جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « pragmatic transfer » در نشریات گروه « ادبیات و زبان ها »

Refusals are utterances spoken to perform the action of refusing. This face-threatening act has a significant function in societal interaction. This pragmatic study investigated Iranian English learners’ (IELs) behavior in realizing refusals on the basis of a cross-cultural comparison of American native speakers (ANSs) and Iranian Persian speakers (IPSs) in terms of production performance. Data came from 40 ANSs, 40 IPSs, and 40 IELs, elicited from a DCT varied with contextual factors of power and distance. Data were analyzed in terms of frequency and content of semantic formulas. Results indicated that, although all the groups employed a similar range of refusal strategies in responding to the refusals elicited by different initiation acts, cross-cultural variation was evident in the frequency and content of semantic formulas. In some cases, the IPSs and the IELs refused similarly in Persian and English, but differently from the ANSs, suggesting pragmatic transfer in the Persian groups. These differences in Persian and English refusals may cause pragmatic failure when Persian speakers rely on their L1 culture-specific refusal strategies in interacting with English native speakers. Thus, the development of L2 students’ pragmatic knowledge should become one of the priorities of the educational system.

To date, a majority of comparative studies have been conducted to generally shed some light on the concept of pragmatic transfer between a native language and a second or foreign language. However, little research has investigated a multilingual situation where there is an interaction among three different languages spoken by one person. Of interest was whether pragmatic transfer of refusals among three languages spoken by the same person occurs from L1 and L2 to L3, L1 to L2 and then to L3 or from L1 and L1 (if there are more than one L1) to L2. The present study aimed to investigate the norms of production of refusals in three languages under investigation and to specify what impact, if any, the knowledge of these languages has on pragmatic transfer of refusals. To this end, 161 participants in 5 groups filled out a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), consisting of 12 situations on 4 types of refusal speech act. The collected data was coded and analyzed in terms of semantic formula sequences categorizedbased on the refusal taxonomy. The collected data from Kurdish learners of English who were also fluent in Farsi (Trilingual speakers) were compared with data obtained fromotherfour groups: 1)Native English speakers; 2)Monolingual speakers in Farsi; 3) Monolingual speakers in Kurdish; and 4) BilingualFarsi learners of English.The results revealed that pragmatic transfer exists in choice and content of semantic formulae- with the availability of the similar range of refusals.It was also found that the sociocultural norms of English, Farsi, and Kurdish languages differ with respects to the refusal speech act and individual's social power and relative distance play a critical role in performing such a speech act. This research suggests that, in spite of the norm differences existing amongEnglish and two other languages,transferof refusals mostly occurs from Kurdish as L1 but not from L2 (Farsi) to L3 (English). The study results would be used for further research in the field of teaching and learning English as a foreign language.

The present study, on the one hand, attempted to investigate the strategies applied in dispreferred responses by Iranian university students of English and the extent to which pragmatic transfer could occur. On the other hand, the study aimed to probe into the association between dispreferred organization and turn-shape. To this end, 31 relevant naturally occurring conversations, totaling 120 min drawn from approximately 9 hr of audio-taped conversations from 40 voluntary students, were recorded from which the refusal strategies and complexity of turns were elicited. The findings suggested that a sizable number of the learners delivered responsibility to other sources using accounts and discourse markers. As for preference organization, the results showed that solidarity was the dominant aspect among the learners. Moreover, the study compared 2 measures of L2 competence: oral interaction and a discourse completion test (DCT). The results showed that the 2 methods induced somewhat different production samples from the learners in terms of frequency, type of refusal strategies, and turn shapes. These variations suggest that production through DCTs cannot depict the complexity of natural conversations in which the speakers find themselves free to control the conversation. Finally, it is important to consider cultural differences in language usage by emphasizing the significance of a curriculum that utilizes the act of refusal within its cultural contexts.

This study aimed to examine cross-cultural differences in performing refusal of requests between Persian native speakers (PNSs) and English native speakers (ENSs) in terms of the frequency of the semantic formulas. Also examined in this study was whether Persian EFL learners would transfer their L1 refusal patterns into the L2, and if there would be a relation between their proficiency level and the transfer of refusal strategies. To do so, 66 PNSs (studying Archeology and Law) and 59 ENSs from both genders filled out the Persian and English versions of the same discourse completion test (DCT), respectively. Also, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used to form 2 groups consisting of 61 high proficient (HP) Persian L2 learners and 81 low proficient (LP) ones, who all filled out the English version of the DCT. The refusals strategies used by the participants were turned into semantic formulas, and then classified into 3 groups of Direct, Indirect, and Adjuncts to Refusals. Findings showed no significant differences in the use of Direct refusal strategies between the ENSs and the PNSs. Unlike the PNSs who outweighed the ENSs in the use of Indirect strategies, the ENSs employed substantially more Adjuncts to Refusals. Findings also indicated the occurrence of pragmatic transfer in the use of Indirect and Adjuncts to Refusals by both the HP and LP L2 learners. However, the LP group was found to transfer their L1 refusal patterns more than the HP group.

In this paper, the authors investigate whether Persians who have been exposed to Australian culture are still affected by their cultural norms—in particular by the politeness system taarof—in responding to compliments in an intercultural interaction. Compliment responses were elicited—through a Discourse Completion Task—from thirty participants (five males and five females in each of three groups): Persians in Iran, Persians in Australia, and Anglo-Australians. These responses were categorised according to Herbert''s (1986) taxonomy and the results show that although there are similarities in the choice of compliment response types by Australians and Persians living in Australia, there are still some differences. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge of potential areas for miscommunications in intercultural interactions, and also to find ways to improve language teaching and learning.