A Comparative Study Of Speech Act Of Request Between Chinese And American Teachers And Students—From A Cultural Perspective

Speech act theory has been widely accepted and studied in the field of linguistics. Speech act of request, which is very common in the daily communication, refers that the requester makes a demand with language, hoping to meet his or her demand. In the classroom, the speech act of request between the teachers and students is especially frequent. The speech act of request can be realized through the request strategies. Blum divides request strategies into direct request strategies and indirect request strategies which can be further divided into conventionally and unconventionally indirect request strategies. Request strategies are influenced by social factors, context and imposition.Based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, China belongs to high power distance country and America belongs to low power distance country. People in the high power distance country take the inequality for granted and their degree of acceptance of the inequality is high. On the contrary, people in the low power distance country think the inequality should be reduced and their degree of acceptance of the inequality is low. Power Distance, as a kind of social factor have influence on the realization of speech act of request and the differences of request strategies actually reflect the differences of power controlling relations. The characteristics of high and low power distance culture have some certain manifestation in the classroom. Therefore, the author proposes a hypothesis: when performing speech act of request, the different culture dimension of Power Distance will influence the request strategies chosen by Chinese and American teachers and students. When the teachers request the students, Chinese teachers tend to choose the direct request strategies to realize the speech act of request, while American teachers tend to choose the indirect request strategies. When the students request the teachers, Chinese students tend to choose the indirect request strategies, while American students tend to choose the direct request strategies as their first choice to realize the speech act of request.This thesis regards the speech acts of request of teachers and students in Chinese and American films as the research objects and studies comparatively the differences of the choice of request strategies between Chinese and American teachers and students from the perspective of Hofstede's cultural dimension of Power Distance. This thesis respectively collects 150 speech acts of request including 100 speech acts of request from teachers and 50 speech acts of request from students from 18 Chinese films and 12 American films which are chosen at random. Through the quantitative research method and Excel figure analysis, it finds that the ratio of Chinese teachers' choice of the direct request strategies is 68%,while the ratio of American teachers' choice of the direct request strategies is 36%; the ratio of Chinese teachers' choice of the indirect request strategies is 32%,while the ratio of American teachers' choice of the indirect request strategies is 64%.The ratio of the Chinese students' choice of the direct strategies is 34%,while the ratio of American students' choice of the direct request strategies is 62%; the ratio of the Chinese students' choice of the indirect strategies is 66%,but the ratio of American students' choice of indirect request strategies is 38%; The result of the research verifies the hypothesis that with the influence of different power distance, Chinese teachers tend to choose the direct request strategies to realize the speech act of request, while American teachers tend to choose the indirect request strategies to achieve the speech act of request; Chinese students tend to choose the indirect request strategies, while American students tend to choose the direct request strategies as their first choice to realize the speech act of request.This thesis also analyzes the cultural influence on the Power Distance in China and America from three aspects: Bureaucratic culture vs. Civilian culture, Agricultural civilization vs. Commercial civilization, and the Confucianism vs. Protestantism.This thesis provides a new perspective for the study of speech act of request by combining it with Hofstede's theory of cultural dimensions which deepens understanding of the two theories and makes readers better know Chinese and American cultures and overcome cultural conflicts. It is also the response to the new educational reform's core idea of "return the class to students" and helps to develop a positive and harmonious class atmosphere.