The effect of social class on Persian EFL learners’ pragmatic performance of Speech act of compliment responses

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Dec 31, 2015
Updated: 2015-12-31
Versions:
2015-12-31 (2)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18844/gjflt.v5i2.189

Main Article Content

Saman Ebadi
Applied Linguistics, Razi University, Tehran, Iran
Farkhondeh Pursiah
Candidate in TEFL, Razi University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate how the participants’ social class affects types and frequency of EFL language learners’ compliment responses (CR).Data were collected from 60 Persian EFL Learners by using a DCT on various real life situations. The data were categorized and analyzed based onthe adapted version of CR categorization developed by Herbert (1989).The results indicated that both high and middle social class followed very similar patterns of CR. The CR pattern doesnot seem to fluctuate according to the social class of the participants.The discrepancy in the strategies utilized by the participants in this study between the data achieved from the Persian and English questionnaires does not support L1 pragmalinguistic transfer in CR patterns for the middle social class participants.The findings of the research contribute to social, psychological and linguistic aspects of language learning in terms of examining the effect ofinteracting factors on the process of language learning in general and pragmatics in particular.


Keywords: social class, compliment, compliment response, speech acts

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Ebadi, S., & Pursiah, F. (2015). The effect of social class on Persian EFL learners’ pragmatic performance of Speech act of compliment responses. Global Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 5(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.18844/gjflt.v5i2.189
Issue
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2015): November
Section
Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (SeeThe Effect of Open Access).

References

Ash, Sharon. (2002). Social class. In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, ed. J.K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill, and Natalie Schilling-Estes, 402–422. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.

Bachman, L. (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Blum-Kulka, S. (1983). Interpreting and Performing Speech Acts in a Second Language-Cross-Cultural Study of Hebrew and English. Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition, 36-55.

Chevalier et. al. (2008). Students' Academic Self-Perception. Centre for the Economics of Education London School of Economics Houghton Street London.

Chick, J. K. (1996). Intercultural communication. In S. McKay, & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.),

Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching, (pp. 329-331). Herbert, K. (1986). Say “thank you†or something. American Speech, 61(1), 76-88.

Daniel, A. (1984) . Community health studies, volume VIII, number 2, 1984, the measurement of social class. School of sociology, University of New South Wales

Furukawa, Y. (2000). Home nojoukennikansuruichikousatsu( „An observation on conditions for compliment. Nihongonihonbunkakeenkyuku (Research on the Japanese Language and Culture), 10, 117-130.

Herbert, K. (1986). Say “thank you†or something. American Speech, 61(1), 76-88.

Herbert, R. K. (1989). The Ethnography of English compliments and compliment responses: A Contrastive sketch. In W. Oleksy (Ed.), Contrastive pragmatics (pp. 3-36). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Herbert, R. K. (1990). Sex-based differences in compliment behavior. Language in Society, 19, 201-224.

Holmes, J. (1986). Compliments and compliment responses in New Zealand English. Anthropological Linguistics, 28, 485-508.

Holmes, J. (1988). Paying compliments: A sex-preferential politeness strategy. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 445-465.

Jucker, (2009). Speech act research between armchair, field and laboratory, the case of compliments. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(2009), 1611–1635

Kasper, g. (1992). Pragmatic transfer. Second Language Research, 8(3), 203-231.

Kasper, G., & K.R. Rose. (2002). PragmaticDevelopment in a Second Language. Blackwell, Mahwah, NJ.

Keshavarz, M. H., Eslami, Z. R., &Ghahreman, V. (2006). Pragmatic Transfer and Iranian EFL Refusals: A Cross-Cultural Perspective of Persian and English. K.

Manes &Wolfson. (1981). The compliment formula. In F. Coulmas (ed.), Conversational Routine, pp.115-132. The Hague: Mouton.

Merriam, S.B. (1998).Qualitative research and case study applications in education. Sanfrancisco: Jossey-Bass.

Nguyen, M. T. T. (2005). Criticizing and Responding to Criticism in a Foreign language: A Study of Vietnamese Learners of English. Unpublished Dissertation. The University ofAuckland, Department of Applied Language Studiesand Linguistics.

Pomerantz, A. (1978). Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints.

In J.Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 79-112). New York: Academic Press.

Rose, K. R. (2000). An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 27-67.

Scarcella, R. (1979). Watch up: A study of verbal routine in adult second language performance. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 19, 79-88.

Schmidt, R. W., & Richards, J. C. (1985). Speech acts and second-language learning. In J. C. Richards (Ed.), Thecontext of language teaching (pp. 100-128). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sharifian, F. (2005). The Persian cultural schema of "shekasteh-nafsi": A study of compliment responses in Persian and Anglo-Australian speakers. Pragmatics and cognition, 13(2), 337-362.

Wolfson, N., & Manes, J. (1980). The compliments as a social strategies. Paper in Linguistics, 13, 389-410.

Wolfson, N. (1983). An Empirically based analysis of complimenting in American English. In N. Wolfson and E. Judd (Eds.). Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition (pp.82-95). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Yousefvand, (2010). Studies of Compliment Speech Act Realization Patterns across Gender in Persian. Arizona Working Papers in SLA & Teaching, 17, 91- 112 BusinessDictionary.com