Researching and Teaching Second Language Speech Acts in the Chinese Context

123 Pages·2018·2.324 MB·

by  Cynthia Lee

Cynthia Lee
Researching and
Teaching Second
Language Speech
Acts in the Chinese
Context
Researching and Teaching Second Language
Speech Acts in the Chinese Context
Cynthia Lee
Researching and Teaching
Second Language Speech
Acts in the Chinese Context
123
Cynthia Lee
TheUniversity of HongKong
Pokfulam, HongKong Island
Hong Kong
ISBN978-981-10-8979-4 ISBN978-981-10-8980-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8980-0
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Preface
Kasper and Schmidt (1996) first used the term interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) to
refertolanguagelearners’ornon-nativespeakers’interactional,sociolinguistic,and
pragmatic competence and ability to make certain choices when they perform a
certainact.ILPisacomponentofsecondlanguageacquisition,andthemainfocus
of ILP research is on the production, comprehension, and development of speech
actsinvariouslanguagesandcultures.Recentresearchhasfocusedonafewtypes
of speech act performances of second language (L2) learners from cross-cultural,
cross-linguistic, and developmental perspectives. Further to this, multiple personal
andcontextualfactorsthatinfluencetheuseofspeech actshavebeeninvestigated.
All these findings have informed instructional design and the importance of
understanding L2 learners’ interlanguage pragmatic performances. Among the
myriad personal and contextual factors, learners’ own cultural norms and values
have been found to be influential, shaping L2 speech act behavior and production.
Culture, in Chang and Haugh’s view, encompasses “ways of perceiving, shared
knowledge, norms, values and practices, which are learned and shared through
(un)consciousobservation,interactionandimitationamongstmembersofthesocial
groupinquestion”thatdraws“boundariesbetweenself(-group)andother(-group),
andinthissensetiesinwithnotionsofgroupmembershipandidentity”(Changand
Haugh 2011: 412). In this light, understanding L2 users’ own cultural prac-
tices, knowledge, perceptions, speech act behaviors and even language use can
shed light on their interlanguage pragmatic competence in intercultural and inter-
personal communication.
Pokfulam, Hong Kong Cynthia Lee
v
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people for their con-
tinuous support and encouragement at different stages of my academic life. They
are Prof. William Littlewood, Prof. Alexander Yeung, Prof. Tony Hung, Prof.
Kathleen Ahrens, and Prof. Gabriele Kasper. I am particularly grateful to Prof.
Gabriele Kasper who generously shared her views on the latest developments
in pragmaticsandprovidedvaluableadviceontheearlyworkofmyinterlanguage
pragmatic development research projects when I was a Visiting Colleague at the
DepartmentofSecondLanguageStudies,UniversityofHawai’iatMānoain2008.
Our discussions and encounters on various occasions have inspired me to pursue
this area of research. My gratitude should also go to Prof. Ahrens who gave me
valuable feedback on the book manuscript, and suggested areas for improvement.
My sincere thanks should also go to the Hong Kong Research Grants Council
(RGC). This book is an outcome of two research grant projects, numbered
2164/03H and 242507, funded by the Council in 2003–2005 and 2007–2009
respectively. The two RGC-funded research grants investigated cross-cultural and
interlanguage pragmatics, as well as interlanguage speech act development. The
first project compared the realization patterns of requests, apologies, and refusals
performed by tertiary Cantonese learners of English in Hong Kong and native
English speakers, and those produced by the same group of Cantonese learners of
English in their first (L1) and second (L2) language, mainly through Discourse
Completion Tests (DCTs). The second project was a cross-sectional study on the
development of speech act competence of Cantonese learners of English from
childhoodthroughadolescence.Datawerecollectedfromoralproductiontasksand
retrospective interviews. It is the outputs from these two projects, which have
appeared in different journals, that the contents of this book have been partially
based on. These two research projects together with the pragmatics courses that
I have taught since 2004 motivated me to write this book.
My gratitude also goes to the Pragmatics Special Interest Group (SIG)
members—Dr.AditiJhaveri,Ms.AkikoChiba,Mr.JuanCastillo,Mr.KevinPat,and
Mr. Simon Scanlon, in the Centre for English Studies (CAES), the University of
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Hong Kong. The SIG members hold regular meetings to discuss a variety of
pragmatics-related topics, and the discussions are always inspiring. Some of the
teachingmaterialspresentedinthisbookhavebeenadoptedbytheSIGinitssummer
course. I am very grateful to my academic friends—Dr. Angela Chan for her
stimulating discussion on pragmatics and language education, Dr. Max
Hui-Bon-Hoa, Dr.NatalieFong,Dr.KevinYung,andDr.ClarenceWangfortheir
encouragement, andMs.JulieGrovesfor readingandediting theearlydraftofthe
manuscript.Finally,IshouldthankProf.KenHyland,theformerDirectorofCAES,
forsupportingmysabbaticalleavein2017,duringwhichIcouldfocusonthewriting
of this book. Without funding support and encouragement of my colleagues and
academicfriends,thisbookwouldnothavebeenabletoappear.
Contribution of the Book
This book is written for researchers, language educators, classroom teachers, and
readers who are interested in interlanguage pragmatics research, language acqui-
sition, andteaching, with particularreference tospeechactsperformedbyChinese
learnersofEnglish,andtherelationswiththelearners’firstlanguage(L1)culture.It
contributes to the literature of interlanguage pragmatics by building an interface
between researching and teaching pragmatic competence in terms of speech acts
performed by a target group of language learners, that is, Chinese learners of
English in the following ways:
(1) Providingabetter understandingoftheproductionanddevelopmentofspeech
actsofChinese learnersofEnglishfromthecross-linguistic,cross-cultural,L1
and L2 developmental perspectives;
and
(2) Recommendinginformedpedagogiestofacilitatetheteachinganddevelopment
ofspeechactcompetenceofthetargetculturalgroup,drawingonrecentresearch
findings andrelevant second language acquisition theoreticalframeworks.
In this book, the target group of learners are Chinese speakers and learners of
English who come from different Chinese communities in Asia. They include
young and adult native Mandarin speakers from Mainland China, Taiwan, Macau,
andnativeCantonesespeakersfromHongKong.Inviewoftheincreasingnumber
of Chinese students studying overseas, it is important for them to understand their
own speech behaviors, and be aware of the differences between their speech
behaviorsandotherEnglishspeakers’inadditiontolinguisticcompetence.Lacking
pragmatic competence and ability may cause them to fail in international com-
munication.Thus,thisbookhighlightsthesignificanceofunderstandingthespeech
behaviors and perceptions of L2 learners, in particular, in relation to their L1, by
learnersthemselves.Finally,itpointstotheneedtoconsidertheroleofpragmatics
for English learners in language education not only in the Chinese university
context but also for learners of other languages elsewhere.
ix
Organization of the Book
ToprepareforthestudyofL2speech actproductionanddevelopmentbyChinese
learners of English, this book begins with a chapter devoted to the definition of
pragmaticsandinterlanguagepragmatics.Chapter2revealsthewaystodevelopL2
speech act competence and describes data collection methods for the study of L2
speech act competence and development. Chapter 3 discusses the role of culture,
and the connection between culture and speech act performance in first language
(L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. Then, it moves on to explore how
Chinesecultureimpactstherealizationpatternsandrelatedexpressionsoffivewell-
researched speech acts, namely requesting, apologizing, compliment-responses,
refusing, and complaining in Chinese by native Chinese speakers (including
Mandarin and Cantonese), as well as in English by Chinese learners of English in
the Chinese communities (Mainland China, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, and
Singapore) from a cross-linguistic and a cross-cultural perspective. Two important
Chinese cultural concepts of lĭmào (politeness) and miàanzi (facework) are dis-
cussed. The influence of Chinese cultural norms on the realization patterns and
correspondingexpressionsofthefivespeechactsinbothChinese(L1)andEnglish
(L2) are reviewed. Chapter 4 extends the scope of the work by describing and
discussingthetrajectoryofChineseEnglishlearners’interlanguagedevelopmentin
thesamefivespeechacts.Researchonthelanguageproductionanddevelopmentof
this group of learners informs teaching. Therefore, Chap. 5 builds an interface
between researching and teaching speech acts to Chinese learners of English by
delineating the advantages and disadvantages of formal instruction and natural
exposureforspeechactdevelopmentandproduction,andsharespedagogicalideas
and course materials that have been exclusively developed for this purpose in two
HongKonguniversities.Foreachmajorsectionofeachchapter,therearequestions
for further thought and reflection. Finally, concluding remarks and future research
directions are put forward in Chap. 6.
xi
Contents
1 Key Concepts and Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Pragmatics and Pragmatic Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Speech Act Competence and Development in L1 and L2 . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Teachability of L2 Speech Acts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Developing and Researching L2 Speech Act Competence . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Developing L2 Speech Act Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.1 Receiving Instruction in the Classroom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2 Exposing Learners to the Target Language, Culture
and Norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.3 Learning from Fellow Learners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.4 Complexity of L2 Pragmatic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3 Researching L2 Speech Act Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.1 Instrumentation to Collect Experimental Data . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.2 Authentic Conversations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3 Chinese Culture, Language, and L1 and L2 Speech
Act Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Language, Culture and Speech Act Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3 Chinese Cultural Concepts for Interpersonal Communication—
Lǐmào (禮貌/礼貌): Politeness, and Miànzi (面子): Facework. . . . 31
xiii