A Study On Chinese Learners’ Acquisition Of English Requests

The present study investigated the second language pragmatic development ofChinese learners at three proficiency levels by focusing on their acquisition of theEnglish speech act of requests. Following a cross-sectional design, the study used anopen questionnaire to collect the data of low, intermediate and advanced learners ascomparison. The data were analyzed with a coding scheme of requests adapted fromthe Cross-cultural speech act realization project (CCSARP) by Blum-Kulka et al(1989). Three illocutionary aspects of requests—request strategies, internalmodification and external modification were examined to find out thepragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features of learners’ requests.Three interlanguage groups all preferred conventionally indirect strategies andadvanced group tended to use more conventionally indirect strategies than both lowgroup and intermediate group. Direct strategies were more preferred by low group,and the frequencies of both direct strategies and conventionally indirect strategies ofintermediate group were between those of low and advanced group. Specifically, theemployment of imperatives was most frequently used by low and intermediategroups. Concerning the varieties of direct strategy, more frequencies of which werefound in advanced group compared with low and intermediate group. The frequencies of request strategies employed by the three groups indicated thedevelopmental features of request from low group to advanced groupConcerning the internal modifications, advanced group employed more syntacticdowngraders in modifying their request than low and intermediate group. Theemployment of syntactic structure was more native-like, which indicated theacquisition of syntactic development from low group to advanced groupWith regard to the external modifications, advanced group outperformed both lowand intermediate group in number.“Grounders” and “gratitude” were preferred by allgroups, but the varieties of external modification were found more than low groupand intermediate group.The second language pragmatic acquisition of English learners at differentproficiency levels was affected by L1pragmatic transfer, L2proficiency level andclassroom instruction to some extent. The present study suggested thatpragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic competence should be carefully cultivated fromteaching materials, classroom arrangements and so on. Some studies have also beenput forward, especially the cultivation of pragmatic competence in terms of language.