduction

3. Introduction English lingua-franca global communication Pragmatic competence Communicative competence Sufficient Grammar rules BUT Insufficient Pragmatic knowledge Communication Breakdown Amaya (2008)

4. Introduction Pragmatic failure Social rules or interpersonal relationship is violated: ungrammatical sentences, wrong intonation and incorrect pronunciation (Li, 2011) In China 1.Emphasize English teaching on linguistic level 2.Pragmatics knowledge is neglected in textbook 3. L2 teachers think it is hard to teach pragmatics (Zhengand Huang, 2010. Amaya, 2008.)

5. Statement of the problem

6. Statement of the problem Gratitude strategies differ cross culturally British English----Formal marker ‘Thank you’ American English---Thanking Marahi& Hindi------Breaches feeling of closeness (Aharand Rasekh, 2011. Pishghadam and Zarei, 2011. Farashaiyan and Tan, 2012).

7. Statement of the problem Pragmatic failure Case A: Thanks a lot. That's a great help. B: Never mind. (Huang and Xu, 2011) Chinese idea + English form Forms are correct, appropriateness is neglected.

8. Statement of the problem Factors affect language learner’s ability to perform speech acts appropriately: Language proficiency Learning style preferences Personality Culture difference Social variable: Social distance(D), Social power(P) and Imposition(R) ………. ( Tan and Farashaiyan, 2012. Qing, 2010. )

9. Statement of Problem Language proficiency Lower language proficiency learners have difficulties to choose appropriate speech act strategies in different situations (Tan and Farashaiyan, 2012). Advance learners are more at risk than lower proficiency learners in performing speech act (Cheng, 2005). Social Variable Foreign language learners always assume the expression of gratitude is universal and are unaware of cross-culture reality (Bodmanand Eisenstein, 1988. cited in Ahar and Rasekh, 2011).

10. Research Objectives • To identify strategies that Chinese international students use to perform gratitude in English, in terms of frequency and typology. • To investigate whether language proficiency affects Chinese international students’ choice of strategy in performing gratitude in English. • To investigate whether social variables of social distance and size of imposition influence Chinese international students’ choice of strategy in performing gratitude in English.

11. Research Questions • What kind of gratitude strategies do Chinese international students utilize in English in terms of frequency and typology? • Do language proficiency affect Chinese international students’ choice of strategy in forming speech act of gratitude? • Do social variables of social distance and size of imposition influence Chinese international students’ choice of strategy in forming speech act of gratitude?

12. Significance of the study Language Learners: Cross-culture context involves different contextual factors for conveying the intended meaning, difference of speech acts strategies between two cultures affect communication and may rise misunderstanding Language Teachers: It is not enough to only develop language learners’ linguistic competence. It is necessary to improve language learner’s sociocultural and pragmatic competence, increase their understanding of rules in the target language.

13. Literature Review

14. Pragmatics Yule (1998, cited in Krisnawati, 2011) : Pragmatics as a study of relationships between linguistic forms and the users of these forms

15. Pragmatic Transfer& Negative pragmatic transfer Kasper ( cited in Bu, 2010) Pragmatic transfer : the learners comprehend the second language’s knowledge with their own pragmatic knowledge. Interlocutor mistakenly generalized from L1 knowledge to L2 setting, it leads to imperfect pragmatic competence but not have to be miscommunication (Al-Khateeb, 2009).

16. Pragmatic Failure J. Thomas(1983, cited in Zheng and Huang, 2010) : “the inability to understand what is meant by what is said”, e.g. Despite English learners in China may hold quite strong competency on language skills, they still make mistakes when they communicate with foreigners.

17. Speech Act of Gratitude The SA of thanking is an expressive act in the classifications of Searle (1976, cited in Ahar and Rasekh,2011). This act is reactive to the prior actions of the interlocutor. Thanks Praise Appreciation (Pishghadam, Zarei, 2011) Chinese and English native speakers had different choices of thanking strategies (Cheng, 2005).

18. Language proficiency and speech acts Lower language proficiency learners have difficulties to choose appropriate speech act strategies in different situations (Tan and Farashaiyan, 2012). Advance learners are more at risk than lower proficiency learners in performing speech act (Cheng, 2005).

19. Social variables and speech acts Brown and Levinson (1987, cited in Farashaiyanand Tan, 2012) Social Variables of social distance(D), social power(P) and imposition (R) affect politeness, especially speech act. D, P and R are the most significant and key factors that affect speakers’ strategy choice.

20. Theoretical Framework Coding framework for gratitude based on Cheng(2005)’s An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguagepragmatic development of expressions of gratitude by Chinese learners of English • Thanking • Appreciation • Repayment • Recognition of imposition • Apology • Positive feeling • Other • Alerter

21. Methodology

22. Research Design Qualitative research method, qualitative data collection and content based analysis Research Sample 20 Chinese international full-time students from University Kebangsaan Malaysia Why? • Experience of study abroad • Instruction are given in English Suit RO • Communicate with local in English • English learner & user • Easy and efficient to invite

23. Data Collection Method Give open ended DCT questionnaire to participants online or face to face. Duration: 20-25minutes for each participant Research Instrument Open ended questionnaire: • English proficiency, age, level of study (1st part) • Discourse Completion Test (2nd part) DCT contains 8 open-ended scenarios vary according to D,P,R.

24. E.g. You are in class. You need to take notes, but you can’t find a pen. You ask a classmate, whom you don’t know very well, sitting beside you to lend you one. After class, when you return the pen, what do you say to your classmate? Data Analysis Procedure • Divide raw data into 2 groups: advance language user & lower proficiency language user • Analyze qualitative data, classified according to Cheng(2005)’s coding framework: 8 strategies • Quantify data to figure up the percentage of frequency and typology of strategies

26. 4. Put 2 groups of number into a line chart. Compare. (RQ2)

27. 5. Analyze data according to the taxonomy used by Cheng (2005), describe the 8 scenarios in relation to the combination of the two factors: social distance and size of imposition. (RQ3)

28. References • AnchaleeWannaruk (2008) Pragmatic Transfer in Thai EFL Refusals. Vol 39(3) 318-337. SAGE Publications • Cheng.S.W(2005) An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development of expressions of gratitude by Chinese learners of English • J. L. Austin (1962) How to do things with words. • Yan Huang (2007) Pragmatics. • RishikantPandey (2007) Speech act and linguistic communication • George Yule (1998) Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Pragmatics. • LucíaFernández Amaya (2008) Teaching Culture: Is It Possible to Avoid Pragmatic Failure? RevistaAlicantina de EstudiosIngleses 21 (2008): 11-24 • Jiemin Bu (2010) Study of pragmatic transfer in persuasion strategies by Chinese learners of English 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies Vol 16 (2) 2010 • Lihong Yang (2009) The Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University. • ZhengLihui and Huang Jianbin (2010) A Study of Chinese EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Failure and the Implications for College English Teaching. • EkaningKrisnawati (2011) Pragmatic Competence in the Spoken English Classroom Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. I No. 1 .July 2011 • Kim Hua, Tan and AtiehFarashaiyan (2012). A Situational Variation in Request and Apology Patterns among International Postgraduate Students in a University of Higher Education. An unpublished journal • Rehab Morsi and Elizabeth Riddle (2010) The Speech Act of Thanking in Egyptian Arabic • Kofi Agyekum (2010) The Sociolinguistics of Thanking in Akan Nordic Journal of African Studies 19(2): 77–97 (2010)