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Politeness and the speech act of requesting in Japanese as a second language

University of British Columbia

In recent years, studies of "interlanguage pragmatics" have been receiving more attention in second language research. Acquiring sociolinguistic competence, an important component of communicative competence, requires that L 2 learners of Japanese have knowledge of concepts such as politeness and face that are determined by Japanese social context Learners of Japanese must therefore learn how to use socially appropriate linguistic devices that are specific to the target culture in order to show politeness and save both hearers' and speakers' face. This case study examined how native Japanese speakers and native English speaking learners of Japanese approached and attained their request goals while maintaining the face of both requester and requestee. The following research questions were considered in this case study: 1)How do Japanese native speakers and English-speaking learners of Japanese attain their request goal while maintaining effective communication? 2) How do Japanese native speakers and English speaking learners of Japanese show politeness? 3)How do Japanese native speakers and English learners of Japanese react when their initial request is indirectly refused ? The speech data were collected through an oral role-play. The results showed that there was not much difference in the use of honorific language between the Japanese and learners of Japanese. However, different linguistic devices were used for sentence endings, especially request speech act endings, between the native Japanese and the learners of Japanese. Based on the raw tallies (without statistical analysis), it was found that the Japanese used more unfinished sentences and nominalizers while the learners of Japanese used more finished sentences and fewer nominalizers. The use of nominalizers and unfinished sentences might be sociolinguistic devices which function to reduce imposition and create feelings of mutual understanding.Differences were also found in the way that the native Japanese and learners of Japanese reacted when the requestee indirectly refused their initial request. The native Japanese made long pauses and waited for the requestee's suggestion or decision, while the learners of Japanese attempted to negotiate with the requestee immediately. Differences in perception of social variables such as relative status might have led to these different reactions. One pedagogical implication of the study is that learners of Japanese should be made aware of the functions of sociolinguistic devices such as nominalizers and clause particles as well as concepts (e. g., empathy and reserve) that are related to social variables that determine appropriate speech behavior in order to communicate more effectively with native speakers of Japanese.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-01-24

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3883

Modern Languages Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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