Naturally Occurring Data

Pragmatic assessment has recently opened up a new line of inquiry for many interested researchers within the realm of L2 pragmatics. Accordingly, different methods have been proposed to assess pragmatic competence. Drawing on request speech act, this study aimed at comparing and contrasting Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT), Oral Discourse Completion Task (ODCT), and Role-play with the natural method in terms of five dependent variables: length, repetitions, omissions, inversions, and exclamation particles. To this end, 27 intermediate level EFL learners were asked to make two requests with contextual features of low-status, low-imposition, and two requests with contextual features of high-status, low-imposition using each of the three elicitation techniques. Having recorded the natural talk-in interactions of all students and teachers over 15 weeks, the researchers transcribed the gathered data for further in-depth pragmatic analysis. To analyze the data, Chi-Square and binominal tests were run. The findings indicated that role-play yielded the data closest to the natural method in terms of the dependent variables and the differences between role-play and the natural method were less significant than those inherent in WDCT and ODCT. The study implies that more authentic and natural data can be elicited by incorporating features of the natural method into the other pragmatic data collection procedures, namely, WDCT and ODCT.

In examining how English as a second language (ESL) learners process English formulaic expressions in a nonnative English context, this study aims to investigate the strategies that learners use and how first language (L1) culture and conceptual knowledge could influence the use of the strategies. This study is guided by the research question of how francophone ESL learners in Thailand process formulaic expressions in situation-bound utterances (SBUs). Three Francophone Cameroonian learners of English in a university in Thailand (served as the experimental group) and two native English speakers (as the control group) participated in this study. Oral Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was employed to elicit data and evaluated based on 4 categories: (1) Native-like English; (2) Towards Native-like English; (3) Francophone English; and (4) Irrelevant English. The result showed that among the three francophone participants in the study whose native languages were French, 60% DCT responses were Towards Native-like (TNE), 30% were Francophone English (FE), 10% were Native-like English (NE). There was no response from the DCTs, according to the analysis, that was irrelevant English. A further analysis of the three categories revealed that the learners primarily used simplification, verbosity, literal salience, and L1 cultural transfer strategies in processing formulaic expressions. This study corroborates the seemingly weak connection of English linguistic proficiency and sociolinguistic competence in ESL learner’s pragmatic knowledge, as well as the reliance on L1 conventionalized conceptualization in processing English formulaic expressions. Implications for teaching formulaic expressions in a nonnative English as a foreign language (EFL) context in general, and Thai context in particular are also discussed.

The use of Linguistics Hedging Devices (LHDs) serves a notable function in our daily conversations and thus is thought-provoking to analyze. Although its occurrence tends to be more prominent in spoken communications, the use of this linguistic feature is still frequently apparent in written conversations. Although they do not add much to the proportional content of an utterance, their occurrence remains unique in terms of variations, frequency, and functions across languages. This study examines the use of LHDs by native speakers of English and Bahasa Indonesia in short spontaneous expressions. The data were obtained through Oral Discourse Completion Tasks (ODCTs) involving 40 participants from the two language speakers (20 in English and 20 in Bahasa Indonesia). English respondents expressed their responses in English, while the Indonesian speakers used Bahasa Indonesia in their responses. Each respondent was asked to respond to an apologetic expression from a close friend using a mini-digital tape recording. All responses were transcribed and analyzed, focusing on the number and types of LHDs used by the respondents in their expressions. The results revealed that the two language communities used various LHDs in their responses, mostly intended to show indirectness and reduce threats toward the hearers’ negative faces. English respondents were likely to use these linguistic features more frequently and varied in types than their Indonesian counterparts. A remarkable trend in the study is that Indonesian speakers tended to be more direct in their expressions than their English counterparts, challenging previously reversed claims. Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia is recommended to introduce various types and uses of these markers and emphasize how they can be used appropriately in authentic contexts.

This paper aims at comparing the uses of the English request speech acts in native speakers of English and Chinese. An oral discourse completion task (ODCT) was used to collect data and the chi-square analysis method was applied to examine the data. From the results, the comparisons of request strategies and internal modifications between Chinese and English native speakers showed no significant differences; both groups frequently used indirect strategies. However, with regard to the use of alerts and external modifications, significant differences were found between these two groups. Further results also indicated the effects of social status and familiarity on both groups. To interlocutor in higher status, both groups showed significantly different usages of internal and external modifications. As to interlocutors in equal status, they performed different request strategies, alerts and external modifications. In addition, significant differences were found in the use of alerts to interlocutors in lower social status. To familiar interlocutors, both groups showed different usages in alerts and external modifications. To unfamiliar interlocutors, significant differences were also found in the use of alerts and external modifications. At last, Chinese native speakers with high and low proficiency levels showed significantly different usages in alerts. Key words : English request speech act; Oral discourse completion task; Chi-square analysis; English native speaker; Chinese native speaker

Background Speech and language researchers study phonological acquisition and evaluate the errors that children make to understand this complex process. This information provides clinicians with a scientific reference for better assessment and intervention services to children with articulation/phonological disorders. Urdu is a language spoken by more than 200 million speakers worldwide. However, research on Urdu phonological development is in its infancy. Purpose This systematic review aimed to identify relevant studies and provide a comprehensive review of which aspects of Urdu phonological development have been targeted, along with the reported findings. Method Five phases of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed. All retrieved studies published between January 1980 and March 2020 and focusing on Urdu speech sound acquisition and/or phonological processes in typically developing native Urdu speakers aged up to 8 years were included in the review. The final search was conducted on May 4, 2020. Results A total of 873 records were identified from five databases and a manual search. Nine studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the final review. All studies were published in the English language, five of which were unpublished master's theses and four were peer-reviewed journal articles. Four of these studies focused on consonant acquisition, whereas five explored phonological processes. No study focused on the acquisition of Urdu vowels, diphthongs, or consonant clusters. These shortlisted studies were reviewed in detail to determine participants' demographic characteristics, focused areas of phonological acquisition, data elicitation methods and contexts, transcription systems, and major findings. Conclusion This study provides a comprehensive review of the available literature on Urdu phonological development and highlights areas for future research.

The field of instructed SLA (ISLA) has grown rapidly in recent years to examine how systematic manipulations of instructional conditions can lead to the development of second language (L2) knowledge and use (Loewen & Sato, 2017). Following this trend, L2 pragmatics researchers have implemented various instructional methods and examined their effectiveness using experimental designs (Taguchi, 2015; Taguchi & Roever, 2017). The critical issue in this practice is how to assess learning outcomes in order to make a claim that certain instructional methods can produce robust pragmatic knowledge. To address this question, this chapter presents an overview of assessment methods used in analyzing pragmatics learning outcomes. The chapter surveys instructed L2 pragmatics studies published in the last four decades to identify common assessment methods (i.e., discourse completion tasks and role-play tasks). We provide step-by-step illustrations of expert studies in order to demonstrate how researchers design an assessment task, evaluate learning, and interpret results. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges and limitations of current methods and provides direction for addressing such challenges in pragmatics research.

This longitudinal study was designed to investigate the polite expressions acquisition of L1 Malaysian learners of Korean. During 9 months 3 Malaysian learners participated in oral discourse completion tasks which examined learner’s use of polite expressions in Korean. At the same time I examined polite expressions use of 30 Korean native speakers and observed various devices to express politeness in Korean discourse. The polite expressions use of the 3 learners showed differences from the native speakers of Korean, especially learners transferred from their L1 expression to Korean polite expressions. And learners’s polite expressions showed individual differences between learners in the development process. In order to help learners develop their polite expressions use teachers need to provide various Korean polite expressions input.

This paper explores the politeness-related functions of an ingressive hissing-like sound that occurs frequently in Korean and which is typically transcribed asssup. This nonverbal sound is produced by drawing air alongside the tongue or between the teeth and may appear either before the production of a turn, or during turn production. Previous studies have shown that Korean speakers produce more frequent hisses when addressing status superiors. This suggests a politeness-related function, particularly given the importance of marking social distance toward elders and superiors in Korean culture. In the current paper, we explore the pragmatic functions of these hisses in three distinct datasets (oral discourse completion task, dyad recordings, drama interactions). Our analysis shows that hisses perform four types of social actions: displaying delicacy, activity shift, word search, and conveying skepticism. Hisses occur at interactional or relational trouble spots to delay the progression of talk, while allowing the speaker to initiate or maintain their turn. They co-occur with other verbal and multimodal markers of hesitation. We thus see the underlying core meaning of hisses as being related to difficulty, uncertainty and hesitation, and the conveyance of reluctance to perform the problematic talk. The increased frequency of hisses and multimodal hesitation in interactions with status superiors shows us that speakers are trying to show more care and effort when interacting in situations where social distance exists. These results contribute toward our understanding of politeness as a multimodal and holistic phenomenon that is expressed across multiple verbal and nonverbal dimensions.

This study investigates regional and gender variations of apologies in Putonghua ‘Standard Mandarin’ and Guoyu ‘Taiwanese Mandarin’. Production data were elicited from 40 participants from northern Mainland China and 34 from Taipei using an oral discourse completion task. Results showed that speakers in both regions employed a similar sequence of strategies and demonstrated similar preferences for context-dependent strategies in their apologies, but Mainland speakers used a significantly greater number of strategies than Taiwan speakers. Gender differences were observed in the apologies produced by Taiwan speakers regarding their use of illocutionary force indicating devices. The study found an interaction effect of power relation and region, with Mainland speakers sounding more apologetic than Taiwan speakers, but no interaction effect of power relation and gender; the effect of severity of offence was not clear, which could be attributed to the gap between the predetermined level of severity and speakers’ actual perception of it in each scenario.

This study sought to examine the politeness strategies of Thai pre-service cruise ship crew during their intercultural exchanges with foreign cruise passengers. The participants were third-year students majoring in cruise tourism at a university in Thailand. They were purposefully selected since they had been offered to begin their first official employment contract as crew members on foreign cruise lines. Eight participants were instructed to complete an Oral Discourse Completion Task (ODCT) in English, which comprised diverse scenarios validated by five cruise experts. The data collection was video recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed based on the politeness framework proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978). During the analysis, minor grammatical mistakes were discarded. To enhance interpretative triangulation, the researcher collaborated with three other coders, including pragmatics specialists and a native English instructor at the tertiary level. Participants also underwent a Stimulated Recall Interview (SRI) to clarify ambiguous aspects. The study indicated that the predominant strategy was negative politeness, bald on-record, and positive politeness. The study’s findings may aid educational institutions across the nation in equipping their graduates to serve as proficient communicators by integrating suitable politeness strategies in global communication scenarios. This study further advises the Thai government and cruise industry stakeholders to provide present and prospective personnel with suitable politeness strategies for intercultural interactions.

Developing Data Elicitation Methods in Pragmatics Research with YLLs

This study examined the pragmatic competence and awareness of L2 learners of English, with a focus on their request strategies in L2 English, levels of (in)directness, request perspective, internal and external modifications, and the impact of tasks. The participants comprised 80 Cypriot Greek (CG) undergraduate students. The pragmatic tests were designed based on Speech Act Theory and included discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and multiple-choice questionnaires (MCQs). Additionally, a role-play and an interview task were employed to assess L2 learners’ pragmatic competence in oral discourse. The tasks featured four conditions related to power and social distance: [+social distance, status equals], [−social distance, status equals], [+social distance, hearer dominance], and [−social distance, hearer dominance]. Overall, the results indicated that L2 learners of English tended to prefer conventionally indirect requests, suggesting that L1 linguistic and cultural backgrounds influence expressions of politeness. Face-threatening situations with a high degree of imposition elicited more conventionally indirect requests. Data analysis revealed contextual variation but not a clear task effect. Factors such as social distance, hearer dominance, power, familiarity, and imposition impacted the degree of (in)directness, request perspective, and both internal and external modifications.

This study attempts to investigate the disagreement strategies that are used by American speakers of Arabic with a view to identifying which disagreement strategies they use in equal and non-equal status situations. In addition, it aims to see whether variables like gender and social status affect the linguistic choices and disagreement strategies that they use. The subjects of the study are 28 (14 male and 14 female) American speakers of Arabic who were learning Arabic and were residing in Jordan at the time of data collection. The researchers analyze their interactional recorded responses to a set of stimuli included in an oral (recorded) discourse completion task (ODCT) prepared for this purpose. The ODCT comprises six scenarios in which the respondent is requested to disagree with two peers, two higher-status interlocutors, and two lower-status interlocutors. The findings of the study show that the American speakers of Arabic use two main disagreement strategies, non-confrontational and confrontational disagreements, which are in turn divided into sub-strategies. Further, they employ the non-confrontational strategies slightly more than the confrontational ones, as the percentage for the former is 51% while for the latter is 49%. Interestingly, the study suggests that the topic of discussion significantly influences the choice of strategy, sometimes resulting in women being more confrontational than men, which contrasts with common perceptions reported in the literature about gender-based communication styles.

This paper examines disagreement strategies employed by speakers of Jordanian Spoken Arabic (JSA) with a view to finding out whether variables like gender and social status affect the linguistic choices and disagreement strategies they employ. The subjects are 28 Jordanian Arabic-speaking students at the University of Jordan. The researchers analyze the students’ interactional recorded responses to a set of stimuli included in an oral (recorded) discourse completion task (ODCT) prepared for this purpose. The ODCT comprises six scenarios in which the respondent is requested to disagree with two peers, two higher-status interlocutors and two lower-status interlocutors. The findings show that male and female subjects’ disagreement strategies tend to be influenced by the topic under discussion rather than by the gender and status of their interlocutor. However, some topics are found to be more provocative to females than to males.

This paper reports an on-going multinational collaboration “Asian English Speech cOrpus Project” (AESOP). The aim of the consortium is to build up an open resource English speech corpus representing the varieties of English spoken in Asia. It was agreed in 2008 that each participating member will use the same recording platform to collect a common set of core data so that a set of core properties common to all varieties of Asian English, as well as to features that are particular to individual varieties can be developed. Areas of overlap between L1 and L2 English and differences among varieties of Asian English could be determined. Initial efforts in 2009 were devoted to designing spoken-language tasks that aims to elicit the phonetic aspect of a large range of English segmental and suprasegmental characteristics. The 2011 efforts, reported here by the Taiwan members, were devoted to designing spoken language tasks that aims to elicit (1) a comprehensive coverage of phonotactic variations, (2) broad vs. narrow focus and (3) dialogue and discourse materials using discourse completion tasks (DCT). We believe the data collected can be used to develop ASR tools, investigate various issues of speech prosody, and assess English proficiency towards CALL applications.