Utilization of Request Mitigators by Omani Learners of English and Native Speakers: A Comparative Study



   Volume 1, Issue 4
ABDUL RAHMAN, ZUHAIR, ABDUL AMIR

Published online: 05 December 2015
Article Views: 59

Abstract

This study examines Omani learners of English for proper use of syntactic, lexical/phrasal, and discoursal request mitigators when issuing their requests. To achieve the purpose of the study, a discourse completion test that contains nine scenarios was distributed to three groups: 50 level 1 students, 50 level 4 students, and 30 native speakers. Fisher‘s exact test was used to point out statistically whether there are any significant differences in the frequency and types of request mitigators used by the three groups. The results from the Fisher‘s exact test show that native speakers differ significantly from Omani learners of English because Omani learners of English restrict their use of mitigators to syntactic ones, especially modals, and rarely use lexical and discoursal ones, while native speakers use a wider range of all types. From the results of the study, a number of pedagogical recommendations were provided.

Reference

  1. Aidinlou, N. A., Tina, F., & Bonab, V. M. (2012). An investigation of politeness strategies among Iranian EFL learners in producing written requests. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 2(11), 11322-11329.
  2. Al-Ali, M. N., & Alawneh, R. (2010). Linguistic mitigating devices in American and Jordanian students’ requests. Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(2), 311-339. https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2010.014
  3. Alcón, E., Safont, M. P., & Martínez-Flor, A. (2005). Towards a typology of modifiers for the speech act of requesting: A socio-pragmatic approach. RæL. Revista Electrónica de Lingüística Aplicada, 4, 1-35.
  4. Aldhulaee, M. T. (2011). Request mitigating devices in Australian English and Iraqi Arabic: A comparative study. Retrieved from https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/ DU: 30052041/ aldhulaee-requestmitigating-2011.pdf
  5. Almarrani, Y.M. A., & Sazalie, A. (2010). Polite request strategies by male speakers of Yemeni Arabic in male-male interaction and male-female interaction. The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture, 30, 63-80.
  6. Al-Momani, H.S. (2009). Caught between two cultures: The realization of requests by Jordanian EFL learners. (Doctoral dissertation). Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. Retrieved from https://dspace.iup.edu/bitstream/handle/2069/176/Husam%20Al-Momani.pdf?sequence=1
  7. Aribi, I. (2012). A Socio-pragmatic study of the use of requests in English by Tunisian EFL learners. Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research, 2(1), 87-120.
  8. Bataineh, R. F. (2013). On congratulating, thanking, and apologizing in Jordanian Arabic and American English. Journal of Intercultural Communication, (32).
  9. Behnam, B., & Niroomand, M. (2011). An investigation of Iranian EFL learners’ use of politeness strategies and power relations in disagreement across different proficiency levels. English Language Teaching, 4(4), 204. https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v4n4p204
  10. Bialystok, E. (1993). Symbolic representation and attentional control in pragmatic competence. Interlanguage Pragmatics, 3(1), 43-57.
  11. Blum-Kulka, S., & Olshtain, E. (1984). Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech act realization Patterns(CCSARP). Applied linguistics, 5(3), 196-213. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/5.3.196
  12. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1978). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction (pp. 56-311). Cambridge University Press.
  13. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage (Vol. 4). Cambridge University Press.
  14. Chiravate, B. (2011). Perception of politeness in English requests by Thai EFL learners. 3L; Language, Linguistics and Literature. The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 7(2), 59-71.
  15. Fraser, B. (1980). Conversational mitigation. Journal of Pragmatics, 4(4), 341-350. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(80)90029-6
  16. Guodong, L. I. A. N. G., & Jing, H. (2005). A contrastive study on disagreement strategies for politeness between American English & Mandarin Chinese. Asian EFL Journal, 7(1), 1-12.
  17. Jalilifar, A. (2009). Request strategies: Cross-sectional study of Iranian EFL learners and Australian native speakers. English Language Teaching, 2(1), 46. https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v2n1p46
  18. Kaneko, T. (2004). Request production by Japanese EFL learners: An SST corpus-based study.
  19. Khalib, F. M., & Tayeh, A. (2014). Indirectness in English Requests among Malay University Students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 134, 44-52. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.223
  20. Kihckaya, F. (2010). The Pragmatic knowledge of Turkish EFL students in using certain request strategies. University of Gaziantep Journal of Social Sciences, 9(1), 185-201.
  21. Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: Or minding your p’s and q’s. Paper presented at the Ninth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society.
  22. Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. UK: Longman. PMCid:PMC1651267
  23. Mills, S. (2003). Gender and politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615238
  24. Najeeb, Z. M., Maros, M., & Nor, N. F. M. (2012). Politeness in e-mails of Arab students in Malaysia. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 12(1), 125-145.
  25. Nogami, Y. (2005). Native and nonnative speakers’ softener use in English. In K. Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi & M. Swanson (Eds.), JALT2004 Conference Proceedings (pp.452-464). Japan: JALT.
  26. Okamura, A. (1997). Politeness in scientific research articles revisited: The use of ethnography and corpus. British Studies in Applied Linguistics, 12, 84-99.
  27. Pérez i Parent, M. (2002). The production of requests by Catalan learners of English: Situational and proficiency level effects. Atlantis, 147-168.
  28. Rose, K. R. (2000). An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22(01), 27-67. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100001029
  29. Sattar, H. Q. A., Lah, S. C., & Suleiman, R. R. R. (2009). Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 11(3), 69-81.
  30. Sh, B. K., Hause, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Investigating cross-cultural pragmatics: an introductory overview. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Blum-Kulka et al. (Eds.). Norwood: Ablex, 1-34.
  31. Shahrokhi, M., & Jan, J. M. (2012). The realization of apology strategies among persian males. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 692-700. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.183
  32. Sorahi, M. A., & Nazemi, T. B. (2013). A cross-cultural study of the use of compliment strategies among English and Persian speakers. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 16(9), 1292-1296.
  33. SU, I. R. (2010). Transfer of Pragmatic competences: A bi‐directional perspective. The Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 87-102. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00985.x
  34. Suh, J. S. (1999). Pragmatic perception of politeness in requests by Korean learners of English as a second language. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 37(3), 195-214. https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iral.1999.37.3.195
  35. Taguchi, N. (2006). Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English. Pragmatics, 16(4), 513. https://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.16.4.05tag
  36. Tan, K. H., & Farashaiyan, A. (2012). The effectiveness of teaching formulaic politeness strategies in making request to undergraduates in an ESL classroom. Asian Social Science, 8(15), 189. https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n15p189
  37. Tanaka, S., & Kawade, S. (1982). Politeness strategies and second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 5(01), 18-33. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100004575
  38. Tawalbeh, A., & Al-Oqaily, E. (2012). In-directness and politeness in American English and Saudi Arabic requests: A cross-cultural comparison. Asian Social Science, 8(10), 85. https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n10p85
  39. Umar, A. M. A. (2004). Request strategies as used by advanced Arab learners of English as a foreign language. Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational & Social Sciences & Humanities, 16(1), 42-87.

To Cite this article

Abdul Amir, A. R. Z. (2015). Utilization of request mitigators by Omani learners of English and native speakers: A comparative study. International Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 1(4), 156-172.