Iraqi Learners of English in Australian Universities - Dissertation Example

?The Realization of Speech Act Requests encountered by Iraqi Learners of English in Australian Universities The Iraqi learners of English differ in various aspects compared to the Australian and the Vietnamese learners. My research shows considerable differences by the help of a questionnaire I conducted to analyze the differences. Introduction The results of my study show that Iraqi respondents differ in various aspects compared with the Australian and the Vietnamese respondents. There were 35 respondents for this research. We will focus on whether the respondents use direct strategies, conventionally indirect strategies or the non-conventionally indirect strategies. The direct strategies will compare the respondents on the basis of imperative, performative, statements of obligation & necessity, statements of speaker’s needs and demands, and statements of speaker’s wishes and desires. The conventionally indirect strategies will focus on the suggestory formulae, the hearer’s ability when preparing a query and the hearer’s will when preparing a query. This is followed by the permission requests which are again query preparatory in the conventionally indirect strategies. The non-conventionally indirect strategies include the grounders, the feasibility for the requested act and the availability. At first the respondents were asked specific questions based on the ways in which they behave with other people when communicating or asking for particular requests in order to fulfill their requirements in one way or the other. This distribution clearly shows that the Iraqi learners living in Australia are more conservative and use the conventionally indirect approach when asking other people for something or requesting other people for help in any of their quests. Most of them rely on the ability of the person they are talking to for their desired queries. This is followed by the ones who put in a permission request in order to satisfy their needs. 4.1 Choice of Strategy in High Power Settings: Question 1: The first question shows that the order questions made by the Iraqi people who have been in Australia for a shorter span of time will be focusing more on the permission request strategy which is conventionally indirect in the Australian English. These people are the ones who have been in Australia for a few months and others and have not been able to adapt the culture and the way Australians behave in a proper way. Almost 31.2% of the Iraqi people living in Australia will follow permission strategy which is followed by the hearer’s ability as 25.74% Iraqi’s were more inclined to use this as part of the request for the query that they may seek to ask for anything they have to. This is followed by the imperative style which takes in 22.86% of the answers of the Iraqi’s. This shows that they will be asking in a demanding way. There was equal distribution of respondents in their perspectives of the needs of speaker’s needs and demands and the speaker’s wishes and desires. This toll was around 8.57% of the 35 Iraqi respondents who were available for this survey. This shows that the Iraqi speakers will make some same and some different choices in terms of strategy compared to Vietnamese and the Australian speakers. Most of the Australian speakers use the permission and the ability strategy in order to make a request. The Vietnamese speakers will also use the imperative strategy along with the permission and the ability strategy. The rate at which they use the permission strategy is the same as compared to the rate of imperative strategy. Comparatively, the Iraqi people will look forward to the permission strategy mostly, followed with the hearer’s ability when forming the strategy. They will also use the imperative strategy when it is needed but to a lesser extent compared to that of the Australians and the Vietnamese. Question 2: The second question was based on a situation in which one is an office manager who is looking for a document. The document is to be seen immediately after the meeting that is being held. The manager asks the secretary to find that document for him. Most of the Iraqi respondents chose to use the conventionally indirect strategy and go for the hearer’s ability for the query’s perspective. This is marked by the fact that 57.14% respondents chose this option in the questionnaire. This was followed by the statement of obligation and necessity which had 17.14% votes and the grounders perspective having 11.42% of the chosen category. The imperative way of asking will be considered to 8.57% and the hearer’s will of the query preperator having 5.71% of the responses. Choosing these strategies depends greatly on the situations of Power Distance. The Australians even though with high power distance believed that they should be using a less direct strategy when making a request while most of the Vietnamese people will use a more direct strategy which is in the form of imperative. However, the Iraqi respondents will be much keener to look at the hearer’s ability in order to look for their requests from others. This is greatly due to the changes in culture that exist in the countries the Iraqi respondents and the Vietnamese respondents have come from. These changes are due to the perceptions to the obligations and the rights of the people involved in the situations which are backed by the cultural values and norms in the native country. The choice of strategy is usually different in the less power distance situations. Most Australian respondents choose the feasibility strategy and according to some researches, most of them will use the permission strategy. They also use the ability strategy to some extent. On the other hand, the Vietnamese speakers would opt for the ability strategy the most for their requests in the situations where the power of the hearer is much more than the power of the respondent. In some situations, the Vietnamese speakers will also go for the permission strategy just like the Australians would do. 4.2 Choice of Strategy in Powerless Settings Question 3: The third question was based more on the choice of strategy in the powerless settings for the Iraqi respondents in Australia. The question inquired a situation in which a person is driven along a country road and finds out that he has a flat tyre. The person unfortunately does not have a car jack with him and there is another can coming towards him. The person waves down the car. The driver in the car, who is older than the respondent, pops out of the window to ask the reason of problem of the person. Most of the Iraqi respondents will be conventionally indirect to take hold of the situation at that time. According to the survey, 31.43% of the Iraqi’s will request for the permission from the other person in their quest of asking for the query. 22.86% people will look forward for the hearer’s ability in order to seek help while 14.26% of the Iraqi respondents will look forward for the hearer’s will to listen to the request and the same percentage of people will look for the feasibility of the request to ask the question. The statement of the speaker’s needs and demand will take the proportion of around 11.43% and the speaker’s wishes and desires along with the availability of the person will take the toll of 2.86% in their quest to ask that driver for help in that situation of the problem. However, the Iraqi respondents will choose the permission strategy first compared to the Australians and the Vietnamese respondents. They might even look forward to the hearer’s ability to a greater extent depending on the situation they are involved in. Some situations may even make them consider either the situation of following the hearer’s will before they ask for permission or the feasibility act may be followed accordingly to different situations that might be there. Question 4: The fourth question was based on the situation in which an Iraqi respondent is a student and wants to buy a compact disc player for him. Unfortunately, he finds himself short of $50 and knows that his mother has that amount of money to buy him the compact disc player. Therefore, the person is inclined to ask her mother for that money so that he can buy the compact disc player that he needs. As for the answers, 42.86% of the respondents will go for the conventionally indirect approach of their quest and look for the hearer’s ability before they put up their requests. 31.43% of the respondents will ask for permission from their mothers in order to buy the compact disc player and 14.26% of the people will look after their needs and demands before going and asking their mothers. Some of the Iraqi respondents will look after their mother’s will to give them the money as the toll goes to 8.57% while 2.86% of the Iraqi’s will use the imperative style when asking their mothers for it for the compact disc player they need for themselves to fulfill their desired need. This marks the situation in which the there is equal power distance between the speaker and the addressee. This choice of strategy between the Australian and the Vietnamese respondents was almost the same but they do differ in some extent. In most of the situations the Australian speakers use the permission strategy to convey their message to the addressee. Similarly, most of the Vietnamese speakers chose for the permission strategy in order to deliver their message. This is very different compared to the results of the Iraqi respondents who chose the ability strategy of the speaker in order to convey their request. A large number of Australian speakers went for the permission strategy compared to the Vietnamese speakers who were less in the permission strategy and were distributed to other strategies as well. For the Iraqi speakers, they prefer the permission strategy after the strategy of the speaker’s ability. This shows how much the Iraqi speakers differ from the Australian speakers and the Vietnamese speakers due to their differences in their cultures and their ways to communicate with others. 4.3 Choice of Strategy in Equal Power Settings Question 5: The fifth question focused more on the strategy of equal power settings of the Iraqi respondents in the country of Australia. According to the situation that was given, the respondent had his own car. The car was not reliable compared to the car of his elder brother. The respondent is willing to go out with his friends the coming Sunday. The respondent finds out that his brother will not be using his car that Sunday and he wants to borrow it for one day in order to hang out with his friends. The results of the questionnaire show that 45.71% of the respondents will look for the permission requests when asking their brother for the car the coming Sunday. This is again a conventionally indirect approach from the Iraqi people in Australia. This is followed by 17.14% of the respondents who will either a statement to mention their needs and demands and the same percentage of respondents will also look forward to their brother’s ability of dealing with their queries in most of the circumstances. 11.43% of the respondent’s will rely on their brother’s will to give them the cars and 2.86% of the respondents will use the imperative approaching for asking for the car. 20.86% respondents will look upon the performative approach and the same percentage of them will rely upon the feasibility of the act they have requested to be given the permission for the car. In this situation, the speaker and the addressee are considered to be familiar to each other which marks their lesser distances to each other. The Australian speakers tend to use more permission requests in familiar equal and powerless situations. They also use the ability strategy in the familiar high power situation. Comparatively, the Vietnamese speakers went for the permission strategies for the familiar high power situations and the strategy of ability in the situations that are for familiar high power and powerless situations. However, the Iraqi respondents will opt for the permission strategy for such situations in order to ask for requests. They might also use statements that will deliver their requests for their needs and demands on different occasions. Along with these two strategies, the Iraqi respondents will also use the addressee’s ability to listen to them in order to ask for a favor. The listener’s ability is used on the same percentage as compared to the requests for the needs and demand strategies but is relatively low compared to the permission strategy that most of the Iraqi people will use when asking for a favor in the country. Question 6: The sixth question of the questionnaire put in a situation in which the Iraqi respondents were the doctors and have moved on to a new flat at a different location. The person has difficulty in opening the front door of his flat. At that particular moment, one of the neighbors of the respondent who is also a doctor approached him. This was the same person to which the respondent had talked to a day before. Now, the respondent is supposed to ask for help from his neighbor so that he can get his help the respondent in order to open the open the front door of his house. Most of the Iraqi respondents of the questionnaire will use the conventionally indirect approach in order to request his neighbor for helping him open the front door of his house. 57.14% of the respondents will look forward to the ability of the neighbor to help them out in their quest of opening the front door. Most of the others will look at the neighbor’s will as the toll was up to 20%. This is followed by the feasibility of the request act which is up to 11.43%. 5.71% of the respondents will look at their need and their demand in order to ask their neighbor for help. 2.86% of the respondents will look forward to the suggestory formulae and the same percentage of respondents will put up the permission requests for the neighbor to help them opening the front door of the flat. The Australian people and the Vietnamese people almost agreed to this situation. However, the results seemed to be extremely inconsistent when the Vietnamese people were asked of the situation in which the speaker and the addressee are not familiar with each other, therefore, the distance between the addressee and the speaker is relatively high. The Iraqi respondents in these situations preferred to be keener to know the addressee’s ability in order to put up their requests to be taken by them. Some of the Iraqi people are looking forward to the addressee’s will in order to put forward their requests. However, some of the respondents may also look at the feasibility of the addressee to be more confident. 4.4 Choice of Strategy in Familiar Settings The results of the Australian people for the familiar equal and powerless situations were based more on the strategy of permission. However, the used the strategy of ability more in the situations which were familiar and of high power. The Vietnamese people respond to the familiar situations which are also equal using the strategy of permission and they deal with the familiar and high powerless along with the powerless situations using the strategies which are based on abilities. In comparison, the Iraqi people in the situations which are equal and powerless are inclined to use the strategy of permission more often and the same people in the situations which are of familiar and of high power they use the strategy of ability to come up with the solutions they need. Australian speakers are observed to be more indirect in the situations that are of familiar high power. The Vietnamese people are quite similar to the Australian people in this aspect in their choices of strategies are would prefer when in familiar high and equal situations. The Iraqis exhibit the same concept of preferring to be more indirect in the familiar high power situations just like the Australians and the Vietnamese. However, the rate at which they would prefer to be in those situations varies to some extent. For example, 80% of the Australian people were more likely to use the indirect method compared to 60% of the Vietnamese people and 57.14% of the Iraqi people. For such situations, the Australians are not likely to use the imperative strategy in the familiar high power situations. The Vietnamese use the imperative strategy to some extent after the ability strategy and the people of Iraq are more likely to use the will of the addressee to take over these situations. The research findings, however, reveal that the Vietnamese people more direct if they are not indirect when asking for the requests, something that the Australians are not. This is different to the Iraqi people too as they are also more indirect. In the choice of the strategies, the Australians, the Vietnamese and the Iraqi’s all differ to different aspects. Vietnamese people are more likely to use the ability requests while the Australians use the requests of permission and the Iraqis using more of the permission strategy followed by the strategy that is set on the ability of the hearer. The choice of ability is different amongst the Australians, Vietnamese and the Iraqis when the request is of money. They issue in the questionnaire for the Vietnamese people was based on their mother who either had or did not have the ability to give them the money. The issue for the Australian people whether they would be allowed to make the request to their mother to give them the money. The Iraqi people had an issue which was quite similar to the Australian people based on their ability to lend them the money they needed. The Vietnamese people believed that if their mother had the money then she would give it to them. This is not the way the Australian people and the Iraqi people believed. This difference might be due to the fact that according to the culture in Vietnam, parents are supposed to provide their children with whatever they need in order to support the lives of their children along with their studies. This is not how the Australians and the Iraqis think as they come from different cultures where a person thinks before spending. Even though the frequency of the results were not same for the Australians, the Vietnamese and the Iraqis in terms of the preferred strategies, the Vietnamese people were more tended to be more direct compared to the Australian and the Iraqi people as the frequencies used by the Vietnamese speakers was relatively higher when they used the strategy of ability along with the strategy of permission. The use of the imperative strategy by the Vietnamese when compared to the Australians and the Iraqis shows that a few numbers of speakers will adapt to the strategy of politeness. This is because of the cultural norms of the language that is being used along with the norms and the values that exist in their home countries. 4.5 Choice of Strategy in Unfamiliar Settings There were differences in the variations in the choices of strategies of the Australians, the Vietnamese and the Iraqis in the situations of higher distance which were unfamiliar. The Australian speakers had a higher level of indirectness when they requested for something or the other. They were usually least indirect when they were new residents. Comparatively, the Vietnamese speakers were more direct in such situations in their quests to ask for a request. Their choices are evenly distributed between the strategy of being imperative and the strategy of permission. On the other hand, the Iraqis were different as they were indirect and looked forward to the ability of the addressee in their way to ask for permission or may be waited for them to offer the service. This shows that the Australians and the Iraqis were more indirect in their requests compared to the Vietnamese who were more direct when making requests in these particular situations. However, the Vietnamese were more indirect when the used the strategy of ability which was then followed by the permission strategy to be used later. They were lesser in the terms of frequency and that was their second preference which was different to the Australian people and the Iraqi people who kept it first on their preferences. The results of the findings indicate that the Australians and the Iraqis were more indirect in the situations that were of unfamiliar equal power compared to the Vietnamese people. The Iraqi and the Australian people also use the permission situations that are more mitigating in such situations. The three major components that vary for the people to be different are the power, the social distance and the imposition of the request that those people try to seek from their addressees. The Australian people and the Iraqi people used the strategy which is more indirect in the two described situations. According to them it is of extreme imposition to ask the addressees for and they feel that it is often threatening and may disturb the freedom of the other party that is involved in this process. Therefore, the Australian people and the Iraqi people try to compensate their requests by being more indirect compared to the other situations. This is the reason that they choose the feasibility strategy which is considered to be the most indirect strategy when the try to make requests to the other people whom they know least because of their shift to the new place and a new environment. This results in an approach which is more requesting than demanding and is often delivered with more politeness rather than being more aggressive. The direct approach of the Vietnamese seems to be more demanding for others who may feel offended to some extent. The Vietnamese people in the situation when dealing with the unfamiliar people were more direct, however, the degree of directness is much decreased in proportion with the decrease in power of the people. The fact that differs the Vietnamese people compared to the Australian people and the Iraqi people is that only a few of those people who are approximate culturally in the native-like way of communication in Australia use the strategy of permission when they look for their requests to be granted. The three groups of people, the Australian people, the Vietnamese people and the Iraqi people have similar trends in terms of their reactions to the variances that exist of social distance. Most of them will opt for the strategy of permission for their requests from the addressees. The Australian people and the Iraqi people are more indirect in the situations that are equally familiar than the situations in which they are equally unfamiliar. Vietnamese speakers use the same trend but to a lesser frequency. Conclusion The findings of the research show that the people of Iraq are more inclined on using the strategy of the addressee’s will and then look forward for the request. This is mainly because of the cultural norms in Iraq that is different to that in Australia. There is an argument that all believes and the meanings involve interaction between the speaker and the addressee. This is true in some sense but not for all. Consider people who move to new countries in order to seek a job or for educational purposes, they find it hard to communicate in the native language and often rely on the indirect approach. This is exactly what happens with the people of Iraq who live in Australia that they find it hard to communicate with the native people and often look forward to the will of the other people in order to fulfill their requirement. The grammatical categories and the construction of words make it hard for the Iraqi people to convey their message to the other person. It takes time to adapt to the surroundings. The mode of interaction also varies in different countries which have different cultures. The interaction between people of the same group will be different to the interaction between the people of different groups. The Iraqi people find it more convenient to interact with other people of Iraq living in Australia compared to the way they interact with the Australian people. The pragmatics in which the message is conveyed also has an important affect on the interaction process. When people are of different cultures and different languages they are believed to be more indirect when making a request to the other person. They usually try to avoid imperatives. This was surprising considering the Vietnamese people who were more direct and used imperatives when making the request. The Australian people were, however, more indirect even though they lived with the people of same culture and having same norms and values. The Iraqi people did obey this concept as they were more indirect in their approach of communicating with other people in the country. It is often noted in English that if the speaker wants to make a request to the addressee, the speaker will avoid using a bare imperative to make sure that he is not forcing a request on the addressee. This is what the Iraqi people in Australia did in trying to avoid the imperatives and using more of the indirect ways in order to convey their message or request to the other person. They did this as they were more culturally trained to do it that way or they were less confident in the new culture. Using imperatives was not the way the Iraqi people will want to communicate. Apart from looking for the addressee’s ability, the second most followed strategy used by the Iraqi people is the strategy of permission. This is again an indirect approach that is used by the people of Iraq living in Australia. However, to some extent they also think about their need and the demand of getting their request through to the addressee. This is because of the culture in which the people of Iraq have been living in their country and their approach to the new country is more conservative. The Iraqi people also look forward at the addressee’s will before making a request to the other person. This is again an indirect approach which is being used, though the number of people who would choose this approach is lesser than the ones using the strategy of permission, the strategy of ability and the strategy of the speaker’s personal needs and demand that force him to make a request. The people of Iraq are more different to the people of Vietnam with their approaches to different situations. The people of Vietnam are comparatively more direct when they look for their requests to be delivered to the other person. On the other hand, the people of Iraq are more indirect when making a request with the other person who is of different culture and has different norms and beliefs. The culture of both countries varies as in Vietnam children are more dependent on their parents until they are grown-ups. As they have a more demanding attitude with their parents, they usually apply the same approach to the addressees in Australia. In Iraq, the people are not that direct with their parents due to their cultural values and the religious restrictions that direct them on the terms that parents should be treated with greater respect and whatever parents say should be obeyed. The Iraqi people are somehow similar to the Australian people in various aspects of communication but this is not because of the same culture. In Australia, children are more independent at an early age and parents are more concerned with the right spending of money. They do not buy their children everything they ask for. This makes the people of Australia more indirect in their approach to the requests they make. This indirect approach is usually in the form of permission, as this is the strategy which is usually used by the Australian people when they make a request. The Iraqi people who use the strategy of imperative in Australia are the ones who have been living there for some of the years and have adapted to the feeling of collectivism along with a sense of belongingness to the country itself. The ones who are new in the country are use the strategy of imperative are the ones that have learnt the concept from the culture of their country. This is because parents in Iraq are more demanding with their children when making a request. Therefore, these people when they shift to a new country follow the same strategy for making a request. However, the Iraqi people who usage of the strategy of imperative are extremely less compared to the ones who make use of the indirect approach when conveying a request to the other person. The indirect approaches of request by most of the Iraqi people in Australia are the ones that follow the strategy of ability to a higher extent. This is followed by the strategy of permission. These two strategies dominate the requesting strategies of the people of Iraq in Australia. All the factors associated when making these requests are backed by the cultural norms and values of the country. The research clearly shows that the Australian people differ a lot from the Vietnamese people when asking for requests from someone. The Iraqi people are somehow similar to the Australian people who use the conventionally indirect approach. References Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics: requests, complaints, and apologies. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. (http://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_crAfl2zi3kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=Cross-cultural+pragmatics:+requests+and+apologies&ots=8nzM0L7_QV&sig=G34MDJW3yphINRecDozbSfts0M8#v=onepage&q=Cross-cultural%20pragmatics%3A%20requests%20and%20apologies&f=false) S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (1989), Cross-cultural pragmatics: requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. (http://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-hpG6PBljIAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=Cross-cultural+pragmatics:+requests+and+apologies&ots=RSvF-HS-OG&sig=TnV2n2kavwng64xXkjuqcRn8RLo#v=onepage&q=Cross-cultural%20pragmatics%3A%20requests%20and%20apologies&f=false) Read More