Pragmatic Perception of Politeness in Requests across Academic Cultures of English L1s and Punjabi esls
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Date
2010
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UMT Lahore
Abstract
The present research study is anchored in the fields of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) & cross cultural studies of speech acts to investigate comparatively the pragmatic perception of politeness in ‘Request patterns’ across cultures of Native English Speakers (EL1s) and Native Punjabi speakers learning English as second language (P-ESLs) in academic settings. The stimulus for this research study is to improve cross cultural communication between English and Punjabi Native speakers by having awareness of differences in the cultural conventions in making requests. To find out the differences and similarities in the request patterns and their respective cultures the researcher has developed Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and Self-Rating Questionnaire (SRQ) as instruments for his work. The data obtained from instruments is analyzed by using the coding scheme of Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP) by (Shushana Blum-Kalka, Juliane House & Gabriele Kasper, 1989: 275). It is evident from the results & findings of this study that in spite of the fact that there is great difference in the execution of request statements from the people of both cultural groups (EL1s & P-ESLs) yet they are identical in their pragmatic perception or sensitivity of politeness in the speech act of request. Moreover the stereotypes of less polite or unfriendly attitude of Punjabi ESLs in cross-cultural communication more especially in the speech act of request is originated by the socio-cultural conventions of English society, lack of pragmatic competence of English language of Punjabi ESLs and excellence of Linguistic competence of Native English Language speakers.