The Effects of Social Distance, Power, Gender, and Imposition on the Request Behavior of Saudi EFL Learners and English Native Speakers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33948/KSU-languages-6-1-1Keywords:
Pragmatics, Speech act , L2 pragmatics, DCT, Power, speech actsAbstract
Little research has examined the production of L2 requests by Arabic second language learners of English. The present study aims to compare the request strategies employed by Saudi Arabian learners of English and English native speakers. It investigates the effects of social distance, power, and level of imposition on the production of requests in both groups. Results from the Discourse Completion Task revealed that Conventional Indirect strategies (CI) were the most frequently used request strategies by both native and non-native speakers, with no significant differences between the two groups. There was an effect of social power on request strategies, with Direct strategy being used more frequently in low-power than in high-power situations. Non-native speakers used Supportive Moves more frequently than native speakers, and high-proficiency learners used Supportive Moves more frequently than their low-proficiency counterparts. There was a positive association between all the social variables and the number of Supportive Moves used by both native and non-native speakers.
