Request Modifications between British and Saudis - Research Paper Example

Interlanguage Request Modifications: Saudi and British Speakers By student’s name Code + Course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Table of Contents 3.1 Overview: Significant of the study and research questions 2 The research questions 4 3.2 Data Collection Methods 7 3.2.1 Discourse Completion Task (DCT) 8 3.2.1.1 Social Variables 10 3.2.2 Scaled-Response Questionnaire (SRQ) 11 3.2.3 Piloting the instruments 12 3.3.1 Directness of the Request 13 3.3.2 Internal Modifications 13 3.3.3 External Modifications 14 3.4 Coding Reliability 14 3.5 Statistical analysis 14 References 15 3.1 Overview: Significant of the study and research questions Over the years, scholars have tried to find the reasons behind the whole idea of inter-language request modifications (Barron, 2003). The study is focused on three main groups of the Saudi and British speakers. One of the groups is the undergraduate native Saudis in Saudi Arabia who are not majoring in English; the second group is the Undergraduate Saudis who are in a different context; the United Kingdom and the last group is the Undergraduate Native speakers. Many people want to have an inter-language modification of the Saudi and the British language their main argument being that people can quickly learn their second language if there is an inter-language modification. The aim of the study is investigating and comparing three practical aspects among the three groups which include internal changes, obvious modifications and the directness of the request among the three groups. The chapter will start by analyzing the significant of the study and the research questions. To start with, through the study, the main reason behind the need for inter-language request modification shall be established. The study will involve elite members of the society who are capable of giving valid and reasonable answers towards the quest for inter-language modifications. Through well-formed questionnaires, the interviewers can well interrogate the members and get their main ideas and claims. The data collection methods which are being applied in this research can give a clear reason behind the request for inter-language modifications. Such data collection methods include the discourse completion task (DCT). According to Al Momani (2009), DCT is one of the most suitable tools to use in the study of languages and pragmatics. It’s a tool when used, it elicits a particular speech act and has a role play which is one sided. Through the application of such tactical data collection mechanisms, the reason behind inter-language request modification shall be readily established. Secondly, through the study, researchers can quickly determine the best ways through which inter-language modifications can be easily achieved. The study involves pragmatics which in the words of Jefferson (2004), is a branch of linguistics that deals with generally the primary language being used, the context in which it is being used and includes important matters such as the text organization and the preposition. Incorporation of such research in the study will help the researchers know specific and unique aspects of the language at hand. By analyzing the areas of both the languages, they can be able to come up with proper strategies to help them achieve the inter-language modification. Since the study involves members who want to know a second language, these members can also go a long way in helping the researchers establish the best ways through which inter-language modification can be easily achieved. This is because someone who has the will of knowing another language will try to speak the second language and this way, a researcher can get the area where the language needs some modification. The research questions 1- As compared to undergraduate British English Native speakers, to what extent do Saudi undergraduate students in the UK and undergraduate Saudi native students deviate or approximate in their using of internal and external modifications of request? By comparing the undergraduate British English native speakers to the Saudi undergraduate students, establishing to what extent the students deviate or approximate in their using of internal and external modification of request, the size is minimal. This is because when the language is already modified, the student can almost speak the same as the native English speaker. Furthermore, if there is extent is too large, it will be impossible for the students to understand each other when there is that internal and external modification. The research question also seeks to establish the extent to which each group can portray underuse of internal changes (such as phrasal or lexical downgrades) especially when the underuse is compared to UK natives. 2- What is the impact of the social variables of power and distance on the Saudi students' use of request directness and internal and external modifications of application? The impact of social variables of authority and distance on the Saudi student’s is quite huge. First, considering the aspect of power, the English native speakers have more power than the Saudi students (Baayen, 2008), and therefore they use this power to ensure that the Saudi students don’t have much modification on their sides than them. Secondly, looking at distance, the two nations are quite at a distance something which makes it hard for the Saudi students have the chance to interact more with the native English speakers and get to know more about the language and have more modifications. The question has also been adopted to challenge theories and assumptions that have been taken in researching inter-language request modifications. For instance, it has been noted in studies such as Economidou-Kogetsidis (2013) that in as much as researchers on speech acts of Arabic are divergent, the focus has solely been on apologies, and that has been the assumption in deducing on different speech acts. Secondly, the scope of these studies has assessed speech acts and inter-language request modifications within the contexts of few Arabic countries (mostly Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan) to generalize their findings (Al-Fattah &Ravindranath, 2009 3- How does the use of the level of indirectness in requests speech act by Saudi undergraduate students in UK and undergraduate Saudi native students compare to that of undergraduate British native speakers? The use of the level of indirectness in request speech act by Saudi undergraduate students is almost the same as that of the British native speakers since the language is a second language to both of them. The third research question has been adopted to provide an understanding no the research topic so that Saudis undergraduate learners’ request modification is not only be understood but compared to British. Specifically, the question tries to understand mitigation roles of external supportive moves and phrasal or lexical modifiers in socially similar (within the context of the UK where the study will be conducted). This examines whether the two cultural groups or the two languages adopt the combination of external and internal modifiers to the same extent and same way. 4- What is the influence of L1 (negative transfer) in the performance of Saudi students of requests? The influence of the first language of the Saudi students is quite detrimental in the execution of their applications since it worsens the language when modified. 5- How does the sociopragmatic assessment of the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the hearer, the extent of power the speaker has over the hearer, the difficulty of making a request, the right to make the request, and the hearer’s obligation to comply with the request by Saudis compare to that of British English native speakers? This degree of sociopragmatic assessment by the Saudis is quite high. This is because the language is modified in such a way that it is possible for the English native speakers to hear and understand that which has been modified. 6- Is there the negative pragmatic transfer in the Saudis’ perception of social variables? Yes, there is a negative pragmatic transfer in the Saudi’s knowledge of social variables. This is because mainly each people would not like to modify their mother language so as to comply with a foreign language. (Taguchi, 2011) 3.2 Data Collection Methods In any research, data collection methods are a major determinant of the overall findings of the study (Economido, 2013). According to Taguchi (2011), the primary data gathering methods in the speech acts field include discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and scaled response questionnaires (SRQs). Several advantages come with the use of disclosure end tasks. To start with, while using this method, one can quickly gather a large amount of data. Secondly, one gains insight into psychological and social factors that can easily affect the speech. Thirdly, there is ascertained of the chronological shapes of things such as apologies in the speakers of a particular language. Fourth, the researcher can study the stereo typical requirements for the socially appropriate response and lastly, they create an initial classification of semantic formulas and strategies that just occurs naturally in the speech. However there are still some disadvantages of the method such as being bias in their response towards negotiation, they have a less wedge, they elaborate less and have less variety. According to Al Momani (2009), Scaled Response Questionnaires has some advantages. Firstly, they are easily understood. Secondly, they can be easily quantified and therefore they can be subjected to some mathematical calculations with a lot of ease. Thirdly, they don’t force the interviewee to take a fixed stand since they don’t have fixed answer questions such as yes or no. Lastly, their responses usually accommodate neutral interviews; those interviewees who do not have a particular stand on a certain matter. However, there are still some disadvantages of this method. To start with, the attitude of the people for one item in the real world exists on a vast multi-dimensional continuum which means the researcher must be well prepared to conduct in a large region. At times, the method fails to measure the exact attitudes views by the respondents who make the method inaccurate. Lastly, the interviewers tend to agree with one side of the response usually that with many respondents and this is not always correct. These two methods have been chosen as the methods to collect data in the research since they are the most outstanding methods among the several approaches available (Baayen, 2008). They are much easier to use, use less time, more convenient and much cheaper. The DCT is most suitable for the investigation of pragmatics knowledge, and the interviewer will use them for this purpose; they are suitable for studying the various aspects of a language which include the context in which the language is being used, circumstances in which it is used and the text organizations in the language. On the other hand, Scaled Response Questionnaires are suitable for investigating the socio pragmatics of the language. These include aspects such as the circumstances in which some words of a language are used. The interviewer will have the obligation of using this method appropriately. 3.2.1 Discourse Completion Task (DCT) The disclosure completion task is a method of data collection in the speech acts field. It entails a written description of a case accompanied by a short dialogue that has a gap to be completed by research participants. As already noted, DCT remains one of the two explicit methods adopted in this study to provide meanings to the responses that will be provided by the three categories of participants. According to Barron (2003), there are six types of DCTs which can be used by the interviewer to get pragmatic knowledge. These are the all employed in this research, and they are as discussed. The first one is the written DCT which was developed by formulating an individual description of a situation and ask them to answer the question as if they were the ones in such a situation. It is used in a situation where the researcher requests the respondent to respond to an individual situation. The second one is the multiple choices DCT which is developed in a way that the defendant answers some questions which have some multiple answers. It is used in situations where the researcher has some knowledge of the topic he is researching on, and he doesn’t require diversity. The third one is the oral DCT which is developed by formulating some sound effects which the respondent is required to say what he would say if he were in such a situation. The fourth one is the Disclosure Role-Play task which is developed by coming up with a role and asking the respondent to play the role as if he was the character. It is usually used in a situation where the researcher wants to see the diversity of acting by different people. The fifth one is the Disclosure Self Assessment Task which is developed by having a written description of an individual situation and asking the respondent to rate his capacity to perform the set position. It is used to gauge the level of familiarity with a particular role by different people. The last DCT is the role play self-assessment which is set by combining both the role play and situation play DCTs. It is used in cases where the respondent wants to rate his pragmatics performance. 3.2.1.1 Social Variables The premise on which this research is laid is that there are different situations that the study will consider. Different situations mean that there will be people from diverse religions with different social backgrounds. The difference will be in certain terms such as variable in social power. It will also focus on the extent to which the social power will the imposition were varied so that understanding is generated on whether the results of the research support the three main research questions. The researcher should be very keen to ensure that he uses his tactics and knowledge correctly to avoid extreme effects. Specifically, the DCT as assigned incorporated 12 different situations and these situations were varied on two grounds; social distance and social power. Bearing in mind how wide the research is, three groups each having 35 participants; the researcher needs to utilize his skills of organizing group members with diverse social backgrounds properly. In the words of Economido (2013), Social power can be seen in three different categories. First, a situation where the researcher is less power than the requester, the requester is having more powers than the requester and a case where both have equal powers. On the other hand, social distance is the extent to which there will be the familiarity between or among the interlocutors ( Baayen, 2008). Again, just like social power, social distance is divided into different levels. The first level is a case where the researcher and the requester are not familiar with each other. The second case is where the researcher and the requester are familiar with each other. It is, therefore, worth noting that the combination of the variables explained brings about six possible combinations that can be realized in 2 situations which then result in 12 conditions. The design of the DCT was intended to elicit requests in the form of writing so that the 35 participants in every group are given summarized the description of each of the 12 situations, which was specific about familiarity, setting and the existence of social power among the participants. All the participants in the three groups will be asked to put themselves in each of the 12 situations and were expected to provide their views or ways out of every situation. 3.2.2 Scaled-Response Questionnaire (SRQ) According to Barron (2003), scaled response questionnaire is one of the most used methods of data gathering which is specifically designed so as to elicit responses to problematic, contextually-specific prompts. The different formats of SRQ are utilized in a wide range of activities including in schools metaphorical conceptualizations. The SRQ vary depending on the intended purpose of the researcher (Jefferson, 2011). One of the SRQ mostly used by researchers is the Dichotomous scale which is a two point question. It is formulated in such a way that the answers can only either one out of two available choices. It is suitable in cases where the researcher wants to make his questionnaire quite simple and easy. Such answers include yes-no and fair-unfair. Another type of SRQ is the rating scales. The researcher formulates certain questions with three answers from which the respondent can choose. An example of such an answer is; good- Fair- Poor. The last type of SRQ is the semantic differential scales. This type of SRQ is used by the researcher to get some information and interpret them on the bases of the connotative meaning of the respondent’s feedback. 3.2.3 Piloting the instruments According to Taguchi (2011), Piloting the instruments usually aims at finding out if the process of data collection will work in a real-world situation, especially about the 12 conditions which this research had identified. The piloting process took 5 participants from each group (a total of 15 participants) for ascertaining whether the group participant had the capacity to undertake their task accordingly. The process was also there to ensure that the whole research conformed to facts such as; the time required for the completion of different instruments should not exceed 30 minutes. Otherwise, the participants may become fatigued and therefore not fully able to attend to the task (Al Momani, 2009). Students in their first year were excluded because they might not be able to understand some academic situations like being a Lab supervisor or borrowing an electronic dictionary from a friend. Students in their first year are most probably not going to encounter such situations, and this might have some effects on their answers. The Arabic version of DCT was also modified to best address females in Arabic society because women are treated slightly different from the male in the Arabic language. The changes are minors, and the meaning did not change. The pilot survey was carried on without the knowledge of the participants. At the end of the piloting phase, the whole process had been tested regarding its sustainability; it would take to finish and the information it would extract. All issues that arose at this stage were solved promptly by the experienced researchers. The Arabic version of DCT was also modified to best address females in Arabic society because women are addressed slightly different from the male in the Arabic language. It has to be noted that the changes that were made to suit female participants from Arabia were minor and they did not change the meaning of the DCT when compared to the original version. 3.3.1 Directness of the Request A well-framed classification matrix is formed for the research. This will take into consideration whether the data which had been predicted before matches the outcome. In each group, all the cases will be counted, and the total value be displayed in the already lay down the matrix. When the classification model option is actual to what had been predicted, a chart will be created. The rows of the matrix will be presenting the predicted values of the model while the values in the column will be presenting the actual values. The categories that will be applied will be; true positive, true negative, false positive and false negative. The study went further than the proposal provided by Taguchi (2011) by ensuring that the directness also compares separate sets of the three groups and at the same time comparing the production of the undergraduate speakers from Saudi Arabia in the UK (novice speakers). 3.3.2 Internal Modifications In the words of Cunningham (2014), internal modifications are used to minimize the potential face threats to interlocutors. This is achieved through the modification of requests internally. They are elements in the request utterance and may classify as lexical or syntactic modifiers. In this research, downgrades will be employed to demonstrate the linguistic politeness and minimize the potential face threat. A well-formatted matrix will be used to determine to record how the various participants use the down-graders. A checklist of how well the people apply the downgrades will be captured in the matrix. In the matrix, there will be the columns for unique users, good and the weak ones. The number of users will be marked under the classification which a particular person deserves. 3.3.3 External Modifications Cunningham (2014), said that external modifiers are the supportive statements that are used by the researchers to persuade their group members to carry out a certain task. They do not occur in the answer by the respondent, but they address the context in which the language is being used A well-framed classification matrix is formed for the research. In each group, all the cases will be counted, and the total value is displayed in the already lay down the matrix. When the classification matrix option is actual to what had been predicted, a chart will be created. The rows of the matrix will be presenting what is expected for the participants while the values in the column will be presenting the actual values. 3.4 Coding Reliability I will classify the data according to the classification matrix I have; then I will ask two other raters (most probably Ph.D. students) to classify 20% of the data to make sure my classification is useful. All remarks made by my peers will be taken into consideration to ensure that the overall output of this process is perfect. 3.5 Statistical analysis According to Freedman (2005), statistical analysis involves the collection and the scrutinization of every single piece of data from where samples are got. The sample of any statistic is an overall representation of the total population at large. In this research, proper analytical mechanisms and principles will be employed to have a correct and suitable analysis of the data collected. Without a proper statistical analysis, the entire process can be rendered useless (Economido, 2013). This shows that the researchers have no any other chance apart from concentrating on this process until it is completed successfully. References Al.Momani, H. S. (2009). Caught between two cultures: The realization of requests by Jordanian EFL learners. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana: University of Pennsylvania. AlcónSoler, E. (2005). Does instruction work for learning pragmatics in the EFL context? System, 33(3), 415-437. Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 390-412. Barron, A. (2003). Acquisition in Interlanguage Pragmatics: Learning how to do things with words in a study abroad context. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Cunningham, D. J. (2014). The development of pragmatic competence through telecollaboration: An analysis of requesting behavior. Freedman, D.A. (2005) Statistical Models: Theory and Practice, Cambridge University Press Economidou-Kogetsidis, M. (2012). Modifying oral requests in a foreign language: The case of Cypriot Greek learners of English. In M. Economidou-Kogetsidis& H. Woodfield (Eds.), Interlanguage request modification (pp. 163-202). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Economidou-Kogetsidis, M. (2013). Strategies, modification, and perspective in native speakers’ requests: A comparison of WDCT and naturally occurring requests. Journal of Pragmatics, 53, 21-38. Floyd, Simeon, Elizabeth Manrique, Giovanni Rossi, and Francisco Torreira. 2015. “The timing of visual bodily behavior in repair sequences: evidence from three languages.” Discourse Processes. doi: 10. Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversational Analysis: Studies from the first generation. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Najafabadi, S. A., &Paramasivam, S. (2012). Iranian EFL learners’ interlanguage request modifications: Use of external and internal supportive moves. Theory and practice in language studies, 2(7), 1387-1396. Taguchi, N. (2011a). Do proficiency and study-abroad experience affect speech act production? Analysis of appropriateness, accuracy, and fluency.IRAL, 49(4), 265-293. Taguchi, N. (2011b). Pragmatic development as a dynamic, complex process: General patterns and case histories. The Modern Language Journal, 95(4), 605-627. Read More