How Iranian EFL Learners, Persian Native Speakers, and English Native Speakers Attempt to Manage Rapport in Service Encounters

Amiryousefi, Mohammad; Sasaninejhad, Reyhaneh; Amirian, Zahra

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

University of Isfahan

Abstract

This study aims to examine the cross-cultural similarities and differences in the use of rapport management strategies (rapport enhancement, rapport maintenance, rapport neglect, and rapport challenge) in the complaints during service encounters based on Spencer Oatey’s (2008) model. To this end, 90 participants (30 Persian native speakers, 30 Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners, and 30 English speakers) were asked to complete a role-play Discourse Completion Task in four different situations. The study argues that: (1) the use of rapport management strategies is universal; all the groups used all kinds of rapport management strategies; (2) the use of rapport management strategies is culture-specific; the participants in each group differently used the intended strategies; and (3) the socio-pragmatic competence of EFL learners is sometimes different from that of the native speakers of English; it goes through developmental stages and is influenced by L1 norms. The study concludes that teachers should condition the communicative tasks used inside the class with factors such as the relationship among the interlocutors to help EFL learners develop a pragmatic competence comparable to that of the native speakers. Teachers can also resort to modern technologies to provide EFL learners with the opportunity to communicate with native speakers and receive feedback with regard to the cultural appropriacy of the forms produced.

Keywords

References

Ahmadian, M. J. & Vahid Dastjerdi, H. (2010). A comparative study of perception of politeness of American reprimands by Iranian EFL learners and Americans. The Social Sciences, 5(4), 359-363.

Al-Amar, M. (2000). The linguistic strategies and realizations of request behavior in spoken English and Arabic among Saudi female English majors at Riyadh College of Arts (Master Thesis). Riyadh: King Saud University.

Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bella, S. (2014). Developing the ability to refuse: A cross-sectional study of Greek FL refusals. Journal of Pragmatics, 61, 35-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.015

Bella, S. (2012). Pragmatic development in a foreign language: A study of Greek FL requests. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(13), 1917-1947.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.08.014

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage (Vol. 4). Cambridge university press.

Cahuana, I. L. S. (2015). The production of apologies by Colombian learners of English: A study of pragmatic acquisition in an EFL context (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

Chang, Y. F. (2011). Interlanguage pragmatic development: the relation between pragmalinguistic competence and sociopragmatic competence. Language Sciences, 33(5), 786-798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2011.02.002

Danziger, R. (2018). Compliments and compliment responses in Israeli Hebrew: Hebrew university in Jerusalem students in interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 124, 73-87.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.12.004

Gass, S. M., & Neu, J. (1996). Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Gu, Y. (1998). Politeness and Chinese Face. Lecture given in the Department of Linguistics, University of Luton.

Ho, V. (2017). Giving offense and making amends: How hotel management attempts to manage rapport with dissatisfied customers. Journal of Pragmatics, 109, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.12.001

Ishihara, N. (2006). Subjectivity, second/foreign language pragmatic use, and instruction: Evidence of accommodation and resistance (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Kasper, G., & Blum-Kulka, S. (Eds.). (1993). Interlanguage pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kecskes, I., Sanders, R. E., & Pomerantz, A. (2018). The basic interactional competence of language learners. Journal of Pragmatics, 124, 88-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.10.019

Kim, H. Y. (2014). Learner investment, identity, and resistance to second language pragmatic norms. System, 45, 92-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.05.002

Kinnison, L. Q. (2017). Power, integrity, and mask– An attempt to disentangle the Chinese face concept. Journal of Pragmatics, 114, 32-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.03.015

Koutlaki, S. A. (2002). Offers and expressions of thanks as face enhancing acts: tae'arof in Persian. Journal of pragmatics, 34(12), 1733-1756.

Labben, A. (2017). Revisiting face and identity: Insights from Tunisian culture. Journal of Pragmatics, 108, 98-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.11.011

Lee, H. (2013). The influence of social situations on fluency difficulty in Korean EFL learners’ oral refusals. Journal of Pragmatics, 50(1), 168-186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.01.002

Leech, G. (1983). Principles of politeness. London and New York: Longman.

Matsumoto, Y. (1988). Reexamination of the universality of face: Politeness phenomena in Japanese. Journal of pragmatics, 12(4), 403-426. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166 (88)90003-3

Novick, R. (2000). Politeness and rationality. Amsterdam:John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Partington, A. (2006). The linguistics of laughter: A corpus-assisted study of laughter-talk. Routledge.

Nureddeen, F. A. (2008). Cross cultural pragmatics: Apology strategies in Sudanese Arabic. Journal of pragmatics, 40(2), 279-306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2007.11.001

Sattar, A., Qusay, H., & Farnia, M. (2014). A cross-cultural study of request speech act: Iraqi and Malay students. Applied Research on English Language, 3(2), 35-54.

Searle, J. R. (Ed.). (1971). The philosophy of language (Vol. 39). London: Oxford University Press.

Spencer-Oatey, H. (Ed.). (2008). Culturally Speaking Second Edition: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Taleghani-Nikazm, C. (2017). Invitations in Farsi: An analysis of their turn formats and sequential organizations. Journal of Pragmatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.11.007

Tanck, S. (2002). Speech act sets of refusal and complaint: A comparison of native and non-native English speakers' production. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13, 65-81.

Vásquez, C. (2011). Complaints online: The case of Trip Advisor. Journal of Pragmatics, 43 (6), 1707- 1717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.11.007

Watts, R. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wang, J., & Spencer-Oatey, H. (2015). The gains and losses of face in ongoing intercultural interaction: A case study of Chinese participant perspectives. Journal of Pragmatics, 89, 50- 65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2015.09.007

Yazdani, M., Allami, H., & Samimi, F. (2014). Rapport management approach to condolence: EFL learners vs. native persians. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 1931-1939.

Yu, M. C. (2011). Learning how to read situations and know what is the right thing to say or do in an L2: A study of socio-cultural competence and language transfer. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(4), 1127-1147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.09.025

Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning

How Iranian EFL Learners, Persian Native Speakers, and English Native Speakers Attempt to Manage Rapport in Service Encounters

References

References

Volume 10, Issue 21 - Serial Number 21
June 2018
Pages 33-57

How Iranian EFL Learners, Persian Native Speakers, and English Native Speakers Attempt to Manage Rapport in Service Encounters

References

References

Volume 10, Issue 21 - Serial Number 21June 2018Pages 33-57

Volume 10, Issue 21 - Serial Number 21
June 2018
Pages 33-57