| The present study investigated the pragmatic competence of male Japanese university undergraduate learners of English at three levels of general English proficiency. Their proficiency level was assessed using a cloze test. Though not a longitudinal study, the results are interpreted as a proxy for diachronic pragmatic development. The study focused on the learners' ability to perform the speech act of requests, and their performance was compared with male British university undergraduates of the same age. The data were collected using a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). All of the situations involved making high imposition requests, to interlocutors one had never spoken to before. 60 Japanese learners (20 at each proficiency level), and 20 native speakers, participated in the study. In order to make comparisons with the learners' L1, a pilot study was conducted using the same DCT translated into Japanese. This DCT was completed in Japanese by 10 male university undergraduates who were not part of the main study.; The data were analyzed using an adapted version of the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP) classification. Three macro categories (directness level, internal modification, and external modification), and a number of micro-level strategies were investigated.; The study found that Japanese learners used more direct and fewer conventionally indirect strategies than native speakers, but with higher levels of proficiency moved in the direction of the native speaker norm. It also found that Japanese learners used considerably fewer hints than native speakers, and made no development in the use of this strategy. Within these macro patterns, however, there were a number of micro-level strategies which showed regression rather than development.; The study also found that Japanese learners used less internal and external modification than native speakers, but again showed development, as proficiency increased, by moving in the direction of the native speaker norm. Further investigation, however, revealed a number of micro-level modifiers which showed either no development or regression.; This skewed pragmatic development was attributed to the lack of linguistic means, an instructional effect from the teaching of English in Japanese schools, and the influence of the native language, i.e., pragmatic transfer.; On the basis of the results, the study finishes with some recommendations for the teaching of pragmatic competence in the EFL context. |
