The Complexity of Pragmatic Competence: A Comparative Analysis of Native English Speakers’ and Turkish ESL Students’ Advice-giving Strategies

Year 2022, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 305 - 324, 27.10.2022

Tuba Yilmaz

https://doi.org/10.31464/jlere.1096196

Abstract

Studies revealed that English as a second language (ESL) speakers and native English speakers (NES) often used different strategies to offer advice in English. Since these differences can cause cross-cultural misunderstandings and misattribution of intent between ESL speakers and NES, it is important to identify them. For this purpose, this study analyzed the structural and pragmatic differences between the advice-giving strategies of NES and Turkish ESL speakers. 18 NES and 20 Turkish ESL students were recruited and asked to offer written advice to the given cases in a WCDT questionnaire. The analysis revealed that while the NES students tended to use the modal ‘would’, the pronoun ‘I’, and some other politeness features in their advice, Turkish ESL speakers tended to use the modal ‘should’ and the pronoun ‘you’ more. These results indicated that Turkish ESL speakers employed their pragmatic competence in Turkish to construct their discourses in English.

Keywords

Advice-giving, pragmatic competence, native English speakers, English as a second language speakers, cultural awareness.

References

• Al-Shboul, Y., Maros, M. & Mohd Yasin, M. S. (2012). An Intercultural Study of Refusal Strategies in English between Jordanian EFL and Malay ESL Postgraduate Students. The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 18(3), 29-39.
• Baca, E. (2011). Pragmatic Competence: The Case of Advice in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Abroad. Unpublished MA. dissertation, Arizona State University
• Bakhtin,M. M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. University of Texas Press.
• Bardovi-Harlig, K. & Dornyei, Z. (1998). Do language learners recognize pragmatic violations? Pragmatic versus grammatical awareness in instructed L2 learning. TESOL Quarterly, 32(2), 233–262.
• Blum-Kulka, S. (1991). Interlanguage pragmatics: The case of requests. Eds. Red Robert Phillipson et al., Foreign/Second language pedagogy research: A commemorative volume for Claus Faerch. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 255–272.
• Bordería-García, A. M. (2006). The acquisition of pragmatics in Spanish as a foreign language: Interpreting and giving advice. The University of Iowa. PhD dissertation.
• Bouton, L. F. (1996). Pragmatics and Language Learning. Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). 7, 1-20
• Canale, M. & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied linguistics, 1(1), 1–47.
• DeCapua, A. (1998). Pragmatic transfer and cultural stereotyping. IAL (Issues in Applied Linguistics), 9(1), 21–36.
• DeCapua, A. & Findlay-Dunham, J. (1993). Strategies in the discourse of advice. Journal of Pragmatics 20(4), 519–530.
• DeCapua, A & Findlay-Dunham, J. (2007). The pragmatics of advice giving: Cross-cultural perspectives. Intercultural Pragmatics 4(3), 319-42. https://doi.org/10.1515/IP.2007.016
• Fang, J. (2010). A study on Pragmatic Failure on Cross-cultural Communication. US English Teaching, 7(12), 42–46.
• Farashaiyan, A. & Muthusamy, P. (2016). Pragmatic Variations in Giving Advice in L2 by Malaysian. English Language Teaching, 9(5), 179-191.
• Félix-Brasdefer, J. C. (2004). Interlanguage Refusals: Linguistic Politeness and Length of Residence in the Target Community. Language learning, 54(4), 587–653.
• Finch, G. (1999). Linguistic terms and concepts. United States of America: St. Martin's Press.
• Galloway, V. B. (1984). Communicating in a cultural context. ACTFL Master Lecture Series. Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute.
• Garcia, P. (2004). Developmental differences in speech act recognition: A pragmatic awareness study. Language Awareness, 13(2), 96-115, DOI:10.1080/09658410408667089
• Hinkel, E. (1997). Appropriateness of advice: DCT and multiple-choice data. Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/18.1.1
• Houck, N. & Gass, S. M. (2011). Interlanguage Refusals: A Cross-cultural Study of Japanese-English. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110809879
• Jenetto, G. & Hanafi, H. (2019). Speech act of advice and its social variables as acquired by senior students of English department of Andalas University in 2019. Vivid: Journal of Language and Literature, 8(2), 43–51.
• Kachru, Y. (1994). Cross-cultural speech act research and the classroom. Pragmatics and Language Learning. Monograph Series 5, 39–50.
• Kasper, G. & Rose, K. R. (2002). Developmental Patterns in Second Language Pragmatics. Language learning, 52(1), 117–158.
• Kouper, I. (2010) The pragmatics of peer advice in a LiveJournal community. Language@Internet, 7, 1–21.
• Kwon, J., Gass, S. M & Houck, N. (2001). Interlanguage refusals: A cross-cultural study of Japanese English. TESOL Quarterly, 35(3), 492-507.
• Matsumura, S. (2001). Learning the rules for offering advice: A quantitative approach to second language socialization. Language Learning, 51(4), 635–679.
• Morrow, P. R., (2006). Telling about problems and giving advice in an internet discussion forum: some discourse features. Discourse Studies, 8(4), 531-548, doi:10.1177/1461445606061876.
• Muthusamy, P. & Farashaiyan, A. (2016). Situational variations in request and apology realization strategies among international postgraduate students at Malaysian universities. English language teaching, 9(3), 181-196.
• Nababan, P. W. J. (1974). Language, Culture and Language Teaching. RELC Journal. 5(18),18-30, doi:10.1177/003368827400500203.
• Ninio, A. & Snow, C. E. (1996). Pragmatic development. Westview Press.
• Shemshadsara, Z. G. (2012). Developing Cultural Awareness in Foreign Language Teaching. Canadian Center of Science and Education, 5(3), 95-99
• Spencer-Oatey, H. (1993). Conceptions of social relations and pragmatics research, Journal of Pragmatics, 20, 27-47.
• Stern, H. H. (1992). Issues and options in language teaching. Oxford University Press.
• Thakerar, J. N., Giles, H. & Cheshire, J. (1982). Psychological and linguistic parameters of speech accommodation theory. Advances in the Social Psychology of Language. Red C. R. Fraser & K. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 205–255.
• Tomlinson, B., & Musuhara, H. (2004). Developing cultural awareness. Modern English Teacher, 13(1), 1–7.
• Zuengler, J. (1989). Performance Variation in NS-NNS Interactions: Ethnolinguistic Difference, or Discourse Domain? Variation in Second Language Acquisition: Discourse and Pragmatics. Red S. Gass et al. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.