An Exploratory Cross-sectional Study Of Interlanguage Pragmatic Development Of Chinese English Learners

The study of interlanguage pragmatics has been an important part of the study in second language acquisition since the 1980s. Greatly influenced by cross-cultural pragmatics studies, interlanguage pragmatics studies have focused mainly on the differences of the strategies and linguistic means used by nonnative speakers and those used by native speakers, that is, how nonnative speakers' performance of speech acts differ from native speakers' norms. Interlanguage pragmatics research to date has been essentially comparative rather than acquisitional (Bardovi-Harlig, 1999). In terms of the speech act of request, most studies, especially the existing studies in China, have focused on foreign language learners' pragmatic performance by comparing and contrasting the request realization strategies utilized by foreign language learners and native speakers. A few cross-sectional studies on the speech act of request has been done to explore pragmatic development. However, the literature on the cross-sectional studies on the speech act of request by Chinese (mainland) English learners is rare.This thesis examines four groups of Chinese English learners' [middle school (grade three), high school (grade two), freshmen (English majors in university), junior (English majors in university)] pragmatic competence of the speech act of request. Two questions were raised in this study: 1. Is there evidence of pragmalinguistic development across the four groups of Chinese English learners? (a. Does English learners' use of directness level approximate the native speakers' norm as their English proficiency increases? b. Does English learners' use of internal modification approximate the native speakers' norm as their English proficiency increases? c. Does English learners' use of external modification approximate the native speakers' norm as their English proficiency increases?) 2. Is there evidence of sociopragmatic development across the four groups of English learners?The participants in this study are five groups of Chinese subjects and one group of English native speakers subjects. Each of the five groups of Chinese subjects consists of 30 students. One of the Chinese native groups and the English native group are used to make cross-linguistic comparisons between Chinese, English, and the interlanguage of the Chinese English learners. The other four Chinese groups are used for the investigation of the development of pragmatic competence represented in the speech act of request. The Chinese subjects used for comparisons are randomly selected from Chinese Department, Northwest Normal University. The English subjects are 14 students from University of Idaho and University of Washington, America, for the activity of Sino-America cross-cultural communication sponsored by Northwest Normal University. The middle school subjects and high school subjects are students from No. Three Middle School of Lanzhou Chemical Industry Corporation. The freshmen and junior subjects majoring in English are from College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Northwest Normal University. A discourse completion test / task (DCT) and a 1-8 Likert rating scale questionnaire are employed to collect the data. The analysis of requests is based on the coding scheme for requests created by Blum-kulka, House and Kasper (1989). The development of the participants' pragmatic competence of the speech act of request was compared from two perspectives: pragmalinguistic competence and sociopragmatic competence.The results of the present study show that the Chinese English learners' requestive behavior showed pragmatic development towards the English native speakers' norm in some areas both at the macro level and at the micro level. For example, at the macro level, pragmatic development towards the English native speakers' norm was found in the use of direct strategies and conventionally indirect strategies as far as directness level was concerned as well as in the use of internal modifications. The Chinese English learners' requestive behavior also showed a considerable number of deviance in some areas both at the macro level and at the micro level. For example, at the macro level, the deviances were found in the use of non-conventional indirect strategies as far as directness level was concerned; and in the use of external modifications, where a common feature of nonnative speakers'—verbosity—was shown. The deviances were also found in the Chinese English learners' sociopragmatic assessment of the three social factors: the right to make the requests, the obligation to comply, and the likelihood of compliance.This thesis is structured as follows:Chapter one presents the reasons for choosing the topic, the aim of the study, and the significance of the present study.Chapter two addresses an introduction to the theoretical background to the current study, consisting of three components: pragmatic competence, speech act realization pattern, and issues in data collection methods. Chapter two also reviews cross-sectional studies of the development of pragmatic competence concerning requests. Limitations of previous studies are pointed out.Chapter three introduces the investigation, including the research questions, the participants, the instruments used, and how the data will be coded and analyzed.Chapter four discusses and interprets the results of the study according to the research questions.Chapter six includes a summary of the main findings, and the weakness of the present study.