Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels

Pragmatic competence is defined as the ability to convey communicative actions in sociocultural contexts. Production of appropriate speech acts in a particular context is one of the important aspects of pragmatic competence. Making requests forms a large part of communicative events, and they thus p...

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Main Author:	Taw, Ly Wen
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2014
Subjects:	English language - Study and teaching English language - Spoken English - Study and teaching
Online Access:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70093/1/FBMK%202014%2069%20IR.pdf
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id	my-upm-ir.70093
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-upm-ir.700932019-10-31T06:44:17Z Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels 2014-09 Taw, Ly Wen Pragmatic competence is defined as the ability to convey communicative actions in sociocultural contexts. Production of appropriate speech acts in a particular context is one of the important aspects of pragmatic competence. Making requests forms a large part of communicative events, and they thus play a significant role in communication. This study investigates the request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels: elementary, lower intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced. The proficiency levels are obtained through benchmark standard as set by the Malaysian English University Test (MUET). The requests were discussed in terms of strategy types, and they are linked to their directness levels as well as internal and external modifications. The principal investigative tool was Oral Discourse Completion Task (ODCT), which is also called closed role play. It elicited the requests produced by 120 participants through six controlled situations which reflect common oral encounters. The Oral Discourse Completion Tasks were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the request coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1989) in Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realisation Patterns (CCSARP).The findings revealed that pragmatic development moves from direct to conventionally indirect strategies in accordance to the learners‘ proficiency levels. Specifically, the elementary and lower intermediate proficiency learners displayed overuse of direct request strategy while the more proficient learners applied more conventionally indirect strategies in their requests. In addition, it can be concluded that Malaysian ESL learners overused external modifications and underused internal modifications. It suggests that Malaysian ESL learners have not acquired sufficient linguistic forms to mitigate their request utterances. This study contributes to the knowledge of how requests are made by Malaysian ESL learners in the university setting and request making is co-related with pragmatic competence of ESL learners. Overall, they showed a pattern of pragmatic development which reflects language proficiency levels situated in request making. English language - Study and teaching English language - Spoken English - Study and teaching 2014-09 Thesis http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70093/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70093/1/FBMK%202014%2069%20IR.pdf text en public masters Universiti Putra Malaysia English language - Study and teaching English language - Spoken English - Study and teaching
institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
collection	PSAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	English language - Study and teaching English language - Spoken English - Study and teaching
spellingShingle	English language - Study and teaching English language - Spoken English - Study and teaching Taw, Ly Wen Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels
description	Pragmatic competence is defined as the ability to convey communicative actions in sociocultural contexts. Production of appropriate speech acts in a particular context is one of the important aspects of pragmatic competence. Making requests forms a large part of communicative events, and they thus play a significant role in communication. This study investigates the request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels: elementary, lower intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced. The proficiency levels are obtained through benchmark standard as set by the Malaysian English University Test (MUET). The requests were discussed in terms of strategy types, and they are linked to their directness levels as well as internal and external modifications. The principal investigative tool was Oral Discourse Completion Task (ODCT), which is also called closed role play. It elicited the requests produced by 120 participants through six controlled situations which reflect common oral encounters. The Oral Discourse Completion Tasks were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the request coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1989) in Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realisation Patterns (CCSARP).The findings revealed that pragmatic development moves from direct to conventionally indirect strategies in accordance to the learners‘ proficiency levels. Specifically, the elementary and lower intermediate proficiency learners displayed overuse of direct request strategy while the more proficient learners applied more conventionally indirect strategies in their requests. In addition, it can be concluded that Malaysian ESL learners overused external modifications and underused internal modifications. It suggests that Malaysian ESL learners have not acquired sufficient linguistic forms to mitigate their request utterances. This study contributes to the knowledge of how requests are made by Malaysian ESL learners in the university setting and request making is co-related with pragmatic competence of ESL learners. Overall, they showed a pattern of pragmatic development which reflects language proficiency levels situated in request making.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Taw, Ly Wen
author_facet	Taw, Ly Wen
author_sort	Taw, Ly Wen
title	Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels
title_short	Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels
title_full	Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels
title_fullStr	Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels
title_full_unstemmed	Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels
title_sort	request strategies used by malaysian esl learners of four proficiency levels
granting_institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
publishDate	2014
url	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70093/1/FBMK%202014%2069%20IR.pdf
_version_	1747812758487826432

Request strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners of four proficiency levels

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