Speech Act Requests Encountered by Iraqi Learners - Literature review Example

Second-language speakers essentially need to understand the social context together with literary knowledge to communicate in an effective manner in their non-native language. Riley (1989) for instance states that due to pragmatic errors such as failure to understand the culture and social regulations, the learner of the second language may not be able to communicate in an effective manner.

Blum-Kulka (198) focuses on the concept of face-saving and how to create strategies to reduce threats associated with denting one’s reputation due to a lack of understanding about one’s culture. Studies have also focused on how language rules should be applied right from the early stages of childhood to equip children with various formal rules of speech and communication techniques (Ervin- Tripp 1977, Dore 1977). In a study conducted by Sattar et al. (2009), it was found that Iraqi learners of English as a foreign language have problems in the performance of speech requests.

The researchers picked the corpus of responses given to two research instruments, a Discourse Completion Test as well as a Multiple Choice Questionnaire (Sattar et al., 2009). The instruments captured eight distinct situations and a rating scale. The researchers collected data from 10 informants, all of whom were Iraqi Arabic native speakers studying at the University Sains Malaysia (Sattar et al., 2009). As per the findings of Sattar et al. (2009), Iraqi students often encountered problems while requesting something in English and concentrate hard to ask for a request that is grammatically correct.

Further, when someone asks for a request in English, these students find it difficult to comprehend the same. Therefore, it is interesting to understand how foreign-language speakers living among native language speakers, such as Iraqi students learning in Australian universities, would perform in regard to request speech acts. In another study, Umar (2004) focused on finding out how advanced English learners of Arab descent performed in comparison to the strategies employed by native English speakers.

The researcher found that while formulating requests strategies Arab students learning English at advanced levels also fall back on the cultural background/language. The study suggested that Arab learners of English should also be made aware of the pragmatic differences between Arabic and English in order to efficiently communicate in a non-native language. However, even before analyzing various other research focusing on non-native language learners adopting second language strategies in their daily usage, it is important to understand the various nuances of speech act requests and understand the general perceptions regarding speech act propagated by earlier experts.

Thus, the literature review section would focus on various theories propagated by experts regarding speech act requests to understand the concepts as well as formulate the basis of the future course of this research. Further, the study of various past literature would help in understanding the various speech act requests encountered by Iraqi Learners and Australian speakers of English in Australian Universities.