Year: 2003
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The development of the pragmatic competence has been regarded as one of the main components of the different constructs of communicative competence (Bachman, 1990;Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei and Thurrell, 1995).Among the different pragmatic aspects analysed within the field of interlanguage pragmatics, the theory of speech acts has received a great deal of attention.In this paper, we focus particularly on the speech act of requesting, as one of the most threatening-speech acts (Brown and Levinson, 1987).However, most of the studies dealing with requests have been centred on second language settings.In this respect, in this study we aim at analysing the use of not only requests but also its peripheral modification devices by two groups of English as a foreign language learners, namely those of University and Secondary School students.Results indicate that the first group produced a higher number of requests and mitigators in comparison to the second group of learners.However, a qualitative analysis showed a lack of variety in learners' production.Thus, in line with Kasper (1997), we suggest that instruction may be necessary to foster learners' pragmatic competence in the foreign language context.
Author: Alicia Martínez‐Flor
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W70255344