A Contrastive Study Of The Speech Act Of Apology Among Chinese And Quebec (Canada) University Students

This study, through the use of naturalistic observation methods and the conduction of a questionnaire survey, aims at revealing differences and similarities in apologizing habits and choosing apology speech act strategies among native speakers of Chinese and French Canadian (Quebec Province, Canada).In the field of Second Language Acquisition, Pragmatics occupy a very important position, thus analyzing and comparing the actual expression of speech acts of two different languages has a high practical value. The present research subject is about probing the differences between French and Chinese in expressing apology speech acts, mainly through naturalistic observation and recording and survey conduction. The present study also aspires to examine and compare the choice of apology speech act strategies within the two languages. In order to do so, we have used Searle’s Speech Act Theory as well as Brown and Levinson’s Politeness/Face Theory as a theoretical background for the study, both theories having exerted a deep influence in the field of Pragmatics. Through the comparison of the similarities and differences in using apology speech act strategies within French and Chinese, and by adding to it a cross-cultural comparison of the so called behavior, we aim at exploring the social and cultural factors on which these similarities and differences are based. By completing this research, we hope to broaden the field of comparison between French and Chinese Pragmatics, as well as promote cultural exchanges, but especially educate the local Chinese teachers in French speaking regions and Chinese born teachers in and out of China on the different apology speech acts and behavior, thus realizing cross-cultural communication in a more efficient way.The frame work of the present study is as follows:the First Chapter states the meaning of the study, its methodology as well as its focus points and the difficulties anticipated and also offers a summary of the field related research works. The Second Chapter, by combining related theories, elaborates the classification of apology speech act strategies used in this paper. The Third Chapter overviews the design, conduction and analysis of the questionnaire survey used in this study. The Fourth Chapter, through the use of the analysis of the survey results, obtains the differences and similarities of apology expressions and the use of apology strategies within French and Chinese. Finally, the Fifth Chapter summarizes the social and cultural factors reflected by the results of the survey.In order to make it more convenient to answer the survey, we used an internet based questionnaire, the results being analyzed after collecting all the data. One of the innovative points of this study is that, considering there are only very few foreign studies about apology speech act in Chinese, studies comparing Chinese with other than English are even more seldom seen. The author, after observing and getting to know the Chinese society through "foreign" eyesight, can try to present their own reflections, thus deeply understanding both cultures, and also contribute to promote cross-cultural exchange.This thesis presents several shortcomings, amongst which the subjects of the study being limited to the university students population is one important point, which is due to the fact that regardless of the somewhat easy accessibility, the range offered is limited. Also, the author not being an expert in statistics limits the depth of the results’ analysis made. Finally, the research time being limited, the present study isn’t profound and detailed enough.