Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK
2009
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1256582773 |
| id |
ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-bgsu1256582773 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-bgsu12565827732021-08-03T05:29:13Z Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University Yang, Lihong Education Speech act of request Chinese American gradaute students With globalization of the world economy and cultural communication, more and more Chinese students have entered American universities to pursue academic success in higher education. However, coming from a country where English is spoken as a foreign language, Chinese students may encounter difficulties in adjusting to the new social and academic environment in the U.S. The purpose of the present study was to investigate one pragmatic competence of Chinese graduate students in English communication settings'how they apply English request strategies in various social and cultural contexts. Request, according to Byon (2004), is "a directive that embodies an effort on the part of the speaker to get the hearer to do something" (p. 1674). Making requests in a foreign language is face threatening because it requires considerable cultural and linguistic expertise on the part of the speaker. Inappropriate request strategies can easily cause breakdowns in cross-cultural communication. Building upon a mixed-methods research design, the researcher conducted a comparative study of English requests between Chinese and American graduate students at one mid-western American university. The instrument used to collect data was a modified Discourse Completion Test (DCT)a questionnaire composed of 14 request eliciting situations, and follow-up interviews. Study findings revealed that significant differences exist between Chinese and American graduate students in directness and imposition of the request, and social distance in some social situations. No significant differences were discovered in relation to relative power of the hearer. Social distance, imposition of the request, and relative power were all positively correlated with each other. 2009-12-22 English text Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1256582773 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1256582773 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Education Speech act of request Chinese American gradaute students |
| spellingShingle |
Education Speech act of request Chinese American gradaute students Yang, Lihong Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University |
| author |
Yang, Lihong |
| author_facet |
Yang, Lihong |
| author_sort |
Yang, Lihong |
| title |
Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University |
| title_short |
Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University |
| title_full |
Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University |
| title_fullStr |
Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Speech Act of Request: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Graduate Students at an American University |
| title_sort |
speech act of request: a comparative study of chinese and american graduate students at an american university |
| publisher |
Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2009 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1256582773 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT yanglihong speechactofrequestacomparativestudyofchineseandamericangraduatestudentsatanamericanuniversity |
| _version_ |
1719420737276608512 |