Acquisition Of Written Requests Of Chinese EFL Learners

The present study investigated the second language pragmatic development of Chinese learners at three proficiency levels by focusing on their acquisition of the English speech act of written requests. Following a cross-sectional design, the study used an open questionnaire to collect the data of low, intermediate and advanced learners as comparison. The data were analyzed with a coding scheme of requests adapted from the CCSARP by Blum-Kulka et al (1989). Three illocutionary aspects of requests—request strategies, internal modification and external modification were examined to find out the pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features of learners'written requests. The major findings are summarized as follows:(1) Three interlanguage groups all preferred conventionally indirect strategies and advanced group tended to use more conventionally indirect strategies than both low group and intermediate group. Direct strategies were more preferred by low group, and the frequencies of both direct strategies and conventionally indirect strategies of intermediate group were between those of low and advanced group. Specifically, the employment of imperatives was most frequently used by low and intermediate groups. Concerning the varieties of direct strategy, more frequencies of which were found in advanced group compared with low and intermediate group. The frequencies of request strategies employed by the three groups indicated the developmental features of written request from low group to advanced group.(2) Concerning the internal modifications, advanced group employed more syntactic downgraders in modifying their request than low and intermediate group. The employment of syntactic structure was more native-like, which indicated the acquisition of syntactic development from low group to advanced group. (3) With regard to the external modifications, advanced group outperformed both low and intermediate group in number."Grounders"and"gratitude"were preferred by all groups, but the varieties of external modification were found more than low group and intermediate group.(4) In terms of sociopragmatic competence, informants at different proficient levels all showed the perception of the contexts, but the sensitivity was different. The overall performance of low and intermediate learners showed little difference but they both differed from the advanced learners who displayed higher sensitivity to contexts. However, sociopragmatic failures were still found in advanced learners.The second language pragmatic acquisition of English learners at different proficiency levels was affected by L1 pragmatic transfer, L2 proficiency level and classroom instruction to some extent. The present study suggested that pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic competence should be carefully cultivated from teaching materials, classroom arrangements and so on. Some studies have also been put forward, especially the cultivation of pragmatic competence in terms of written language.