A cross-cultural pragmatic exploration of polite request strategies: Chinese and American English

The study aims to explore politeness strategies used by Mandarin/Taiwanese bilinguals in making requests in English. The study explored whether there were native language patterns transferred from Mandarin/Taiwanese bilinguals to the target language.; The procedure of data was collected through a written questionnaire, role-playing and interviews. English data were collected from native English speakers, and both Mandarin and English data were collected from Mandarin/Taiwanese bilinguals. The study used descriptive analysis and studied the frequency of use of semantic formulas and request strategy type that the participants used in conversation. The responses of American English speakers and Chinese native speakers were used as a baseline to contrast with the Chinese learners of English.; The findings suggest that cultural value, social distance, power, a level of face threat to the addressee, personality factors, situational factors, right and obligation between the interlocutors seem to play roles in the choice of request strategies. The participants tended to use more indirect speech to unfamiliar addressees whether they were equals or unequals. When the requester felt that his or her right was being challenged, more direct speech was occasionally used toward unfamiliar equals. Speakers in positions of superiority tended, to a small degree, to use more direct speech to the familiar subordinates. The findings also showed that transference from learners' native language norms to the target language occurred with a small portion of participants. However, second language seems to also play a role in influencing the use of expressions in the native language, raising issues of positive and negative transfer. The findings seem to imply that the perception of the frequency of use of semantic formulas in the target culture, the learners' learning process, sensitivity to using the target language, and cultural values across different speech communities might also play roles in the choice of appropriate politeness strategies.