The Linguistics Journal

April 2007

Volume 2, Issue 1

Editors: Paul Robertson and John Adamson

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 2

Published by the Linguistics Journal Press

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Editor: Dr. Paul Robertson Senior Associate Editor: Dr. John Adamson Associate Editor: Darren Lingley

ISSN 1738­1460

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 3

Table of Contents:

Foreword by John Adamson………………………………. 4­6

1. Larisa Nikitina and Fumitaka Furuoka………………. 7­27 ­ Beliefs about Language Learning: A Comparison between Novice and Intermediate Level Students Learning Russian at a Malaysian University

2. Hessa Al Falasi…………………………………………. 28­42 ­ Just Say “Thank You”: A Study of Compliment Responses

3. Mohammad Ali Salmani­Nodoushan………………… 43­68 ­ Politeness Markers in Persian Requestives

4. Mohammad Reza Talebinezhad and Giti Mousapour Negari…. 69­90 ­ The Effect of Explicit Teaching of Concept Mapping in Expository Writing on EFL Students’ Self­regulation

5. Farzaneh Khodabandeh………………………………………… 91­127 ­ A Contrastive Analysis of English and Persian Newspaper Headlines

6. Daniel Nkemleke………………………………………………… 128­142 ­“You will come when?”The pragmatics of certain questions in Cameroon English

7. Raphiq Ibrahim…………………………………………………. 143­161 ­ Does Exposure to Second Spoken Language Facilitate Word Reading Ability?

8. Yan Wang………………………………………………………. 162­183 ­ A Functional Study of the Final Particle mono in Japanese Conversational Discourse

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 4

Foreword

For this first edition of the Linguistics Journal for 2007 we are pleased to present eight

articles. Congratulations to all the authors whose papers have been accepted. Interest in

the journal has increased significantly from the end of 2006 and so the structure of the

editorial board has been changed accordingly. Three new Associate Editors, Helmut

Daller, Julian Good and Biljana Cubrovic have been appointed to supervise submissions

and there are now more than thirty­five editors reviewing papers. Let us hope this healthy

situation for the journal continues.

The first paper by Larisa Nikitina and Fumitaka Furuoka looks at beliefs about Russian

language learning among novice and intermediate level students at Universiti Malaysia

Sabah (UMS) in Malaysia. Using an adapted self­reported questionnaire based on

Horwitz (1988), Nikitina and Furuoka explore the similarities and differences between

the two sets of learners. Their quantitative analysis concludes that “the tenacity of

learners’ beliefs depends on whether those beliefs were shaped by the micro­context (the

learning situation) or macro­context”, the former of which is less stable. The most

“malleable” beliefs concern language aptitude, perceptions of how difficult learning is,

and how communication and learning strategies should be used.

The second paper comes from Hessa Al Falasi at the American University of Sharjah,

in the United Arab Emirates. Al Falasi’s study investigates compliment responses among

mostly female Arabic learners of English, asking whether pragmatic transfer can occur.

Using discourse completion tests (DCTs) and interviews to study the compliment

response strategies by native speakers (NSs) and Arabic non­native speakers (NNSs) of

English, findings suggest that some L1 pragmatic norms were in fact transferred over to

English usage. It is revealed that these norms are sometimes perceived by Arabic

speakers as being universal in nature. Al Falasi’s study stands in interesting contrast to a

Thai­based study published in the Linguistics Journal June 2006 edition by Payung Cedar.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 5

The next paper is by Mohammad Ali Salmani­Nodoushan from the University of

Zanjan in Iran who investigates politeness markers in Persian requestives. This study very

much complements an article published in the January 2006 edition by Hamid Allami on

‘griping’. In Nodoushan’s study, the effects of 465 complainers' sex, age, perceived

situational seriousness, and social class on the use of conversational strategies in their

complaining behavior are observed. Two nonparametric tests were conducted, a Mann ­

Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis H Test, the results of which Nodoushan represents in

a ‘cline of significance’ for each of the independent variables in question.

Mohammad Reza Talebinezhad and Giti Mousapour Negari, both from Isfahan

University in Iran, look at the effect of explicit teaching of concept mapping in expository

writing on Iranian EFL students’ self­regulation. This highly practical study employs

Printrich et al’s (1991) questionnaire on motivation strategies for learning among sixty

university students, divided into experimental and control groups. Findings reveal that

concept mapping had a positive effect on the subjects under investigation.

Farzaneh Khodabandeh, from Mobarakeh Payameh Noor University in Iran, contrasts

English and Persian newspaper headlines. Khodabandeh’s study employs Conversation

Analysis to analyze the syntactic and lexical features in the headlines and reveals that

there were similarities in the use of dynamic verbs, active voice, short words, declarative

sentences, finite clauses, and simple sentences. Differences were seen in the use of tense

forms, headline types, modification, and omission of words.

Daniel Nkemleke from the Technische Universität Chemnitz in Germany looks at the

pragmatic use of questions in Cameroon English, particularly the speech act of ‘asking’

in informal contexts. 160 questions not conforming to native English categories of

questions in Quirk et al (1985) were identified from recorded data of Cameroonian Bantu

‘home’ languages. The paper concludes that the ‘interplay’ of syntax between English

and ‘home’ languages may result in the type of question forms found in the data.

Raphiq Ibrahim from the University of Haifa and Rambam Medical Center in Israel

asks whether exposure to second spoken language facilitates word reading ability, the

purpose of which is to provide direct evidence of a causal role for bilingualism in reading

acquisition. Three groups of first graders of monolingual Hebrew speakers, bilingual

Russian­Hebrew speakers and monolingual Arab speakers are observed in various

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 6

reading skills, the data of which is analyzed with one­way ANOVA and correlations to

compare the reading speed, errors of text and measures of vocabulary between Hebrew

and Arabic groups. Among the conclusions drawn is that early exposure to L2 has a

positive effect on reading ability showing that bilingualism is a “powerful predictor of the

speed and effieciency of reading acquisition”.

The final article based on the MA dissertation by Yan Wang from the University of

Wisconsin­Madison looks at a functional study of the final particle mono in Japanese

conversational discourse. Using a discourse analytic approach, the employment of mono

in sequence organization and how it shows attitudes towards propositions and addresses

are both examined. This study illustrates how this particle reveals a speaker’s subjectivity

and operates as a modality marker in conversational discourse.

We hope you enjoy reading these articles in the Spring edition of the Linguistics

Journal and look forward to your own contributions in 2007.

John Adamson, Ed.D. Senior Associate Editor The Linguistics Journal

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 7

Beliefs about Language Learning: A Comparison between Novice and Intermediate Level Students

Learning Russian at a Malaysian University

Larisa Nikitina and Fumitaka Furuoka Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia

Bio Data: Larisa Nikitina (B.A., M.A.) is a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah where she teaches the Russian language. Her current research interest focuses on the affective aspects of language learning and the study of language learning motivation.

Fumitaka Furuoka (Ph.D.) teaches Economics at Universiti Malaysia Sabah. He is the author of numerous publications that employ quantitative analysis in various social sciences fields. His most recent major publication is the book entitled New Challenges for Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) Policy: Human Rights, Democracy and Aid Sanctions (Universiti Malaysia Sabah Press, 2006). Fumitaka Furuoka's research interests include the quantitative analysis and measurement of psychometric qualities of tools employed in the field of second language acquisition to assess learners' characteristics.

Abstract Elaine Horwitz’s influential research on the nature of students’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning in the 1980s initiated a multitude of inquiries into the subject. Malaysia as a multi­cultural and multi­lingual country provides an interesting socio­ linguistic setting to explore the nature of beliefs about language learning. However, research on this topic in the Malaysian context is lacking. This study aimed to address this gap and examined beliefs about learning a foreign language held by 107 Russian language students at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). The present inquiry juxtaposed beliefs held by the beginners and intermediate learners in order to assess which areas of beliefs were commonly shared by the two groups of learners and which areas contained considerable differences in beliefs. This study employed a self­reported questionnaire based on Horwitz’s (1988) Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) as a research instrument, with some modifications done to suit the Malaysian context. Statistical analysis detected five items where opinions of two groups of students were significantly different. Although participants in this study were the Russian language students, there are no obstacles to viewing the findings of this research in a broader perspective of foreign language learning and teaching.

Key words: foreign language learning, foreign language teaching, language learning beliefs, Malaysia, the Russian language

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 8

1. Introduction

In the 1980s, Elaine Horwitz of the University of Texas at Austin initiated research on

beliefs about language learning held by language students and teachers. Since then the

topic has been attracting considerable interest and a multitude of studies exploring

language learning beliefs were done in different countries (Truitt, 1995; Park, 1995;

Kuntz, 1999; Kunt, 1997; Peacock, 1998; Sakui & Gaies, 1999; Kimura et al., 2001;

Siebert, 2003; Bernat, 2006).

Researchers looked at language learning beliefs from different perspectives. Mori (1999)

examined relationship between language learning beliefs and epistemological beliefs,

Wenden (1999) focused on the relationship between metacognitive knowledge and

learners’ beliefs, Yang (1992) looked at the connection between language learning beliefs

and the use of learning strategies while Carter (1999) explored the link between learners’

beliefs and autonomy. Despite the availability of extensive research on language learning

beliefs, studies on this topic in the Malaysian context are lacking. The present inquiry

aims to address this gap.

Malaysia as a multi­ethnic and multi­lingual country represents an interesting socio­

linguistic setting. First of all, multilingualism is promoted in Malaysia. While Malay is

the national and official language of the country, English is widely used for business

transactions, in superior courts and every day life. There are radio and TV stations that

broadcast programs mainly in the English language. Moreover, in government primary

and secondary schools, mathematics and science subjects are taught in English.

Other major languages and dialects spoken in Malaysia are Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka,

Teochew and Hainanese among the Chinese dialects; Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi,

Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu among Indian languages; there are also numerous indigenous

languages and dialects. A large part of the Malaysian population speaks two, three or

more languages and dialects.

Secondly, the Malay and English languages are compulsory school subjects.

Schoolchildren attending Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools learn Mandarin and

Tamil, respectively, and the Arabic language is taught at some schools. However, foreign

languages are not a part of school curriculum in Malaysia. 1 Therefore, students who begin

learning foreign languages at tertiary level despite their extensive language learning

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 9

experiences in either formal (e.g. school) or informal (e.g. through contacts with family

and friends) settings have had no previous experience of learning a foreign language, i.e.

language not spoken in their immediate surroundings. Therefore, it would be interesting

to inquire what set of beliefs about language learning do Malaysian university students

hold and whether the length of foreign language instruction influences those beliefs.

The present research study was conducted among learners of the Russian language at

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) with the aim to assess and compare language learning

beliefs of Malaysian university students at different stages of their foreign language

program.

2. Literature Review

Human beliefs on a wide number of subjects are shaped by peoples’ surroundings,

backgrounds and previous experiences. As Barcelos (2000, p.4) asserts, “Beliefs cannot

be separated from our identities, actions, and social experiences”. It has been recognized

that students enter a language classroom with a set of ideas as to what learning a foreign

language involves. Such assumptions have been described as “folklinguistics” (Preston,

1991). Students who begin learning a new language usually have some ideas about the

language difficulty, their own ability to master the new language, etc. From their previous

language learning experience they might have gathered what learning strategies work best

for them and have formed their own views about classroom proceedings and teacher’s

role.

Richardson (1996, p.103) describes beliefs as “psychologically held understandings,

premises, or propositions about the world that are felt to be true”. Working definition of

language learning beliefs in the present study is that language learning beliefs are

intangible property of human mind about what is right/true or wrong/false in the process

of foreign language acquisition which may change depending upon the length of

instruction.

Rokeach (1968) maintains that some beliefs may be quite central and well entrenched

while other beliefs are peripheral and are hinged on less fundamental assumption. A

question whether human beliefs are malleable was raised by psychologists and

educationalists. However, research studies yield contradictory results. While some

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 10

inquiries lend support to the proposition that learners’ beliefs are resistant to change

(Peacock, 2001) others indicate that beliefs do evolve over time and teachers play

important role in shaping learners’ beliefs (Rubin, 1987; Wenden, 1987). The latter

conclusion appears more feasible to the present authors since people – and learners –

need to constantly adapt to their new circumstances, and this involves making some

rectifications to one’s personal beliefs and assumptions.

In this connection, context should be viewed as an important factor when exploring

students’ beliefs. A number of studies lend support that learners’ beliefs are context­

specific (Tumposky, 1991; Yang, 1992; Sakui & Gaies, 1999; Chawhan & Oliver, 2000).

A study conducted by Tumposky (1991) compared language learning beliefs of Russian

exchange students in the USA to the beliefs of American students learning Spanish and

French in American universities. As reported by Tumposky (1991), the Russian students

believed that when learning a foreign language it was important to practice a lot and take

linguistic risks while American students did not share those beliefs. Also, the Russian

students, coming from a multi­linguistic environment of the former USSR believed that

learning a language was important in order to “know” native speakers of English while

American students in Tumposky’s study did not share this opinion. As Tumposky (1991,

p.62) concluded, “It seems that culture does contribute to the belief system of foreign

language learners”.

A more recent study conducted by Siebert (2003) in the USA considered the influence

of ethnicity and nationality on the beliefs of students learning English in American

universities. Participants in Siebert’s study came from different countries, such as Brazil,

Egypt, Japan, Russia, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, etc. All students were taking intensive

English language courses. According to the results of Siebert’s study, national origin did

have an influence on students’ beliefs about language learning. The most significant

differences concerned such aspects of language study as length of time one needs to

master the English language, the difficulty of English, and foreign language aptitude.

Thus, Japanese students tended to have less confidence in their own language ability than

did students from the Middle East. Also, there were differences regarding the length of

time needed to master a foreign language between students of different nationalities.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 11

Differences in language learning beliefs among learners of different national origins

and ethnicity lend support to an assumption that learners’ background is an important

aspect to consider when examining language learning beliefs. Wenden (1999) mentions

the importance of “social knowledge” about the target language and culture. This

knowledge is shaped by and “acquired from the environment which is the setting for

learning” (Wenden 1999, p.435). However, the role of context in shaping learners’ beliefs

has not been accorded sufficient attention in previous studies. It is suggested in this study

that language learning/teaching context should be separated into macro and micro levels,

and be viewed as macro­context and micro­context. The former incorporates socio­

cultural mores and predominant views on multilingualism and the attitudes towards

language learning in learners’ society. The latter includes individual learners’ previous

experiences of language study (successful or otherwise) and their current learning

situation.

Separating context into two different levels adds some structure to learner’s language

beliefs which allows a better insight into organization and nature of those beliefs. For

example, this would allow making tentative propositions as to which of the learners’

assumptions are more central since they were shaped by the societal factors – or macro­

context ­­ and, therefore, be more resistant to change. On the other hand, learners’ beliefs

shaped by micro­context could be viewed as peripheral and, as such, of a more transient

nature.

Some researchers examined how learners’ beliefs are modified in the course of

language learning. Allen (1996) employed contextual approach to investigate whether

and how teacher’s beliefs influence learners’ beliefs. In her study, initially, there was a

mismatch between the learner’s and teacher’s beliefs. Thus, the subject, a Lybian student

learning English in Canada, thought it was better to learn language from native speakers,

placed a considerable importance on acquiring native­like pronunciation and preferred

teacher­directed activities in the classroom. Those views did not coincide with the

teacher’s perspective on language learning. By the end of semester, the student’s and

teacher’s beliefs converged. The student realized that learners should take more initiative

in their learning and that to become a competent speaker one did not need to have an

excellent pronunciation, all of which reflected his teacher’s opinion.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 12

Kern (1995) conducted a longitudinal study among university students of French at the

beginning of their first semester of the language study and at the end of their second

semester. Though he found very little change over time, he concedes that some beliefs are

more easily modified than others. Kern maintains that students take heed of and interpret

messages from their language teachers regarding what the latter consider an appropriate

approach to language learning. As language students’ involvement with their instructor is

quite intensive, in order to ensure a more successful learning outcome students may

choose to arrange their learning behaviour to accommodate the perceptions of their

teachers. This is an important observation to consider. Apparently, the nature and stability

of language learning beliefs could be probed further by examining similarities and

differences of beliefs held by learners at different stages of their language program.

Kuntz (1999) investigated beliefs about language learning among schoolchildren of

different languages (French, German, Latin, Spanish) at five levels of language

instruction. Though the learners in her research were of much younger age than

university students, the results provide some useful insights for the present study. Kuntz

assessed beliefs that had been most commonly shared by the students of different

languages at different levels of instruction as well as beliefs that had differed significantly

between the groups of learners. She concluded that learners’ assumptions about foreign

language learning do change with the length of instruction, and some beliefs weaken

while others grow stronger. Especially, beliefs concerning communication strategies

underwent most significant changes. For example, students of all languages at more

advanced levels expressed stronger disagreement with the statements that learning a

foreign language is mostly a matter of translation, and that one has to know all the words

for a good reading comprehension. Also, the students acquired more realistic beliefs

about time span needed for learning a foreign language. Kuntz (1999, p.33) concludes

that “these changes may reflect program activities and personal experiences”.

The current research aims to investigate whether length of instruction effects students’

language learning beliefs. Questions of significance here are: (1) Do the novice and

intermediate level learners hold uniform beliefs about language learning? (2) What are

the areas where the learners’ beliefs are most uniform and what are the areas where those

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 13

beliefs are most inconsistent? and (3) Do the intermediate level students have more

realistic views regarding language learning?

3. Research Method

Participants

One hundred seven students learning the Russian language at Universiti Malaysia Sabah

(UMS) participated in this research. Thirty­one (31) students completed one semester of

the language program and were at the beginners’ level; seventy six (76) students

completed three semesters of the Russian language study and reached the intermediate

level. Foreign language is a compulsory course for the participants; the duration of the

program is four semesters.

Instrument

The students were given questionnaires, one per person. First part of the questionnaire

elicited information regarding demographic profile of the respondents (e.g. age, gender,

mother tongue, etc). Second part of the questionnaire employed a 5­point Likert scale

ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” statements.

Horwitz’s (1988) Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) was consulted

and modified to suit the objectives of this study and the Malaysian context. In Horwitz’s

BALLI items are grouped into five themes: (1) language difficulty, (2) foreign language

aptitude, (3) nature of learning, (4) learning strategy, and (5) motivation. The instrument

employed in the present inquiry omits those statements of Horwitz’s BALLI that deal with

learner’s motivation. It was done because motivation is a psychological construct that

involves incentives – extrinsic or intrinsic ­­ to learn and, as such, is not based on the

premise that something is right/true or wrong/false, which is an inseparable part of the

concept of beliefs. Secondly, the instrument used in this study includes a new parameter

to examine the learners’ beliefs about the importance of learning a foreign language.

Considering the Malaysian socio­linguistic context (i.e. multi­lingual environment,

widely­spread usage of the English language), the learners’ opinions about the

importance of learning a foreign language was an interesting aspect to examine. Finally,

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 14

questionnaire items that assess the same parameters of the learners’ beliefs are grouped

together in this research.

The instrument used in the present inquiry contains 20 items and focuses on the

following areas of the learners’ beliefs: (1) foreign language aptitude (items 1­4), (2)

difficulty of language learning (items 5­8), (3) nature of language learning (items 9­12),

(4) learning and communication strategies (items 13­16), and (5) the importance of

learning a foreign language (17­20)

The first four sections of the questionnaire examined the beliefs which were shaped by

the learners’ previous and present learning experiences (i.e. micro­context domain). The

fifth section of the questionnaire sought the learners’ opinions about foreign language

learning and multilingualism, which incorporated macro­context domain.

Procedure

The questionnaires were distributed in December 2005 during the first class of the second

semester of academic year 2005/2006. The students completed answering the

questionnaires in the class and returned the forms to the lecturer. Thus the response rate

was 100 percent. In order to ensure that the respondents expressed their own views, they

were encouraged to give answers individually without consulting their classmates.

Research Hypothesis

This study has one research hypothesis regarding the relationship between language

learning beliefs and length of language instruction. It is hypothesized here that there were

significant differences in the language learning beliefs between the novice and

intermediate students including the learners’ perceptions about their own foreign

language aptitude, the perceived level of difficulty of the language under study, the nature

of language learning, the employment of learning and communication strategies, and the

importance of learning a foreign language.

Data Analysis

In this study, descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. The

frequencies of the occurrence for each of the questionnaire statements were computed

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 15

first. Then, analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS software, version 13.

Frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations for each statement are reported

in Tables 1­5. In the data analysis, responses “strongly disagree” and “disagree” were

grouped as disagreement with a statement, while “strongly agree” and “agree” answers

were interpreted as agreement.

T­test was used to test the research hypothesis. The respondents were separated into

two groups according to the duration of their language program: (1) the beginner students

who had studied Russian only one semester, and (2) intermediate level students who had

completed three semesters of the Russian language program.

4. Findings

The participants in this study were predominantly science students (71%, n=76). The

majority of the respondents (97.2%, n=104) were between 19 to 22 years old; there were

considerably more females (60.7%, n=65) than males (39.3%, n=42). By ethnic groups,

Chinese students represented 42.1% (n=45) of respondents, Malay students represented

14% (n=15), Indian 10.3% (n=11), Kadazan 15.0% (n=16), and others 18.7% (n=20). 2

Regarding linguistic background, the majority of respondents (45.8%, n=49) indicated

the “Chinese” language as their mother tongue; 26% (n=28) of respondents listed the

Malay language, 10.3% (n=11) “Indian”, 9.3% (n=10) Kadazan, and 8.4% (n=9) “other”

as their mother tongue. None of the respondents was monolingual. Bilinguals represented

24.3% (n=26) of the cohort; the majority of respondents (39.3%, n=41) spoke three

languages, while a considerable number spoke four (21.55%, n=23) or five (14.0%, n=15)

languages and/or dialects. All the respondents learned the Malay and English languages

at school, and more than half of them (54.2%, n=58) learned three languages (Malay,

English, and Mandarin). As these data indicate, all of the students have had an extensive

language learning experience. However, none of the respondents mentioned learning a

foreign language at school. 3

As results of the data analysis show, students held quite definite beliefs about language

learning. Only one statement of the questionnaire gathered the majority of neutral

responses (i.e. “I believe that I have a special ability to learn the Russian language”).

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 16

Regarding the existence of foreign language aptitude (see Table 1), the majority of

students agreed that children were more adept language learners than adults (statement

#1). They expressed overall agreement that some people have special language ability

(#2). The respondents were undecided as to whether they personally had a special talent

for language study (#3), and disagreed that people who are good at science and

mathematics are less adept language learners (#4).

Table 1: Foreign Language Aptitude (Items 1­4) Item 1 2 3 4 5

(SD D N A SA) Mean Standard

Deviation 1. It is easier for children than adults to learn a foreign language.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

2. Some people are born with a special ability which helps them to learn a foreign language.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

3. I believe that I have a special ability to learn foreign languages.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

4. People who are good at mathematics and science are not good at learning foreign languages.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

1 12 16 47 31 0 6 7 15 3 1 6 9 32 28

­2.798**

6 16 36 35 14 3 6 11 10 1 3 10 25 25 13

­2.066*

5 29 46 23 4 2 5 14 9 1 3 24 32 14 3

1.013

27 54 21 3 2 3 20 7 1 0 24 34 14 2 2

3.89 3.48 4.05

3.33 3.00 3.46

2.93 3.06 2.87

2.06 2.19 2.00

0.98 0.92 0.96

1.06 1.03 1.05

0.91 0.92 0.99

0.86 0.65 0.92

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 17

t­value 1.062

Note: Tables 1­5 use the following abbreviations 1=SD (Strongly Disagree), 2=D (Disagree), 3=N (Neither agree nor disagree), 4=A (Agree), 5=SA (Strongly Agree). * indicates significance at 0.05 level, ** indicates significance at 0.01 level

The t­test indicates significant shift in beliefs concerning two statements (#1 and #2).

As the results show, beliefs that children are better at languages than adults (t= ­2.798)

and that some people are born with special ability to learn languages (t= ­2.066) were

stronger among the intermediate level students.

Table 2: Difficulty of Language Learning (Items 5­8)

Item 1 2 3 4 5 (SD D N A SA)

Mean Standard Deviation

5. The Russian language is: (1) very difficult; (2) difficult; (3) medium difficult; (4) easy; (5) very easy.

Overall Beginners Intermediate t­value

6. If someone spent one hour a day learning the Russian language, how long would it take him/her to become fluent? (1) less than 1 year; (2) 1­2 years; (3) 3­5 years; (4) 5­10 years; (5) not possible to learn Russian with 1 hour per day study.

Overall Beginners Intermediate t­value

7. I think it is difficult to understand the Russian language.

Overall Beginners Intermediate t­value

11 37 55 4 0 3 9 18 1 0 8 28 37 3 0

0.561

11 41 33 13 9 3 14 10 3 1 8 27 23 10 8

­1.128

1 8 20 69 9 0 3 12 15 1 1 5 8 54 8

­2.373**

2.49 2.55 2.46

2.70 2.52 2.78

3.72 3.45 3.84

0.73 0.72 0.73

1.08 0.92 1.13

0.76 0.72 0.75

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 18

8. I think that Russian grammar is difficult.

Overall Beginners Intermediate t­value

0 7 18 56 26 0 5 7 13 6 0 2 11 43 20

­2.156*

3.14 3.65 4.07

0.82 0.98 0.71

The next section of the questionnaire explored the students’ beliefs about the difficulty

of language learning (see Table 2).

As the results show, the majority of students at all levels considered the Russian

language of medium difficulty (#5), and thought they could become proficient in 1­2

years with 1 hour per day study (#6). Likewise, the majority of students in both groups

agreed that it was difficult to understand the Russian language (#7) and that Russian

grammar is difficult (#8). Agreement of the learners at the intermediate level was

considerably higher for the last two statements compared with the beginner learners (t= ­

2.373 and t= ­2.156 for statements #7 and #8, respectively).

Answers to the questions regarding the students’ beliefs about the nature of language

learning (see Table 3) indicate that students at two levels share strikingly uniform

opinions as to how a language should be learned. The majority of students at each level

agreed that learning a language mostly involves memorizing new vocabulary (#9) and

grammar (#10), and requires different strategies from learning other school subjects (#11).

By contrast, they disagreed that learning a language is about performing translation from

one’s mother tongue. Especially consistent in this section was the belief that learning

grammar constitutes an important part of the language program with a very small

discrepancy in opinions between the groups (t= 0.050).

Regarding learning and communication strategies (see Table 4), the majority of

students at both levels agreed that excellent pronunciation was important (#13), disagreed

that one should speak only when able to produce error­free language (#14) were willing

to practice the language with native speakers (#15) and take linguistic risks at guessing

unknown words (#16). In this section of the questionnaire, only one statement regarding

the importance of an excellent pronunciation (#13) produced different opinions between

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 19

two groups of students (t= 2.020); the intermediate level students attributed less

importance to a good accent than the novice learners.

Table 3: Nature of Language Learning (Items 9­12) Item 1 2 3 4 5

(SD D N A SA) Mean Standard

Deviation 9. Learning a foreign language is mostly about memorizing many new words.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

10. Learning a foreign language is mostly about learning many of grammar rules.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

11. Learning a foreign language requires different strategies from learning other academic subjects.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

12. Learning the Russian language is mostly a matter of translating from my native language.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

2 13 11 59 22 0 4 2 16 9 2 9 9 43 13

1.123

1 17 14 49 26 1 4 2 18 6 0 13 12 31 20

0.050

0 11 15 53 28 0 2 4 21 4 0 9 11 32 24

­0.328

10 35 32 28 2 5 9 7 10 0 5 26 25 18 2

­0.496

3.80 3.97 3.74

3.77 3.77 3.76

3.92 3.87 3.93

2.79 2.71 2.82

0.96 0.94 0.97

1.02 1.02 1.03

0.90 0.71 0.97

1.00 1.10 0.96

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 20

Table 4: Learning and Communication Strategies (Items 13­16)

Item 1 2 3 4 5 (SD D N A SA)

Mean Standard Deviation

13. It is important to speak the Russian language with excellent pronunciation.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

14. You should not say anything in the Russian language until you say it correctly.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

15. If I heard someone speaking the Russian language, I would approach them and try to practice speaking Russian.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

16. It is OK to guess a Russian word if you don’t know its meaning.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

0 10 32 49 16 0 1 7 17 6 0 9 25 32 10

2.020*

35 52 9 11 0 10 15 2 4 0 25 37 7 7 0

0.270

1 16 36 40 14 0 5 5 16 5 1 11 31 24 9

1.494

5 10 26 55 11 2 4 7 16 2 3 6 19 39 9

­0.997

3.66 3.90 3.57

1.96 2.00 1.95

3.47 3.68 3.38

3.53 3.39 3.59

0.84 0.74 0.86

0.91 0.96 0.89

0.93 0.94 0.92

0.97 1.02 0.94

The final section of the questionnaire sought the students’ opinions about the

importance of learning a foreign language. The results are reported in Table 5.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 21

Table 5: Importance of Learning a Foreign Language (Items 17­20)

Item 1 2 3 4 5 (SD D N A SA)

Mean Standard Deviation

17. It is important that everyone knows a foreign language (other than English).

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

18. I think knowing a foreign language besides English is important for me.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

19. I think everybody should have an opportunity to learn a foreign language either at school or university.

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

20. I think a well­educated person should know foreign language(s).

Overall Beginners Intermediate

t­value

2 4 31 39 31 1 2 7 11 10 1 2 24 28 21

0.013

0 5 8 51 43 0 3 2 12 14 0 2 6 39 29

­0.336

1 0 4 54 48 1 0 1 17 12 0 0 3 37 36

­1.268

2 15 24 34 32 2 4 4 13 8 0 11 20 21 24

­0.364

3.87 3.87 3.87

4.23 4.19 4.25

4.38 4.26 4.43

3.74 3.68 3.76

0.94 1.05 0.90

0.79 0.94 0.71

0.65 0.81 0.57

1.09 1.19 1.05

Answers to the questions demonstrate an amazing uniformity of the students’ beliefs

regardless of the length of language instruction. Thus, the majority of respondents at each

level thought that knowing a foreign language was important for everyone (#17) and

personally for themselves (#18). They overwhelmingly supported the statement that

foreign languages should be taught at schools or universities. Though there has been no

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 22

significant divergence in students’ opinion in this section of the questionnaire, the

intermediate­level learners tended to hold a somewhat stronger belief regarding the

importance of foreign language learning.

5. Discussion and Conclusion

Statistical analysis done in this study revealed five (5) significant discrepancies in the

beliefs of the beginner­ and intermediate level students. Two statements each concerned

language aptitude and the difficulty of learning the Russian language; one statement

involved learning and communication strategies.

First of all, the beliefs that children learn foreign languages easier and faster than adults

and that some people have an inherent talent for learning languages were stronger among

the intermediate level students. Such responses may reflect the students’ waning

confidence in the success of learning outcome. This could be due to the students’ making

comparisons between their previous and present language learning achievements.

Languages that the participants learned at primary and secondary school (e.g. Malay,

English, Tamil, Mandarin) and at a younger age were widely spoken in their immediate

surroundings. This allowed the learners to practice newly­acquired skills outside the

classroom and cement their knowledge. However, learning a foreign language in a

country where possibilities to practice the language are very limited can be a challenging

task. Slower than expected progress in attaining fluency in the Russian language may

have led the students to a conclusion that special talent for language learning is needed

and that starting age is an important factor in language learning.

Secondly, statements that it is difficult to understand the Russian language and that

Russian grammar is difficult received stronger agreement from the intermediate level

students. This result is not controversial. As students advance in their language study,

they become exposed to increasingly complex linguistic structures. This makes them

aware of different aspects of language learning and shows that mastering different

language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) requires various degrees of effort

on the part of learners.

Lastly, the importance of an excellent pronunciation is another variable where the

divergence in the beliefs between the beginner­ and intermediate level students was

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 23

statistically significant. The intermediate level students gave less value to speaking with a

native­like accent thus demonstrating enhanced learning and communication strategies

than did the beginner students.

Beliefs that were most consistent between two cohorts of learners involved in this study

were in the areas of the nature of language learning (section 3 of the questionnaire) and

the importance of learning a foreign language (section 5). Only slight differences

transpired in the opinions of the novice and intermediate level students and no

statistically significant relationship was detected. Regarding the nature of language

learning, although both groups agreed that a major part of language learning was

memorizing new words, the intermediate level students were slightly more aware that

enriching one’s vocabulary was not the most important part in achieving good language

proficiency. Also, a greater proportion of the intermediate level students viewed foreign

language study as a necessary and integral component of education.

To conclude, findings of the present research lend support to a proposition that the

tenacity of learners’ beliefs depends on whether those beliefs were shaped by the micro­

context or macro­context. Beliefs formed by the micro­context (e.g. learning situation)

tended to be less stable. In this study, the most malleable beliefs concerned the learners’

perception of language aptitude, their assessment of the difficulty of language learning

and employment of communication and learning strategies.

By contrast, beliefs shaped by the macro­context (i.e. prevailing attitudes within society

toward language learning and multilingualism) were more tenacious. An interesting

finding of the present research was that all the participants were very enthusiastic about

learning a foreign language and thought that everybody should have an opportunity to

learn a foreign language either at school or university. This attitude reflects Malaysia’s

socio­linguistic context where multilingualism is not only promoted but is the way of life.

This finding could be of interest to educational policymakers and school curriculum

planners since it lends support to the idea of introducing foreign languages program at an

earlier stage of education, such as primary or secondary schools.

Results of this study offer some useful insights into language learning beliefs of

students living in a multi­lingual and multi­cultural country. The findings indicate that

language learning beliefs do evolve over the duration of the language program. However,

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 24

there are limitations to this research. First of all, the participants in this study were from

the same university and the sample size was relatively small. Therefore, some caution

should be exercised regarding applicability of the findings to other Malaysian university

students. For future research, a wider population sample from various institutions of

higher learning in Malaysia could be considered. Secondly, the present inquiry employed

the Likert scale questionnaire, which is recognized as economical and effective research

technique. However, as Sakui & Gaies (1999, p.486) maintain, “Questionnaires

consisting of closed items allow respondents only to state their beliefs – and then only the

beliefs which are included in the questionnaire”. Future studies on the topic may consider

including data from interviews, learning diaries and open­ended questionnaires to

supplement research findings.

To conclude, knowledge of students beliefs about language learning is important for

language instructors as it can provide a valuable insight into the learners’ perceptions of

and ideas on language learning. This is especially important for expatriate teachers who

have different learning experiences and backgrounds from their students. Ideas and

opinions about language learning tend to influence students’ learning behaviour.

Therefore, assessing learners beliefs could help to identify potential “problem areas” and

make some adjustment to the classroom procedure.

Notes 1 More recently, teaching of the Arabic and Mandarin languages at schools has been promoted. Also, some residential schools offer the Japanese and German language courses.

2 Among “others” such ethnic groups as “bajau”, “bajau­dusun”, “sino­kadazan”, “sino­ dusun”, “bidayuh”, “iban” were listed.

3 Mandarin being a lingua franca for the Chinese community cannot be considered as a “foreign” language in Malaysia, since ethnic Chinese represent about 24% of the country’s population.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 25

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learning (pp.15­29). London: Prentice Hall.

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use of learning strategies: A study of college students of English in Taiwan.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas, Austin.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 28

Just Say “Thank You”: A Study of Compliment Responses

Hessa Al Falasi, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Bio Data: Hessa Ghanem Al Falasi is in her third year of teaching. She is teaching Grade 6 and 7 in Fujairah School for Basic Education, a government school in Fujairah. She is also completing an MA in TESOL in the American University of Sharjah. She is interested in assessment and evaluation. Ms. Al Falasi is currently working on her thesis, which is a textbook evaluation of the new English national curriculum “UAE English Skills”.

Abstract This study aims at finding out whether Arabic learners of English (Emarati Females in particular) produce target­like compliment responses in English and whether pragmatic transfer can occur. Discourse completion tests (DCTs) and interviews were used to study the strategies employed when responding to compliments by native speakers (NSs) and Arabic non­native speakers (NNSs) of English. Findings suggest that Arabic (L1) expressions and strategies were sometimes transferred to English (L2). This study also indicates that Emarati female learners of English transfer some of their L1 pragmatic norms to L2 because they perceive these norms to be universal among languages rather than being language specific. It also indicates that Arabic NNSs of English have some misconceptions about NSs that affect the way they respond to their compliments. Some important cultural and pedagogical implications are discussed at the end of the paper.

Key words: pragmatic transfer, compliment responses, raising cultural awareness in the EFL/ESL classroom.

Introduction

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 29

Communicating with speakers of other languages is a complex behaviour that requires

both linguistic and pragmatic competence. Whether we speak in a first or second

language, we are influenced by sociocultural norms and constraints that affect the way we

communicate. Rizk (2003) points out that what is considered appropriate in one language

might not be so in another. Praising a girl of being fat, for instance in a Western African

community is considered a compliment; while in an American context it is perceived as

an insult.

Most of the problems that EFL learners face in intercultural communication are mainly

pragmatic. Teachers of EFL often choose not to stress pragmatic knowledge in their

classrooms, focusing instead on linguistic knowledge. Eslami­Rasekh (2004) warns that

this might result in pragmatic failure when EFL learners actually communicate with

native speakers (NSs), something that is attributed to some other cause, such as rudeness.

The only way to minimize pragmatic failure between NSs and NNSs is by acquiring

pragmatic competence, that is, “the ability to use language effectively in order to

understand language in context” (El Samaty 2005, p. 341). Emarati EFL students are not

exposed to the target community and culture and they find it extremely difficult to

produce or sometimes understand a speech act.

Compliment responses are one type of speech acts that differs considerably from Arabic

to English. Native speakers of English might consider the way Arabic speakers respond

to compliments offending or bizarre, because they understood only the words without the

cultural rules that govern them and vice versa. This study aims at finding out whether

Arabic learners of English produce target­like compliment responses and whether

pragmatic transfer can occur. It examines how compliment responses are used in the

UAE culture and the differences between them and the ones used in the American culture.

Despite the wealth of empirical studies conducted about speech acts in general, few data­

based studies have ever focused on L1 transfer of compliment responses. More research

is necessary in this area to better understand the relationship between L1 transfer and

compliment responses in L2 use. The present study contributes to the limited collection

of research done on compliment responses in Arabic. This will be achieved by: (1)

reviewing studies on pragmatic transfer and compliment responses, (2) discussing the

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 30

methodology and results of the present study, and finally (3) suggesting some classroom

implications that could apply to EFL teaching in the UAE context.

Literature Review

Pragmatic Transfer

Intercultural miscommunication is often caused when learners fall back on their L1

sociocultural norms in realizing speech acts in a target language. This is referred to as

pragmatic transfer. Rizk (2003) defines pragmatic transfer as “the influence of learners’

pragmatic knowledge of language and culture other than the target language on their

comprehension, production, and acquisition of L2 pragmatic information” (p. 404).

Pragmatic transfer can be either positive, which is considered an evidence of

sociocultural and pragmatic universality among languages, or negative, which indicates

inappropriate transfer of L1 sociolinguistic norms into L2. This often results in pragmatic

failure, or being unable to understand the meaning of an utterance in the target language.

(Liu, 1997). Negative pragmatic transfer, as Rizk (2003) explains, takes the form of

translating some “formulaic expressions/ phrases” functioning to express different speech

acts in (L1) to express the equivalent speech act in L2. (p.405). El Samaty (2005)

mentions one factor that might influence pragmatic transfer and that is learners’

perception of “what constitutes a language specific or a universal issue” (p.342). Learners

would not transfer an L1 pragmatic feature to L2 if they know that it is language specific.

Research on Pragmatic Transfer

Pragmatic studies dealing with different speech acts have been conducted since the early

1980s. These studies focused on L1 in most cases, but later, L2 and cross­cultural

variations have been introduced. The L2 pragmatic transfer studies have shown that

despite being linguistically competent in a second language, learners are likely to transfer

L1 pragmatic rules in their L2 production (El Samaty, 2005). Takahashi and Beebe (1987)

hypothesized that there is a positive correlation between L2 proficiency and pragmatic

transfer. They argued that more proficient learners tend to transfer L1 socio­cultural

norms more than less proficient learners because they have enough control over L2 to

express L1 sentiments at the pragmatic level. Eslami­Rasekh (2004) supports this claim

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 31

by stating that linguistically competent learners do not necessarily possess comparable

pragmatic competence. “Even grammatically advanced learners may use language

inappropriately and show differences from target­language pragmatic norms”.

In 1986, Blum­kulka and Olshtain used discourse completion tests to analyze the

utterance length of requesting strategies in Hebrew. They collected the data from non­

native speakers of Hebrew at three proficiency level, and they found out that high­

intermediate learners produced utterances longer than the utterances of low­intermediate

and advanced learners, which was considered by the researchers as pragmatic failure

( Ghawi 1993, p.39).

Compliments and compliment responses

A compliment is one form of speech acts and it can be defined as “an utterance

containing a positive evaluation by the speaker to the addressee” (Liu,1997). There is an

infinite number of words that could be chosen to compliment, but the set of lexical items

and grammatical patterns we use in our daily interaction when complimenting and have

high frequency in our daily discourse are very restricted. According to Wolfson (1986),

two­thirds of English compliments use the adjectives "nice, good, beautiful, pretty, great",

and 90% make use of just two verbs "like and love” (p.116). The lack of creativity in the

form and content of English compliments is related to their function in discourse. Herbert

(1986) demonstrates that compliments are used to “negotiate solidarity with the

addressee” (p.76). Their aim is to make the addressee feel good and their formulaic

nature minimizes the chance that they will be misinterpreted by the addressee.

On the surface level, there is not much difference between Arabic and English cultures

in the use of compliments. However, if we look at compliment responses, differences

arise. When communicating with native speakers of English, Arabs may sometimes

sound bizarre or offending. This is duo to some differences in the way the two cultures

use compliment responses. In the Arab society, it is a deeply­rooted religious belief that

humility is a virtue. Even when accepting a compliment, Arabs tend to return the

compliment (which might sound insincere to NSs), or insist on offering the object of the

compliment to the speaker (something that might be embarrassing to the NSs who did not

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 32

expect this behavior). Therefore, differences may result in serious communicative

interference in cross Arabic and English culture communication.

Research on Compliment Responses

The first researcher who discussed compliment responses from a pragmatic perspective

was Pomerantz in 1978. She claimed that Americans face two dilemmas when responding

to compliments: (A) they have to agree with the speaker, and (B) they have to avoid self­

praise. Urano (1998), further explains this dilemma by stating that when a recipient of a

compliment responds by agreeing with the speaker (Condition A), it violates Condition B

as this response goes against the sociolinguistic expectations of the speaker. On the other

hand, if the speaker doesn’t accept the compliment to avoid self­praise, the response will

be face­threatening since it violates Condition A. To mediate this conflict, recipients of

compliments resolve to a variety of solutions: (1) Acceptance, (2) Rejection, and (3) Self­

praise avoidance.

Herbert (1986) revised Pomerantz’s taxonomy by analyzing American English

speakers’ compliment responses. He collected more than a thousand samples of

compliment responses from American college students in a three­years period project.

Surprisingly, only 36.35% compliment responses were accounted for by acceptance.

Herbert ended up with a three­category, twelve­type taxonomy of compliment responses.

(Table 1)

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Response Type Example

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

A. Agreement

I. Acceptances

1. Appreciation Token Thanks; thank you; (smile)

2. Comment Acceptance Thanks; it’s my favourite too.

3. Praise Upgrade Really brings out the blue in my eyes, doesn’t it?

II. Comment History I bought it for the trip to Arizona.

III. Transfers

1. Reassignment My brother gave it to me.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 33

2. Return So’s yours.

B. Nonagreement

I. Scale Down It’s really quite old.

II. Question Do you really think so?

III. Nonacceptances

1. Disagreement I hate it.

2. Qualification It’s alright, but Len’s is nicer.

IV. No Acknowledgment (silence)

C. Other Interpretations

I. Request You wanna borrow this one too?

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Table 1. Herbert’s Taxonomy of Compliment responses (Herbert 1986, p. 79)

Since then, a number of contrastive studies have been conducted to compare

compliment responses in different languages and language varieties. Arabic and South

African English speakers were found to prefer accepting compliments rather than reject

them. Speakers of Asian languages, on the other hand, were likely to reject compliments

(Urano, 1998). In 1989, Wolfson collected observational data on compliments from

authentic interaction between native and non­native speakers over a period of two years.

She found out that L2 speakers did understand the function of compliments as “a social

lubricant” in the American culture. They had difficulty in responding appropriately to

compliments (Ghawi 1993, p.40). In another contrastive study of compliment responses

between Chinese learners of English and American NSs of English, Chen (1993), found

out that the majority of Chinese NNSs of English rejected compliments, compared to the

American NSs who accepted and appreciated those compliments.

More recently, Cedar’s (2006) contrastive study of compliment responses used by Thai

NNSs of English and American NSs of English revealed significant differences in

responses to English compliments between the two groups. While Americans tended to

accept compliments and elaborate positively in their responses, Thai NNSs of English

refrained from elaborating and used formulaic expressions in their responses. Cedar

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 34

explained this by stating that “the English conversational competence of Thai subjects

was not developed enough to express their feelings of positive elaboration” (p.15).

Despite the above reviewed studies on compliments and compliment responses, the lack

of studies on Arabic learners of English in this area is obvious.

Research questions

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this study is to examine pragmatic transfer in

compliment responses by Arabic learners of English. Three related research questions

emerged:

1. What are the similarities and differences in compliment responses between female

NSs and Emarati female NNSs of English?

2. When speaking in English, will Emarati females’ compliment responses be closer

to Arabic or English?

3. Does language proficiency play a role in their use of compliment responses?

In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to first examine the patterns of

compliment responses by Americans and Emarati females in their L1, and second to

observe compliment responses by Emarati females in their L2 (English).

Methodology

For validity and reliability, I used triangulation by not concentrating on just one source of

information. I approached the topic from different points of view by combining

quantitative data from discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and qualitative data from

interviews. I also used theories and background knowledge from books and journals

articles that guided me to approach my topic in the right way.

Participants

The subjects of the study were all female participants divided into three main

groups:

- Group1: American NSs of English = 10 ( HCT teaching staff)

- Group2: Emarati NNs + English majors = 10. All of them are English Teachers

at the Fujairah Elementary School for Girls.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 35

- Group3: Emarati NNs non­English majors = 6. 2 Housewives + 4 Math teachers

at the Fujairah Elementary School for Girls.

The reason why females were chosen for this study is because they tend to use

politeness strategies more than men do. According to Guodong & Jing (2005), many

research studies support this claim. They explain that studies on the relation of gender

and language have found out that women are more sensitive than men to being polite.

Studies conducted by Liao & Breneham and Brown in1996 and 1998 also found that

women are more status sensitive than men. Therefore, it is predictable that women will

use more politeness strategies than men do. What is also important to note, as Liu (1997)

explains, is that women are traditionally assumed in both cultures to be more concerned

than men with personal topics such as physical appearance, clothing, food and diet.

Tools

1. Discourse Completion Test :

The Discourse Completion Test (DCT) consists of six scenarios, in which participants are

expected to respond to compliments. These scenarios were designed to meet the purpose

of this study and to elicit data on compliment responses from both NSs and NNSs of

English. The final version in English was translated by the researcher to Arabic. Groups 1

and 2 took the English version, and group 3 took the Arabic version.

2. Interviews :

This tool was used to account for the reasons of the participants’ responses and minimize

the researcher’s bias when interpreting the data.

Findings

The data collected from the three groups through the discourse completion test will be

presently analyzed for the six scenarios. The analysis will be based on Herbert’s

taxonomy of compliment responses to examine the similarities and differences between

native and non­native speakers of English.

Scenario 1:

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 36

You have just finished presenting your research paper. At the end of the class (when you

were just leaving the classroom), one of your classmates say: “You did an excellent job! I

really enjoyed your presentation”. You answer: _________________

Almost all of the NSs responses to this scenario were agreement. Their responses varied

between appreciation token “oh, thank you!”, to comment acceptance “thanks! I’m glad

you enjoyed it”, and praise upgrade “you have no idea how hard I worked for that!”. Only

one NS responded by disagreeing and questioning “Really? I thought it was just ok”. On

the other hand, almost all of the native speakers of Arabic (NSAs), have responded by

either transfer (returning the compliment) “oh, your presentation was much better”, or

interpreting it as a request “do you want me to help you with your presentation?” Only

one of the NSAs responded with a simple “thank you”. The responses of NNSs who took

the English version of the DCT showed more use of the agreement responses like

“thanks!” and “It’s nice of you to say so”. However, they also showed literal translation

of Arabic formulaic expressions used as compliment responses. These translations

included “I’m your pupil”, which is a scale down expression that means the speaker is

much better than the addressee, and “I’m ashamed” which might strike a NS as extremely

out of place, but is literally translated from the widely used Arabic formulaic expression

(أخجلتم تواضعنا) akhjaltom tawaado’na.

Scenario 2:

You have some friends and relatives over for coffee and cake that you baked. Someone

says: “Tastes Yummy!”. You answer:_________________

Eight of the ten NSs responded with “thanks” and then offering to give the speaker the

recipe “would you like the recipe?”. The other two responded by giving information or

history, “it’s a family recipe”. NNSs who answered in Arabic used questions “really? Did

you really like it?”, disagreement “no it’s not, you’re just complimenting me!”, and

reassignment “my mom gave me the recipe”. NSAs who answered in English did not use

those two strategies in their responses. Instead, they resolved again to literally translating

Arabic formulaic expressions like “Your taste is yummy”, and “I added my magic to it /

that’s because I dipped my sweet finger in it”. Only one person responded with “thank

you”.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 37

Scenario 3:

You were shopping for a skirt and a stranger (male) approaches you and says: “This

would look amazing on you!” You answer:____________________

NSs all responded with either no acknowledgment, or by not accepting the compliment

“what’s it got to do with you?”. NNSs who answered in Arabic and English also

responded with no acknowledgment, or by offending the man.

Scenario 4:

You were shopping for a skirt and a stranger (female) approaches you and says: “This

would look amazing on you!” You answer:__________________

NSs responded with either a question “really?/ oh, so do you think I should buy it?” or an

appreciation token “thanks / thank you”. NNSs who responded in Arabic used formulaic

expressions like “May Allah bliss you” jazaaki allah khair, “May Allah make all your

days beautiful” Allah yhalli ayyamek. NNSs who answered in English used tokens of

appreciation “thanks/ how sweet of you to say so”, or returned the compliment by

translating Arabic formulaic expressions “Your eyes are beautiful” oyoonech el helwa.

Scenario 5:

Some friends are over at your house. One of them looks at a clock hanging on the wall

and says: “I love your clock. It looks great in your living room!”. You answer: _____

NSs responded with comment history “It was a present from my daughter/ I bought it in

Harrods”, or acceptance “yes, I loved it when I bought it”. NNSs who answered in Arabic

interpreted this compliment as a request and responded with offering the clock to the

speaker and insisting that they take it. NNSs answering in English also insisted that the

speaker take the watch “you must take it! I swear, you must!”. Only one NNS answered

with an appreciation token “you like it! Thank you!”.

Scenario 6:

You’re wearing a new shirt and a colleague looks at you and says: “This shirt looks great

on you! Blue is a great color for you.” You answer: ___________________

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 38

NSs responded with appreciation tokens “thanks/ you made my day!”, questions “is it

really?/ do you think so?”, disagreement “I dunno, I prefer pink”, and comment

acceptance “oh, it’s my favorite color. Thanks”. NNSs who answered in Arabic

responded with returning the compliment “you’re more beautiful/ this is because you

have a good taste”, disagreement “thanks, but I know this is only a compliment”, and

questions “really? Swear!!”. NNSs who answered in English returned the compliment by

translating Arabic formulaic expressions “your eyes are beautiful and they see everything

beautiful”, disagreement “please don’t say that, you’re embarrassing me!”, scale down

“oh, it’s so cheap! I bought it in the sales”, and comment acceptance “thanks, I like it

too”.

Discussion

It was clear from the above analysis that in most cases, female Emarati learners of

English did not produce target­like compliment responses. They unconsciously brought

about some L1 expressions and strategies which might result in communicative

breakdown. For instance, they literally translated Arabic formulaic expressions used in

compliment responses and these expressions were not always suitable for the compliment

given in English. They intended their responses to be polite but they were not appropriate.

For example, the expression “I’m ashamed” would be more appropriate when an offence

is committed, rather than to show gratitude and appreciation. These strategies were used

both by English and non­English majors, which means that communicating with NSs

might slightly affect their use of compliment responses, but does not have changed it

completely to a target­like response.

Another important issue that rises from the findings is that NNSs had some

misconceptions about the way NSs responded to compliments. These misconceptions

have affected the way NNSs would deal with NSs considering compliment responses.

This was illustrated through scenario 3 (see above). In the UAE culture, compliments

from men are generally not accepted unless the man is a member of the family. However,

if they happen, the appropriate response from the female would be to simply ignore the

man. Responses to other compliments are normally answered based on the real

circumstance or position the addressee is in at the moment he/she is greeted.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 39

Scenario 3 illustrates a situation that many females in the UAE are likely to find

themselves in while shopping. The responses of the NNSs were analysed above and they

ranged from no acknowledgement, to offending the male. After groups 2, and 3 finished

their DCTs, I asked them the following question “how do you think a female NS would

respond in this situation?” All of the NNSs answered that a NS would be happy to get this

compliment, would highly appreciate it, and would thank the man. While, as obvious

from the data analysis above, all but one NS answered that they would either ignore the

man or tell him to mind his own business. When I asked the NNSs how this idea they

have of NSs affected them, half of them stated that it does not affect them in any way; the

other half, however, explained that an American male would expect the female to be

happy when complimented while a local male would know that this female would be

insulted. “If the man who complimented me was a foreigner, I would accept the

compliment and thank him, if it was a local guy”, said one of the interviewee, “I would

certainly ignore him”.

Another issue is the way NSs and NNSs view compliments. Compliments in the UAE

had turned into a routine and they are perceived to be insincere most of the time. There

are several factors that affect the use of compliments in the UAE, like social distance, age,

gender, and social status. Some of the reasons why people in the UAE use compliments

are, as Boyle (2005) explained, “1) to avoid hurting other people’s feelings; 2) to give

people some hope and encouragement; 3) to protect one self from more powerful people;

4) because they want other people to compliment them too; 5) it’s encouraging” (p.356).

For these reasons, many people use compliments even if they were insincere, as a means

of making people feel good. That’s why it was found in NNSs responses expressions like

“oh, this is not true, you’re only complimenting me!” and “Really? Or is it just a

compliment?”

It was obvious also that language proficiency did not play a role in producing target­

like compliment responses. Both English majors and non majors produced the same

compliment responses. The only difference is that group 2 translated those responses

literally to English.

Other deviations from the native norms are the following: (1) NNSs used longer

compliment responses because there is a general understanding that the longer the

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 40

response to compliments, the more sincere it is, (2) NNSs, sometimes, responded to

compliments with a joke that might be misunderstood by speakers of other languages, (3)

because of their strong ties with their religion, Emarati NNSs have their faith in (Allah)

God deeply embedded within their speech acts. That’s why most of the compliment

responses are in the form of a small prayer that the speaker be blessed from Allah, and

he/she gets whatever they want with the help of Allah allah eykhaleech, allah ysallemch.

Conclusion

The present study explored pragmatic transfer of compliment responses in Arabic

learners of English in comparison with the data from native speakers of American

English. The findings of the study show that Arabic learners did not produce target­like

responses to compliments. This suggests that it’s not enough to build learners’ linguistic

competence and that it might be necessary to also develop their sociocultural, which will

in turn develop their understanding of the frames of interaction and rules of politeness

within the target culture. It is also important to provide learners with knowledge of the

linguistic forms or stylistic strategies appropriate to convey the intended meaning in

different contexts or situations.

The study offers two pedagogical implications, one for syllabus designers and the other

for instruction. First, when designing textbooks, syllabus designers should examine

learners’ needs considering the understanding and production of speech acts in the target

language and which of these speech acts they are likely to come across. Learners should

be made aware of NSs usage of the variety of expressions to realize a certain function,

depending on the situation where they are used. This could be accomplished by eliciting

compliment responses from their own culture, and presenting the target culture’s way of

responding to compliments to raise their awareness.

Second, Emarati EFL learners have no contact with NSs of English, and that calls for

more communication in the classroom, as it contributes to interlanguage development.

This could be achieved through: (a) using authentic materials from the target language

that will help learners understand as many native and non­native varieties and

communicative styles as they can be expected to come across, (b) focusing on learner­

centred activities like role plays and real discussions to develop efficient strategies of the

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 41

target language, (c) team­teaching with NSs to give the students a chance to interact and

learn English under the supervision of a NS.

References

Boyle, R. (2005). Pragmatics as content and structure in argumentation. Proceedings of

the 10 th TESOL Arabia Conference, 9, 353­360.

Chen, R. (1993). Responding to compliments: A contrastive study of politeness strategies

between American English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics, (20), 49­75.

El Samaty, M. (2005). Helping foreign language learners become pragmatically

competent. Proceedings of the 10 th TESOL Arabia Conference, 9, 341­351.

Eslami­Rasekh, Z., Eslami­Rasekh, A., & Fatahi, A. (2004). The effect of explicit

metapragmatic instruction on the speech act awareness of advanced EFL students.

TESL­EJ(8),2. Retrieved May 5 th , 2006, from http://www­writing.berkeley.edu/TESl­

EJ/ej30/a2.html

Cedar. P. (2006). Thai and American Responses to Compliments in English. The

Linguistics Journal, June, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 6­28. http://www.linguistics­

journal.com/June 2006_pc.php

Ghawi, M. (1993). Pragmatic transfer in Arabic learners of English. El Two Talk, 1(1),

39­52.

Guodong, L. & Jing, H. (2005). A contrastive study on disagreement strategies for

politeness between American English & Mandarin Chinese. Asian EFL Journal(7), 1.

Retrieved May 5 th , 2006, from http://www.asian­efl­journal.com/march_05_lghj.php

Herbert, K. (1986). Say “thank you” or something. American Speech, 61(1), 76­88.

Retrieved April 13, 2006 from the JSTOR database.

Liu, S. (2003). Studies on negative pragmatic transfer in international pragmatics.

Guangxi Normal University Journal. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from

http://www.gxnu.edu.cn/ Personal/szliu/negative%20pragmatic%20transfer.doc

Rizk, S. (2003). Why say “NO!” when you refuse? TESOL Arabia 2002 Conference

Proceedings, 7, 401­431.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 42

Takahashi, T. & Beebe, L. (1987). The development of pragmatic competence in

Japanese learners of English. JALT Journal,(8), 131­155.

Urano, K. (1998). Negative pragmatic transfer in compliment responses by Japanese

learners of English. Unpublished manuscript, University of Hawai'i at Manoa,

Honolulu. Retrieved May 1, 2006, from

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~urano/research/esl660.html

Wolfson, N. (1986). Compliments in cross­cultural perspectives. In J. M. Valdes, Culture

bound: Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching (pp. 112­120). New York:

Cambridge University Press.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 43

Politeness Markers in Persian Requestives

Mohammad Ali Salmani­Nodoushan, University of Zanjan, Iran

Bio Data: Dr Mohammad Ali Salmani­Nodoushan is Assistant Professor of TEFL at the University of Zanjan, Iran. He has been teaching BA and MA courses at different Iranian Universities for the past fifteen year and is a member of the editorial boards of Asian EFL Journal, The Linguistics Journal, and I­Manager's Journal of Educational Technology. He is also editor­in­chief of Iranian Journal of Language Studies (IJLS). His areas of interest include language testing and English for Specific Purposes (ESP).

Abstract In a study of the effects of complainers' sex, age, perceived situational seriousness, and social class on the use of conversational strategies in their complaining behavior, 465 subjects of varying age, sex, and social class were observed and tape recorded in spontaneous conversation by 25 field workers. The field workers also filled out a checklist that provided the data of the study, which were then input into two nonparametric tests: (a) Mann­Whitney U Test, and (b) Kruskal Wallis H Test. The results of data analysis showed that 'repetition of complaint' was an important strategy in connection to the 'perceived situational seriousness' of the topic of complaint. Sex was found to cause the differential use of three conversational strategies, social class to cause the differential use of two conversational strategies, and perceived situational seriousness and age each to cause that of only on conversational strategy. A cline of significance is suggested for each of the independent variables in question. Suggestions are made for further research.

Key words: sociolinguistics; pragmatics; speech act theory; face­threatening acts; non­ face­threatening act; griping; troubles­telling; politeness; whinging; sociopragmatics

1. Introduction Direct complaint (DC) is a face­threatening act through which a speaker makes

complaints about someone or something that is present in the speech act scene (Murphy

and Neu, 1996; Olshtain and Weinbach, 1993). Indirect complaint (IC) or Griping, on the

other hand, can be described as a non­face­threatening speech act in which the

responsible party or object of the complaint is not present during the interaction within

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 44

which the speech act is performed (D’Amico­Reisner, 1985). Both direct and indirect

complaints have the potential of leading to lengthy interactions between speaker and

addressee; however, it is usually in the indirect complaint or griping that one finds

conversational material upon which shared beliefs and attitudes may be expressed

(Tatsuki, 2000). As such, the indirect complaint (IC) becomes a solidarity­building

device since it freely invokes the listener to engage in a series of commiserative

responses to demonstrate attention and concern, or to maintain intimacy and stable social

relationships.

Closely related to the concept of griping is what in Australian English is called

whinging. Using Natural Semantic Approach, Wierzbicka (1991, pp.181­2) defines

whinging as:

a) I say something bad is happening to me b) I feel something bad because of this c) I can’t do anything because of this d) I want someone to know this e) I want someone to do something because of this f) I think no one wants to do anything because of this g) I want to say this many times because of this

Wierzbicka (1991) compared her own definition of whinge with the definitions of

complaints (direct and indirect) to highlight the range of meanings a word can have with

respect to the culture in which it is a part.

According to both Tannen (1990) and Michand & Warner (1997), indirect complaints

frequently serve as back­channels or evaluative responses in an extended structure of

discourse exchanges; they may invoke expressions like “Oh, that’s horrible!”, “Yeah, I

know what you mean” ,and “That’s too bad.” (cf. Allami, 2006).

2. Review of the related literature Brown and Levinson's (1978) definition of the notion of face created interest in the study

of speech acts that had to do with face. One such speech act is complaining. The earliest

attempts at studying complaints were made in the 1980s. Jefferson and Lee (1981) and

Jefferson (1984a, 1984b) studied ‘troubles­telling’ encounters from a conversation

analysis point of view. Katriel (1985) conducted a research on griping. Katriel examined

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 45

the ritual gripings among Israelis. All of these studies referred to the potential of

establishing solidarity through griping.

As Allami (2006) notices, Bayraktaroglu (1992), in a study on Turkish commiserative

responses, found that griping was a common speech act among friends and intimates.

Bayraktaroglu said:

When one of the speakers informs the other speaker of the existence of a personal problem, the subsequent talk revolves around this trouble for a number of exchanges, forming a unit in the conversation where trouble is the focal point …, [involving] the speaker who initiates it by making his or her trouble in public, the trouble­teller, and the speaker who is on the receiving end, the ‘trouble­recipient.

(Bayraktaroglu, 1992, p. 319, cited in Allami, 2006)

Bayraktaroglu also distinguished griping from troubles­talking in that the latter is a type

of oral narrative which is initiated by the former.

Indirect complaint (IC) refers to the expression of dissatisfaction to an interlocutor

about someone or something that is not present. An indirect complaint is defined as a

negative evaluation wherein the addressee is neither held responsible for the perceived

offense nor capable of remedying the perceived offense. Native English speakers usually

use indirect complaints as a positive strategy for establishing points of commonality; they

frequently employ indirect complaints (ICs) in an attempt to establish rapport or

solidarity between themselves and their interlocutors.

One of the early attempts at studying ICs was made by Boxer (1993a). In boxer's study,

295 interlocutors produced 533 indirect complaints. Boxer identified three different types

of IC themes (personal, impersonal, and trivial), and six types of IC responses (nothing or

topic switch, question, contradiction, joke/teasing, advice/lecture, and commiseration).

The study focused mainly on the role of gender, social status, social distance, and theme

in connection to ICs. Since half of interlocutors in Boxer's study were Jewish, it was

possible to investigate ethnicity. Boxer found that approximately 25% of griping

sequences, in her study, served to distance the interlocutors from one another while 75%

of the gripings were found, by a group of ten native English­speaking raters, to be

rapport­inspiring. Boxer's study found that speakers of English often employed gripings

in sequential interaction in an attempt to establish solidarity. It was also found that

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 46

women mostly commiserated with ICs, while men contradicted or gave advice. Boxer

noticed that ESL textbooks, with respect to gender, did not include ICs or included them

but did not treat them as ICs. The study, therefore, suggested that non­native speakers

(NNSs) should know that commiserating with complaints is important in that it signals to

the speaker (S) that the hearer (H) is supportive; this builds solidarity.

In another study by Boxer (1993b), indirect complaints as well as commiseration in

conversations between Japanese ESL learners and their E1 peers were studied. Boxer

used spontaneous speech or field notes. In this study, 295 interlocutors were recorded in

spontaneous conversation (195 women and 100 men). The issue that emerged was that of

how to respond to an indirect complaint. The results showed that natives used (a)

joking/teasing, (b) nonsubstantive reply ("hmn"), (c) question, (d) advice/lecture, (e)

contradiction, and (f) commiseration. With NSs most responses were commiseration with

some questioning. For NNSs, the major category was nonsubstantive, sometimes

accompanied by some questioning and some commiseration. The study concluded that

the Japanese ESL learners were missing out on opportunities for conversation by not

engaging in the interaction more fully; they did not utilize talk in the same way as NSs

did.

In a study in 1993 by Frescura, eighty three subjects provided the tape­recorded role­

play data on reactions to complaints (mostly apologies). The subjects of the study

belonged in four different groups: (a) native Italian speakers in Italy, (b) native English

speakers in Canada, (c) Italians residing in Canada, and (d) English­Canadian learners of

Italian. The respondents, after being tape­recorded in six role­play interactions, were

asked to listen to all six recordings and to provide retrospective verbal report on:

(a) how close to real life they felt their performance to be;

(b) how dominant they felt their interlocutor was;

(c) their sensitivity to the severity of the offense and to the tone of the complaint; and

(d) their possible linguistic difficulties (for Italians in Canada and Canadian learners of

Italian).

The data were coded according to a taxonomy comprising seven semantic formulas in

two categories: (a) hearer­supportive (including formulas providing gratification and

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 47

support for the "face" of the complainers), and (b) self­supportive (including formulas

uttered by the speakers to defend and protect their own "face"). Performance was

measured according to the three dimensions of (1) production (total output of formulas,

including repetitions), (2) selection (types of formulas used, excluding repetitions), and

(3) intensity of formulas produced. The results, after data analysis, revealed that native

speakers of Italian had an overall preference for the self­supportive category of formulas;

native speakers of English, however, had a preference for the hearer­supportive category.

Moreover, Canadian learners of Italian did not indicate any preference; by way of

contrast, Italian­Canadian speakers, though diverging some from the native norm, gave

indication of language maintenance as well. Frescura (1993) had used verbal report which

helped her establish, among other things, that the learners of Italian tended to think in

English first before responding to the role plays.

According to Du (1995), in Chinese culture face is not only socially­oriented but also

reciprocal. Some method of maintaining 'face balance' is therefore required. Depending

on (a) the relationship between the interlocutors and (b) the nature of the message, the act

of 'giving bad news' may in some cases be face­saving. However, 'complaining' and

'disagreeing' are in most cases, clearly face­threatening. The former indicates that the

person's behavior is not approved or accepted by other social members and the latter

indicates a contradiction or negative evaluation of a person's face. These acts, therefore,

require some strategy for preserving the face of both interlocutors. Du (1995) conducted a

study with thirty students (male and female) ranging from 19 to 30 years old. The study

gave a definition of these three face­threatening acts—complaining, giving bad news, and

disagreeing. Du also discussed the illocutionary verbs which denote these acts and the

semantics of face in Chinese culture. Du used a 19­item questionnaire that described

face­threatening situations and asked each subject to contemplate the situation and write

his or her response. The results of Du's study showed that strategy choice varied

according to (a) the referential goal and (b) the nature of the interlocutor relationship. Du

also noticed a general pattern: face­threatening acts in Chinese tend to be performed in a

cooperative rather than confrontational manner. Attention is paid to both participants'

face by emphasizing common ground and constructive problem solutions.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 48

Morrow (1995) studied twenty students enrolled in two spoken English classes in an

intensive ESL program in the United States. Morrow used a three­hour intervention using

model dialogues, prescribed speech­act formulae, and various types of performance

activities (games and role playing) about refusals and complaints. Oral data were

collected in three phases: (a) prior to the intervention, (b) immediately following the

intervention, and (c) six months after the intervention. Morrow collected the oral data by

means of seven semi­structured role­play tasks which prompted subjects to perform three

direct complaints and four refusals with peer interlocutors. The data were analyzed in two

ways: (a) using holistic ratings of clarity and politeness, and (b) comparing the pretest

and posttest distributions of discourse features with those of native English speaking

controls (N=14). T­tests were conducted to compare the pooled pretest and posttest

holistic scores. The t­tests, which were significant at p<.0005, revealed improvements in

subjects' levels of clarity and politeness; however, similar comparisons of the posttest

from phase two of the study, and delayed posttest scores from phase three of the study,

did not attain statistical significance. The refusal analysis of discourse features (semantic

formulae) revealed increases in the use of politeness strategies, especially of negative

politeness strategies. Frequently these developmental changes appeared pragmatically

appropriate even when they failed to converge toward the native speaker frequencies.

Morrow reported that analysis of propositions and modifiers in the complaint data

revealed gains in pragmatic competence. These pragmatic gains were indicated by such

changes as (a) increased indirectness, (b) more complete explanations, and (c) fewer

explicit statements of dissatisfaction. Morrow's results, which corroborated the findings

from the holistic ratings, suggested that speech act instruction helped the subjects to

perform complaints and refusals which were clearer, more polite, and, to a limited extent,

more native­like. Additional intra­task comparisons found that higher levels of pragmatic

competence were achieved when the interlocutor's level of social distance was lower (i.e.,

friends as opposed to acquaintances).

The study conducted by Murphy and Neu (1996) had two objectives: (1) to compare

components of the speech act of complaining produced by American native speakers and

Korean non­native speakers of English, and (2) to ascertain how this speech act was

judged by native speakers based on a number of factors (such as whether the act was

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 49

aggressive, respectful, credible, appropriate, and similar to what a native would use). As

such, the study had two parts: (a) the productive part, and (b) the receptive part. For the

productive part of the study, the subjects were fourteen male American and fourteen male

Korean graduate students from Penn State University. Twenty­three undergraduate and

four graduate students (for a total of twenty seven) participated in the receptive part of the

study, who judged the acceptability of the speech acts.

The speech act data were collected by means of an oral discourse completion task

(DCT). A hypothetical situation was presented in which the subject was placed in the

position of a student whose paper had been unfairly marked and the subjects were

directed to "go speak to the professor." Then, the subjects' responses were tape­recorded.

The instrument in the acceptability judgment part of the study was a questionnaire with

10 yes­no questions and one open­ended question. Five of the yes­no questions were

"distractor items" and the other 5 were designed to measure the native speakers'

perceptions about the speech act acceptability. The open­ended question asked, "If you

were the student in this situation, would your approach be different from the student

you've just heard? Please explain your answer for both speaker­student 1 and speaker­

student 2." Each subject was alone during the DCT and his or her data were later

transcribed into written form. The speech data elicited for the first part of the study were

examined using Cohen and Olshtain's (1981) definition of speech act set. A .05 alpha

level of significance was set for a Chi­square analysis of the American students'

responses to the five yes­no questions (which were not distractors) and the Yate's

Correction for Continuity was used to analyze all differences between responses.

Murphy and Neu (1996) found that, when expressing disapproval about a grade

received on a paper to a professor, most American native speakers of English would

produce a complaint speech act set, while most Korean non­native speakers (11 out of 14)

would not; both native and non­native speakers used an "explanation of purpose" to begin

the speech act set in similar ways. The native speakers then produced a complaint only

after the explanation of purpose. This complaint appeared to be what most of these native

speakers felt was the most socially appropriate option for expressing disapproval. The act

involved: acceptance of responsibility, depersonalization of the problem, questioning

techniques that used modals "would" and/or "could," use of mitigators, and use of the

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 50

pronoun "we." The 11 non­native speakers who did not use a complaint form employed

what was perceived by native speakers as a form of criticism which served to abdicate

responsibility, personalized the problem (placed blame), and used the modal "should."

This represented a serious deviation from the native speakers' speech data. Both the

native and non­native speakers then used similar types of "justifications" in their speech

act sets, referring to amount of time, effort, and/or work put into the paper. Finally all of

the native and most (12 out of 14) of the non­native speakers included a candidate

solution: a request form in the speech act set in order to propose an option that would

politely remedy the situation (such as reconsidering the grade, discussing the paper, or

editing the paper further for an improved grade). As a result of the "criticism" form used

by the many of the Korean non­native speakers, native speakers judged the non­native

speakers' speech act sets to be more aggressive, less respectful, less credible, and less

appropriate than the common "complaint" speech act sets offered by native speakers.

In a cross­linguistic study of the speech act of complaining, Nakabachi (1996)

compared complaints produced by Japanese L1 speakers and Japanese EFL speakers. The

study looked at whether Japanese EFL learners changed their strategies of complaint

when they spoke in English, and if so, what factors caused the change. The subjects of the

study were thirty nine undergraduate students with an intermediate level of proficiency in

English who had no experience of living in English speaking countries. A discourse

completion test (DCT) including eight situations was used for data collection. Nakabachi

(1996) found that almost half of the subjects changed their speech strategies in English;

they used more severe expressions than natives did. This was interpreted as over­

accommodation to the target language norms, and seemed to suggest the risk involved

with attempting to adapt to the local sociocultural norms.

The study conducted by Arent (1996) is an exploratory research that compares the

relative frequency of the performance and avoidance of oral complaints by twenty two

Chinese learners and twelve native speakers of American English. The subjects of the

study were asked to respond to three problematic situations that were set in the same

university housing complex. Three sets of data were obtained: (a) audiotaped roleplays,

(b) interview data on perceived situational seriousness, and (c) verbal report data. The

respondents were allowed to opt out; in addition, the effects of social distance, power,

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 51

and type of social contract were controlled for. Arent found that sociopragmatic decision

making for Chinese learners and NSs of American English appeared to be associated with

(a) individual perceptions of situational seriousness and (b) with culturally­conditioned

perceptions of the flexibility of explicit social contracts.

Boxer (1996) endorsed ethnographic interviewing as a way of tapping the norms of the

communities (a) in research on speech act usage among native speakers in particular

languages and (b) in research on non­native speaker pragmatic transfer. She discussed the

results of two sets of interviews (one structured and another open­ended) which were

designed to evaluate "troubles­telling" in a group of native speakers. Troubles­telling is

defined as 'indirect complaining' designed for sharing mutual sentiment between speakers

and hearers. Boxer's goal in the studies was to tap not only sociolinguistic knowledge that

was explicit, but knowledge that was tacit in the "naive" respondents. There were ten

informants who were students, staff, faculty members, or alumni at a large university in

the northeastern US. The spontaneous speech data consisted of 533 troubles­telling

exchanges that were tape recorded or recorded in field notes. Six major categories of

responses emerged as ways in which these participants responded to indirect complaints:

(1) response or topic switch, (2) contradiction, (3) agreement/commiseration, (4)

joke/teasing, (5) advice/lecture, and (6) questions.

Boxer found that troubles­telling was used (a) to further conversation, (b) to establish

solidarity, and (c) to build relationships. She also found that using the same questions

with each of the participants, as was done with the structured interview, was not the best

idea because it inherently limited the depth of the participants' responses. In the second

(open­ended) interview, Boxer used a more open format, which allowed not only for

expansion of ideas but also for greater flexibility of responses. It was easier to obtain

more information about the assumptions and perceptions, which shaped the respondents'

answers and ideas about troubles sharing. She described the factors that made for a more

ideal ethnographic interview, such as (a) rapport with the participants, (b) having

participants who feel comfortable doing much of the talking, and (c) following the lead of

the participants' narratives. Her findings revealed that in terms of troubles sharing, most

respondents felt that while direct complaints qualified as "complaints," indirect

complaints were not seen so much as complaining but rather a positive way of sharing

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 52

mutual information and building relationships. She also found (a) that more females

participated in troubles­talk than males and (b) that females were recipients of more

indirect complaints because they were seen as more supportive in general than males.

Boxer claimed that, while the explicit assumption about complaining was that it

constituted negative speech behavior, tacit assumptions proved otherwise.

The subjects of Molloy and Shimura's (2003) study were 304 Japanese university

students aged 18­21. They were students at five universities in the Kanto area. To collect

the data, a discourse completion test (DCT) with twelve complaint situations was used.

The DCT was meant to assess EFL complaints. The respondents were allowed to opt out

or to give a non­verbal response as well. The respondents tallied two things: (a) the

strategies used and (b) the combinations of interactions. Molloy and Shimura found that

the two most common strategies were (a) to notify and (b) to seek redress.

Holmes (2003) reports on the Victoria University of Wellington Language in the

Workplace (LWP) Project findings regarding talk in the workplace. The corpus had at the

time over 2,000 interactions recorded. The focus of the study was on what was necessary

for fitting in and becoming an integrated member of the workplace as a community of

practice. Holmes's paper examines the positive discourse strategies of small talk and

humor; it also illustrates how these provide a challenge for workers with an intellectual

disability. Then the analysis turns to the more negatively affective area of workplace

whinges and complaints. Holmes specifically examines how whinges and complaints may

present difficulties to those from non­English­speaking backgrounds. The study provides

a basis for developing useful teaching materials for those entering workplaces for the first

time.

Drawing on Politeness Theory and the Community of Practice model, Holmes, Newton,

and Stubbe (2004) examined the uses and functions of the four­letter expletive 'f***' in

interaction between workers in a New Zealand soap factory work team. They extensively

recorded the factory team in their daily interactions to obtain a corpus of thirty five hours

of authentic workplace talk from which they selected a small number of paradigmatic

interactions for discussion in their paper. Particular attention was given to the way in

which the expletive f*** was used in two face threatening speech acts, (a) direct

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 53

complaints and refusals, and (b) its contrasting function in the speech act of whinging.

The analysis focused on the complex socio­pragmatic functions of f*** and its role as an

indicator of membership in a specific community of practice. Holmes, Newton, and

Stubbe (2004) demonstrate how the speech act is accomplished over a series of different

turns. They illustrated the slippery nature of the concept of politeness, in that they found

the expletive f*** to serve as a positive politeness or solidarity marker when confined to

members of a particular team within this factory.

Kumagai (2004) defined complaint conversations as conversations that involve two

parties with distinct communicative orientations: (a) the complainer and (b) the

complainee. She distinguished complaint conversations from quarrels in that the former

involves an effort by the complainee to minimize the confrontation while, with the latter,

the two confront each other on a par. She took the two conversations she used for her

study from a corpus she had collected earlier in 1991. In the first conversation the

complainer was a male shopkeeper in downtown Tokyo and the complainee a male

university student attempting to conduct a survey. The complainer's mother and wife also

participated in an effort to keep the peace when the shopkeeper returned to the shop to

find the student there after he had told him he could not do his survey there. In the second

conversation, one teenage girl was accusing the other of being late for their appointment.

Kumagai (2004) focused on these two complaint conversations and discussed how the

repetition of utterances within such conversations could function as a conversational

strategy to:

(1) express emotions (complainer expresses negative feelings and disapproval,

and complainee expresses regret and disagreement);

(2) deal with the complaint situation effectively as a complainer or a complainee

(complainer: intensification of reproach, maintaining stance by adding

utterances, sarcasm using complainee's words; complainee: repeating

apologies, stalling or diverting the complaint);

(3) provide rhetoric for argument (complainer: holding the floor by speaking

fluently and adding utterances, controlling the topic of the complaint;

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 54

complainee: reorienting the conversation to a solution, closing the

conversation); and

(4) manipulate the conversational development.

In particular she focused on uses of repetition, both exact repetition as well as modified

repetition or paraphrase, of utterances made earlier in the same conversation. Kumagai's

results supported Tannen's (1990) claim that repetition is a major means for creating

speaker involvement, not merely a matter of redundancy.

Molloy and Shimura (2004) looked at responses to complaints in up to twelve situations

out of a sample of 259 Japanese university students (80% females). They performed a

rigorous statistical analysis and found wide idiosyncratic variation in response patterns.

Some respondents were more fine­tuned in their selection of speech acts relevant to the

situation in question while others were less so. Molloy and Shimura raised numerous

questions as to why this was the case, but they did not provide any preferred explanation.

To sum up, the review of the literature related to complaints (whether direct (DC) or

indirect (IC), and whether followed by troubles telling or not) revealed three major areas

that had previously been studied: (a) functions of complaints, (b) responses to complaints,

and (c) conversational strategies used by both complainers and complainees for

complaining or troubles­telling. According to literature, the functions of complaints are

threefold: (a) to further conversation, (b) to build relationships, and (c) to establish

solidarity (Boxer, 1993; Boxer 1996). Six responses to complaints have been identified in

the literature: (a) no response, nonsubstantive response, or topic switch; (b) questions; (c)

contradiction; (d) joke/teasing; (e) advice/lecture; and (f) agreement/commiseration

(Boxer, 1993; Boxer, 1996). In addition, there were four conversational strategies which

were used by complainers and complainees: (a) expressing emotions, (b) dealing with

complaint situation, (c) providing rhetoric for argument, and (d) manipulating

conversational development (Kumagai, 2004).

3. Aim of the study

The literature reviewed in the previous section clearly shows the importance of the study

of complaints. To date, no study has addressed this speech act in Farsi. As such, the

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 55

present study was an attempt at describing the salient conversational strategies that are

used in the speech act of complaining in Farsi (See Appendix A for a summary of

conversational strategies used in complaints). The study specifically focused on the role

of complainers' sex, age, perceived situational seriousness, and social class in relation to

their complaining behavior.

4. METHOD

4.1. PARTICIPANTS A total of 465 participants (all of them complainers in their spontaneous conversations)

comprised the sample of the study. They belonged to different age, social class, and

gender groups. Table 1 represents the frequency analysis for the participants of the study.

Table 1 Frequency analysis for participants of the study

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Sex Male 233 50.1 50.1 50.1

Female 232 49.9 49.9 100.0 Age Group Teen 110 23.7 23.7 23.7

Young 117 25.2 25.2 48.8 Adult 120 25.8 25.8 74.6 Old 118 25.4 25.4 100.0

Social Class Low 152 32.7 32.7 32.7 Mid 159 34.2 34.2 66.9 High 154 33.1 33.1 100.0

TOTAL 465 100 100

From the participants of the study, 233 were male (50.1%) and 232 female (49.9%). As

for the age groups, 110 participants (23.7%) were teenagers (between 13 and 19), 117

participants (or 25.2%) were young (between 19 and 35), 120 (or 25.8%) were adult

(between 35 and 50), and 118 (or 25.4%) were old (50+). 152 of the participants (32.7%)

belonged in the low social class, 159 (34.2%) came from the mid social class, and 154

(33.1%) were members of the high social class. The social class of participants was

identified by such factors, as total monthly income, neighborhood of residence, brand of

private car, possession of private cellphones, and possession and type of private house (as

these are indicators of social class in Iran).

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 56

4.2. Instruments and procedures The data for the present study were collected by 25 field workers who observed and tape­

recorded the subjects in spontaneous conversation. The field workers were all master's

students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) who had already

passed their sociolinguistics and discourse analysis courses. They used hidden tape­

recorders to record the spontaneous conversations of the subjects. They were instructed to

tell the truth about the recordings to the subjects after they had been recorded, and to ask

their permission for using the tape scripts in the study. Those subjects who did not permit

the use of their recorded conversations were discarded from the study, and the respective

tape scripts were erased. The field workers assigned each tape script a unique reference

number and filled out a checklist (one for each tape script) that provided the data for the

study (See Appendix B). The field workers also indicated their evaluation of the degree to

which they thought the complainers perceived the situation to be serious, and provided

any comments that could make the coding of the data easier.

The data collected in this way were then submitted to the SPSS 13.0 for Windows

(SPSS, Inc., 2004). Three different statistics were used: (a) Frequency analysis, (b)

Mann­Whitney U Test, and (c) Kruskal Wallis H Test. Frequency analysis was conducted

to identify the proportion and percentage of subjects in the different subgroups of the

sample (See table 1 above). The Mann­Whitney U Test (which is the non­parametric

counterpart for independent samples t­test) is suitable for analyzing nominal data (where

the independent variable has only two levels); therefore, it was used to measure the effect

of participants' sex (i.e., male versus female) on their use of conversational strategies in

the speech act of complaining. The Kruskal Wallis H Test (which is the nonparametric

alternative to One­Way Between­Groups ANOVA) is suitable for analyzing nominal data

(where the independent variable has more than two levels). As such, it was performed to

measure the effects of participants' social class, age, and perceived situational seriousness

on their use of conversational strategies in the speech act of complaining (For more on

these statistics please see Pallant, 2001).

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 57

5. Results and discussion The first question addressed by the study was "Do male and female complainers differ in

terms of their use of conversational strategies in their complaints?" To answer this

question, the data were analyzed by means of the Mann­Whitney U Test. Table 2

represents the results of this analysis for the four conversational strategies commonly

used in complaints (See Appendixes A and B).

Table 2 Mann­Whitney U test for Sex as the Grouping Variable

STRATEGY 1 STRATEGY 2 STRATEGY 3 STRATEGY 4 Mann­Whitney U 24054.500 23267.500 26499.000 24129.000 Wilcoxon W 51082.500 50528.500 53527.000 51390.000 Z ­2.400 ­2.690 ­.388 ­2.153 Asymp. Sig. (2­tailed) .016(*) .007(*) .698 .031(*)

The four strategies under study were: (1) expressing emotions, (2) dealing with complaint situation, (3) providing rhetoric for argument, and (4) manipulating development of conversation. As for strategy 1 (i.e., expressing emotions), male and female complainers were different in their use of the strategy [Z = ­2.4, p = 02 (rounded)]. Male and female complainers were also different in their use of the second [Z = ­2.69, p = .01 (rounded)] and the fourth [Z = ­2.15, p = .03 (rounded)] strategies. However, the statistical difference between male and female subjects in their use of the third strategy was not significant [Z = ­.388, p = .7 (rounded)].

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 58

220.18

249.21

230.72

245.5

245.76

216.86

235.27

220.56

200

210

220

230

240

250

260

Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3 Strategy 4

Conversational Strategy

Mean Ran

k Female

Male

Figure 1. Comparison of mean ranks for strategy use by males and females.

Mean rank comparisons (figure 1 above) showed that males made use of the first

strategy much more than females did. Females, however, made use of the second and

fourth strategies much more than their male counterparts did. In other words, males

expressed their emotions more openly than females, while females dealt with the complaint

situation and provided rhetoric for argument more easily than males.

The second question addressed by the study was whether there was a significant difference

in the complainers' use of conversational strategies across different social class groups.

To answer this question, the data were analyzed by means of a Kruskal Wallis H Test.

Table 3 displays the results of this analysis.

Table 3: Kruskal­Wallis H test for Social Class as the Grouping Variable STRATEGY 1 STRATEGY 2 STRATEGY 3 STRATEGY 4

Chi­Square 40.718 100.037 .171 3.074 df 2 2 2 2 Asymp. Sig. (2­tailed) .000(*) .000(*) .918 .215

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 59

As it can be seen from table 3, complainers' social class related to their use of the first and the second conversational strategies in a statistically significant way. The most significant difference, however, related to the second strategy (Chi­Square = 100.037, df = 2, and p = .000). Subjects' social class also affected their use of the first strategy in a statistically significant way (Chi­Square = 40.718, df =2, p = .000).

191.6

189.64 23

5.73

219.01

231.51

191.67 23

3.48

236.38 275.41 31

8.46

229.81

243.32

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3 Strategy 4

Conversational Strategy

Mean Ran

k Low Mid High

Figure 2. Comparison of mean ranks for strategy use by subjects across social classes.

Low class participants expressed their emotions less than their mid class and high class

counterparts. High class subjects, on the other hand, expressed more emotions that both

mid class and low class subjects. Mid class subjects stood in between. As for dealing with

the complaint situation, high class subjects used the strategy much more than both the

mid class and the low class subjects. The difference between the mid class and the low

class subjects, however, was very small.

Still another question addressed by the present study was whether there was any

statistically significant difference between participants' use of conversational strategies

across different age groups. Here again, a Kruskal Wallis H Test was performed. The

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 60

results of this analysis are displayed in table 4 below. In this case, age group was a factor

only in relation to the third strategy (i.e., providing rhetoric for the argument). The

difference between subjects across different age groups was significant only in relation to

complainers' attempts at holding the conversational floor [Chi­Square = 9.272, df = 3, and

p = .03 (rounded)]. In connection to the other three strategies, age was not a significant

factor.

Table 4 Kruskal­Wallis H test for Age as the Grouping Variable

STRATEGY 1 STRATEGY 2 STRATEGY 3 STRATEGY 4 Chi­Square .932 .596 9.272 3.128 df 3 3 3 3 Asymp. Sig. (2­tailed) .818 .897 .026(*) .372

As is evident from graph 3 below, the only age group that had a mean rank much grater

than the other groups in connection to the third strategy was the age group 'old'. That is,

subjects within the 50+ age group provided rhetoric for the argument by holding the

conversational floor much more than the subjects within the other age groups.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 61

223.77

227.61

227.24

215.39

236.35

240.08

221.04

241.16

235.75

233.75

220.18

240.55

235.49

230.24 26

3.27

233.64

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3 Strategy 4

Conversational Strategy

Mean Ran

k

Teen

Young Adult

Old

Figure 3. Comparison of mean ranks for strategy use by subjects across age groups.

The last question addressed by the present study was whether complainers' perceived

situational seriousness affected their use of conversational strategies in any significant

way. One again, a Kruskal Wallis H Test was performed. The results of this analysis are

displayed in table 5 below.

Table 5 Kruskal­Wallis H test for Perceived Situational Seriousness as the Grouping Variable

STRATEGY 1 STRATEGY 2 STRATEGY 3 STRATEGY 4 Chi­Square .085 4.687 .989 109.387 df 2 2 2 2 Asymp. Sig. (2­tailed) .959 .096 .610 .000(*)

The results of data analysis indicated that perceived situational seriousness was a factor

only in relation to the last conversational strategy (i.e., performers' manipulation of the

development of conversation). In fact, when complainers thought that the topic of complaint

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 62

was not that serious, they repeatedly talked about it, either by repeating exactly the same

sentences or by paraphrasing their complaints and repeating them (Chi­Square = 109.387,

df = 2, and p = .000). As for topics with a high level of perceived situational seriousness,

the subjects of the study used fewer repetitions. Topics with a medium level of perceived

situational seriousness stood in between. The comparisons of mean ranks for the

conversational strategies are illustrated in figure 4 below. 231.27

233.76

228.94

309.05

232.42

247.07

240.35

246.46

235.06

216.45

227.96

156.14

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3 Strategy 4

Conversational Strategy

Mean Rank

Low Mid High

Figure 4. Comparison of mean ranks for strategy use by subjects in relation to perceived situational seriousness.

This finding is rather odd. We logically expect more complaint when the topic of

complaint is a serious matter, but the subjects of the study behaved in the opposite way.

The reason for this discrepancy can be found in the cultural norms that shape the Iranian

community. We, Iranians, are culturally brought up in such a way as to avoid

conversations that result in clash and conflict. We are repeatedly told by our parents and

teachers, from childhood to adolescence and beyond, that conflict and dispute is to be

avoided. As such, it is not strange to see that when the topic of complaint is serious,

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 63

Iranian native speakers of Farsi refrain from continuing their complaints. Serious matters

are dispute­prone zones; they readily result in quarrels. Matters with a low level of

perceived situational seriousness, however, take some time to result in quarrels. It is not

very odd, therefore, to observe that Iranian complainers continue repeating their

complaints about non­serious matters, until they realize that the complainee is about to

react aggressively at which time they give in and stop complaining any further.

6. Conclusion Based on the findings of the study, a cline of significance can be suggested for each of

the independent variables in question.

Independent Variables most important least important SEX strategy 2(٭) strategy 1(٭) strategy 3(٭) strategy 4 SOCIAL STATUS strategy 2(٭) strategy 1(٭) strategy 4 strategy 3 AGE strategy 3(٭) strategy 4 strategy 1 strategy 2 SITUATIONAL SERIOUSNESS strategy 4(٭) strategy 2 strategy 3 strategy 1

Such a cline might look something like the above illustration where the order of

strategies (from left to right) identifies the degree to which they are affected by the

independent variable in question, and where the symbol (٭) represents statistical

significance. As it is indicated by the cline, sex is the variable that causes the differential

use of three conversational strategies whereas social class causes the differential use of

only two conversational strategies. Age and perceived situational seriousness cause the

differential use of only one strategy; age significantly affects complainers' use of

'providing rhetoric for argument' while perceived situational seriousness significantly

affects complainers' manipulation of the development of conversation.

The present study only focused on the conversational strategies that were used by

Iranian complainers. Similar studies can be designed to research the use of conversational

strategies by Iranian complainees. Moreover, similar studies may be designed that

address the functions of complaints in Farsi.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 64

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APPENDIX A: Summary of Conversational Strategies Used in Complaints

STRATEGIES COMPLAINER COMPLAINEE 1) Expressing

emotions a) Expressing negative feelings b) Expressing disapproval

a) Expressing regret b) Expressing disagreement

2) Dealing with complaint situation

a) Intensification of reproach b) Maintaining stance by adding

utterances c) Sarcasm (and insulting) d) Using complainee's words

humorously

a) Repeating apologies b) Stalling the complaint c) Diverting the complaint

3) Providing rhetoric for argument

Holding the floor a) by speaking fluently b) by adding utterances c) by controlling complaint topic

a) Reorienting the conversation to a solution

b) Closing the conversation

4) Manipulating development of conversation

a) Continuing the complaint 1. by exact repetition 2. by modified repetition or

paraphrase b) Avoiding continuation of complaint

a) Minimizing the confrontation b) Confronting the complainer on a par

APPENDIX B: Checklist to be filled out by the observer/interviewee INTERVIEWEE'S/OBSERVER'S CHECKLIST

TAPE SCRIPT NUMBER: —————————————

COMPLAINER DETAILS: Sex: Maleq Femaleq Social Class: Low q Midq High q Age: Teenq Young q Adult q Old q

SITUATIONAL SERIOUSNESS: Low q Midq High q

COMPLAINING STRATEGIES COMPLAINER'S BEHAVIOUR

a) Expressing negative feelings q Expressing emotions (Strategy 1) b) Expressing disapproval q

a) Intensification of reproach q b) Maintaining stance by adding utterances q c) Sarcasm (and insulting) q

Dealing with complaint situation (Strategy 2)

d) Using complainee's words humorously q

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 68

Holding the floor q a) by speaking fluently q b) by adding utterances q

Providing rhetoric for argument (Strategy 3)

c) by controlling complaint topic q a) Continuing the complaint q 3. by exact repetition q 4. by modified repetition/paraphrase q

Manipulating development of conversation

(Strategy 4) b) Avoiding continuation of complaint q

INTERVIEWEE'S/OBSERVER'S COMMENTS:

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 69

The Effect of Explicit Teaching of Concept Mapping in Expository Writing on EFL Students’ Self­regulation

Mohammad Reza Talebinezhad, Isfahan University, Iran

Giti Mousapour Negari Sistan & Baluchestan University, Iran

Bio Data: Mohammad Reza Talebinezhad is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Isfahan University, Iran. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics (Sheffield, 1994, U. K.). His research interests are interlanguage development and second language acquisition; transfer in second language acquisition; conceptual fluency; and metaphorical competence.

Giti Mousapour Negari is an Assistant Professor at Sistan & Baluchestan University, Iran. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics (Isfahan University, 2006, Iran). Her research interests are learning strategies; second language acquisition; Cognition and Second language acquisition; and conceptual competence.

Abstract This paper has investigated the effectiveness of concept mapping as a learning strategy on students’ self­regulation (metacognitive self­regulation, time and study environment, effort regulation, peer learning, and help seeking). Sixty university students, who were randomly selected, participated in the study and were randomly assigned to one control group and one experimental group, each including thirty students. They were at the intermediate level of English proficiency and studying English either as Translation or Literature. Their language proficiency was determined by the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. The instrument to collect data on students’ self­regulation was Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Printrich et al., 1991), the findings revealing that students gained higher self­regulation as the result of concept mapping strategy teaching. These findings have implications for pedagogy as well as for research.

Keywords: concept mapping, self­regulation, learning strategies, strategy teaching

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1. Introduction

Writing is a very complex process in which numerous cognitive and metacognitive

activities take place, for instance, brainstorming, planning, outlining, organizing, drafting,

revising, and so on. Cognitive aspects have received particular attention, as investigators

have attempted to understand the thought processes underlying the compositions of

students (Flower & Hayes, 1981). Writing also involves composing, which implies the

ability either to tell or retell pieces of information in the form of narratives or description,

or to transform information into new texts, as in expository or argumentative writing.

Perhaps it is best viewed as a continuum of activities that range from the more

mechanical or formal aspects of writing down on the one end to the more complex act of

composing on the other end (Omaggio Hadley, 1993 p.23).

Learning to write is difficult especially for those writing in a second or foreign

language in academic contexts. As Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987, p.12) stated, by

putting together concepts and solving problems, the writer engages in "a two­way

interaction between continuously developing knowledge and continuously developing

text". Composing is an advanced academic task which may not be developed without

instruction and teacher’s assistance. Instruction in strategy use is an effective means for

promoting writing. There are a number of learning strategies which can help students

become better learners. The strategies include meaningful learning, organizing, note

taking, identifying important information, and summarizing (Pressley, 1982). Strategies

such as concept mapping help students attend to task, focus on important textures,

organize material, and maintain a productive psychological climate for learning

(Weinstein & Mayer, 1986).

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of the use of concept mapping

strategy in writing tasks on university students’ self­regulation.

1.1. Concept mapping

A concept map, as a learning strategy, is defined as a visual representation of an

individual's knowledge structure on a particular topic as constructed by the individual

(Zimmaro & Cawley, 1998). Concept maps represent the relationships among concepts

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(Novak, 1981). With the visual representation of key words, students can identify main

issues of a text and organize these key issues in a meaningful way. Learning strategies,

according to Stern (1992, p.261), “are based on assumptions that learners consciously

engage in activities to achieve certain goals, that they exercise a choice of procedure, and

that they undertake some form of long­term planning”. It is assumed that concept

mapping may have positive effects on students’ self­regulation, too.

Literature reports on the benefits of concept mapping for organizing information,

assessing in learning, comprehension of particularly complex communications, refining

literacy framework, and successful understanding of the text (Ruddell & Boyle, 1989).

1.2. Self­regulation

Self­regulation refers to the degree to which individuals become metacognitively,

motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own learning process

(Zimmerman, 1986). It refers to students’ ability to control their learning. The students

can become better learners if they become more aware of their learning and then choose

to act on that awareness. As Livingston (1997, p.3) stated, “Although most individuals of

normal intelligence engage in metacognitive regulation when confronted with an effortful

cognitive task, some are better than others are. Those with greater metacognitive abilities

tend to be more successful in their cognitive endeavors. The good news is that individuals

can learn how to regulate their cognitive activities”. Self­regulation is neither a measure

of mental intelligence that is unchangeable after a certain point in life nor a personal

characteristic that is genetically based or formed early in life. Students learn self­

regulation through experience (Pintrich, 1995). Teachers can teach in ways that help

students become self­regulating learners (Coppola, 1995). Since self­regulation is not a

personality trait, students can control their behaviors and affect in order to improve their

academic learning and performance. In addition, self­regulated learning is particularly

appropriate for college students, as they have great control over their own time schedule,

and how they approach their studying and learning (Pintrich, 1995).

1.3. Strategy Teaching

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An examination of the literature reveals a wide range of terminology associated with

learner training, which is also referred to as strategy teaching (Richards et al, 1992) or

strategies­based instruction (SBI) (Brown, 2000). Since the 1970s, there has been

growing interest in the concept of the ‘good’ language learner and the importance of

learning styles and learner preferences (Oxford, 1990). This has marked a continued

investigation into learning processes and support for the communicative philosophy of

teaching learners how to learn, and thus become independent and autonomous learners

through the use of learning strategies (Wenden, 1991); together with increasing learners’

language awareness through inductive learning approaches and activities, such as

consciousness­raising (Sharwood Smith, 1981).

Wenden (1991, p.163) offers a detailed definition of learner training: “ the learning

activities organized to help language learners improve their skills as learners; includes

learning to use strategies; knowledge about the language learning process; and attitude

and development to support autonomous use of the strategies and knowledge; learner

education”.

Comparably, Richards et al (1992, p. 355) present a specific definition of strategy

training and outline three different approaches: “[It is] training in the use of learning

strategies in order to improve a learner’s effectiveness. A number of approaches to

strategy training are used, including: 1) Explicit or direct training: learners are given

information about the value and purpose of particular strategies, taught how to use them

and how to monitor their own use of the strategies. 2) Embedded strategy training: the

strategies to be taught are not taught explicitly but are embedded in the regular content of

an academic subject area, such as reading, math or science. 3) Combination strategy

training: explicit strategy training is followed by embedded training.”

Brown (2000, p.130) acknowledges work on the effectiveness of learning strategies for

various learners in a variety of contexts. He then states “…we probe its implications for

your teaching methodology in the classroom, specifically, how your language classroom

techniques can encourage, build, and sustain effective language­learning strategies in

your students”.

Learner training can therefore be summarized as teaching learners how to learn, with a

view to becoming independent and autonomous learners.

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1.4. Cognitive aspects of writing skill

Historically, researchers in the field of composition have focused on the processes in

which writers engage as they compose a text (Hairston, 1990). During the past decade,

researchers have attempted to address this complexity by the affective factors that

influence writing. Beach (1989) suggested that students' self­perceptions of their own

writing competence offer a particularly promising avenue of research for informing

writing instruction.

Flower and Hayes (1980, p.40) conceptualized writing as a “strategic action where

writers employ strategies to juggle with the constraints of composing”. They stated that

composing strategies are decisions taken to cope with the problems (both linguistic and

rhetorical) posed by the writing task as perceived by the writers. Hays and Flower (1980)

presented a model of skilled writers. The model comprised three major components. The

first component, task environment, included factors that were external to the writer, but

influenced the writing task. These included both social and physical factors. The second

component, cognitive processes, provided a description of the mental operations involved

in writing. These included three basic processes: planning what to say and how to say it;

translating plans into written text; and reviewing to improve existing text. Planning, in

turn, was composed of three ingredients: setting goals, generating ideas, and organizing

ideas into a writing plan; whereas reviewing included reading and editing text. The

execution of these cognitive processes was thought to be under the writer's direct control,

and it was proposed that virtually any subprocess could interrupt or incorporate any other

subprocess. The third component, writer's long­term memory, included the author's

knowledge about the topic, the intended audience, and general plans or formulas for

accomplishing various writing tasks. Concept mapping could be used as a learning tool.

Smith (1987) found concept mapping a worthwhile heuristic for helping experts make

their own understanding more evident to learners and for helping learners better

understand the structure of knowledge.

Graham and Harris (2000) believed that writing required extensive self­regulation and

attention control. Research showed that adolescents who used different types of self­

regulatory processes wrote more effectively; they produced more information in their

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papers; they wrote more organized pieces; and they received higher grades in writing

(Zimmerman & Risemberg, 1997).

Many teachers attempted to influence the course of this development in a relatively

straightforward and direct fashion. They might model and explicitly teach the types of

strategies and self­control procedures used by more skilled writers, or might establish

predictable routines where writing processes such as planning and revising were expected

and reinforced (Graham & Harris, 1996).

Strategy instruction is a teaching approach that assists students in developing strategies

for all phases of the writing process and teaches self­regulation of performance of the

strategies. Strategy instruction assists student writers by breaking down writing tasks and

making the subprocesses and skills much more explicit (Sturm & Rankin­ Erickson,

2002).

2. Methodology

2.1. Restatement of the problem

There has been growing interest in learning processes and support for teaching learners

how to learn, and thus become independent and autonomous learners through the use of

learning strategies. Some researchers as Hacker, Dunlosky, and Graesser (1998)

suggested that instructional strategies that teach students to practice cognitive skills can

increase learners’ performance in academic subjects. The principal aim of this study was

to investigate the effectiveness of the strategy of concept mapping in students’ self­

regulation in expository writing at the intermediate level of language proficiency.

2.2. Design

The study had a pretest­posttest control group design. Both control group and

experimental group participated in pretest and posttest self­regulation questionnaire, but

only the experimental group received the treatment.

2.3. Participants

Ninety university students volunteered to participate in the study. They were studying

English either as translation or literature. They were mostly from six and seven semesters.

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All the students were administered Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency to

determine their level of English proficiency. Sixty students at the intermediate level of

language proficiency were randomly selected. Of the sixty students, thirty students were

randomly assigned to control group and thirty students to experimental group. In the

experimental group, twelve students were male and eighteen students were female. In the

control group, ten students were male and twenty students were female.

2.4. Instructional Material

The treatment for the experimental group was instruction and practice in concept

mapping. Students were provided with handouts that included definition of concept

mapping, different uses and examples of concept maps. Students practiced the application

of concept mapping in writing essays. They were required to draw concept maps of their

own or to complete the incomplete maps. In the experimental group, the students

practiced writing expository essays, using concept mapping strategy. The topics for the

essays sequenced from easy and familiar topics (unnecessary to have specialized

knowledge) to difficult and unfamiliar topics. They included: plants, time, weather, air

pollution, the function of heart, and psychology. Familiarity/unfamiliarity and

simplicity/difficulty of the topics were judged by three university teachers who were

teaching writing courses. The control group wrote essays about the same topics without

the use of concept mapping strategy. (See Appendix B).

2.5. Instruments

The instrument used to determine the level of the students’ English proficiency was

Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. Motivated Strategies for Learning

Questionnaire (Printrich et al., 1991) was applied to measure the students’ self­regulation.

First, the students were asked to participate in the test of language proficiency. From

among ninety students, sixty students at the intermediate level of English proficiency

were randomly selected. Then the students were asked to fill out the questionnaire. It was

designed to assess college students’ motivational orientations and their use of different

learning strategies in college courses. The learning strategies section had 50 items

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regarding students' use of different cognitive and self­regulated learning strategies. Only

five scales in the learning strategies section (metacognitive self­regulation, time and

study environment, effort regulation, peer learning, and help seeking) were relevant to

self­regulation and were used in this study. The scales were adapted to measure students’

self­regulation in writing tasks. Cronbach's alpha for the scale was .76 (See Appendix A).

2.6. Procedure

The period of instruction was about twelve weeks and comprised of three phases:

2.6.1. Pre­testing

Before the students in experimental group received any instruction, all the students

in two groups completed the self­regulation questionnaire.

2.6.2. Strategy instruction

Following pre­testing the students participated in twelve sixty­minute study sessions .

The students in experimental group received the instruction for concept mapping

strategy. The strategy was taught following Harris and Graham (1996): (1) Strategy

description, (2) Discussion of goals and purposes, (3) Modeling of the strategy, (4)

Student mastery of strategy steps, and (5) Guided practice and feedback.

1. Strategy description. As an introduction to the first lesson, students were told that

they were going to learn about the strategy of concept mapping. Concept mapping was

described as a strategy that could be used to categorize information in a graphic form

through drawing. It was also described as a strategy that could help them with vocabulary

development, reading comprehension, study skills, and prewriting activities. Finally, the

sequence of steps for creating a concept map was described.

2. Discussion of goals and purposes. The teacher discussed the students about the

significance and benefits of using the concept mapping strategy in writing. Students were

asked two questions: (1) How do you think this strategy might help you write? and (2)

How could this strategy help you with different types of writing? To reinforce student

participation as collaborators in the learning process, goals and purposes that students

generated were written on the white board.

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3. Modeling the strategy. The teacher modeled use of concept mapping strategy by

creating a map while students were offered several topics to select from for the activity.

Once the group agreed on a topic, the teacher wrote it on the white board. This topic was

labeled as "main idea" of the concept map. Next possible subtopics were generated. The

teacher demonstrated use of arrows to connect main ideas and subtopics. Finally, details

were generated and added to each of the subtopics. Students participated in the process by

brainstorming possible categories and details. Students were taught how to write subtopic

information in telegraphic form. The teacher modeled use of telegraphic language forms

and explained that this involves choosing the most important information. Students

assisted by generating ideas to be placed on the map. Then, the teacher discussed how the

categories and the details could be sequenced into paragraphs, and sentences within

paragraphs, to compose an essay. The teacher explained that each subtopic may represent

different paragraphs in the essay. Upon completion of the map , the teacher modeled the

transfer of subtopic information from the map into written form­ instruction followed the

sequence of procedures for transferring concept maps into written paragraphs, starting

with top­level structures i.e., topics and subtopics ) , the teacher reviewed the information

on the map. Each category was reviewed, including the main ideas and supporting details.

The teacher modeled how she would rewrite the information from the map into complete

sentences. For each subtopic, a topic sentence was written, followed by supporting

sentences. Finally, the concluding paragraph was explained and with the help of the

students the teacher wrote a concluding paragraph.

4. Student mastery of strategy steps. During this stage, students rehearsed and

memorized the sequence of activities for concept map construction.

5. Guided practice and Feedback. During these sessions, feedback was provided for

students’ performance. Students chose a topic and created maps. Then, they used the

concept maps to compose essays.

The first three sessions were devoted to training the technique. The other nine

sessions were spent on practicing the strategy for the students to master the fundamental

skills. One essay was composed every two weeks for a total of four essays for each

student. During these sessions, other formal teaching techniques were not employed by

the teacher. The teacher was a non­native English teacher who taught writing courses for

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many years at the university. Before starting the project, the teacher was trained how to

teach concept mapping strategy (following Harris and Graham's strategy teaching, 1996).

During the instructional period the students in the control group wrote as many

expository essays as the experimental group but without the use of concept mapping

strategy.

2.6.3. Post­testing

After the instruction of the strategy of concept mapping (at the conclusion of the

treatment period) all the students in two groups again completed the self­regulation

questionnaire.

2.7. Scoring of the Data

The research applied Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to assess

students' self regulation. Responses were scored using a 5 point Likert type scale: 1) Not

at all true of myself 2) Slightly true of myself 3) About halfway true of myself 4) Mostly

true of myself 5) True of myself. Scale scores were determined by summing the items

and taking an average.

3. Results and Discussion The major question addressed in this study was whether the use of concept mapping

strategy in writing expository essays would improve students’ self­regulation at the

intermediate level of language proficiency. To capture the initial differences between the

two groups, t­ test was applied to compare the two groups on pretest measures. No

significant difference was found (t = ­1.06, df = 58, p>.05). It confirmed that the two

groups were initially equivalent. Means and standard deviations of pretest and posttest

scores on self­regulation are presented in Table 1.

Table1. Means and standard deviations for pretest and posttest scores on self­regulation M SD N

Pretest Experimental group 2.51 .56 30 Control group 2.35 .57 30

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Posttest Experimental group 3.79 .58 30 Control group 3.22 .71 30

To investigate the effect of concept mapping strategy on students’ self­regulation, an

ANCOVA on Post self­regulation scores by group (experimental vs. control), using Pre

self­regulation scores as a covariate was conducted. The results indicated there was a

significant difference in posttest scores between groups (F= 10.57, df= 1; P= .002). The

conclusion is that concept mapping strategy significantly influenced students’ self­

regulation. In other words, it revealed that the implementation of concept mapping

strategy in writing expository essays would positively affect students’ self­regulation in

writing tasks. Table 2 displays the results.

Table2. ANCOVA on Post Self­regulation Scores by Group (experimental vs. control), using Pre Self­regulation as a Covariate Source of variation F Sig. Group 10.57 .002 Covariate 25.63 .000 Error 1.97

One possible explanation for the improvement of the students’ self­regulation might be a

change in the students’ attitude toward writing skill. As Barnhardt (1997) stated there is a

relationship between strategy use and confidence in language learning. For students who

had not positive attitudes toward writing for a long time, a positive change in attitude due

to their success in the application of the concept mapping strategy could be the initial step

toward improved writing skill. It is also possible that when students were taught the

mapping strategy to use with their writing, their positive attitudes toward writing

increased. It meant that when the students had a better idea of how to go about a writing

task, they were more positive about the task. In other words, concept mapping strategy

helped students attend to writing tasks, and control their learning more effectively. It

helped students facilitate their learning by organizing key concepts into visual

representation. They simply represented visually their understanding of ideas and their

relationships. This created a much more tangible evidence of the quality of both the

learning process and concept understanding.

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It seemed that the construction of concept maps might have helped students to build

more complex cognitive structures in regard to information which was vital for writing.

According to Pintrich (2000), the cognitive area of self­regulation begins with goal

setting, prior knowledge activation and planning. Pintrich places the actual use of

cognitive strategies in the phase of cognitive control and regulation. It has been suggested

that strategy instruction should be integrated into a larger framework of self­regulation

involving the helping of students to identify their goals in a learning task (Butler,

2002).Butler states that by strategy intervention it is easier to demonstrate the different

types of knowledge which are essential for fostering students’ self­regulated strategy use.

The positive effect of concept mapping strategy on the students’ self­regulation is

confirmed by McAleese (1998) in that individuals are affected by control mechanisms

that are both external and internal. According to McAleese (1998), there is some

interaction between the external representation (concept mapping) and the internal

understanding (self­regulation). The factors that determine students’ behavior shift

between the internal self­regulation and the external factor of concept mapping.

4. Conclusion and implications

The findings clearly demonstrate that concept mapping can benefit university students at

the intermediate level of English proficiency. In fact, the benefits of concept mapping

might extend beyond achievement gains to some variables such as self­regulation which

is an achievement­related variable. This is consistent with the finding of Corno and

Mandniach (1983) that instruction in strategy use is an effective means of promoting self­

regulation. It seems that the use of concept mapping strategy in our courses of writing in

the university has been personally rewarding as a means of constructing knowledge and

promoting self­regulation. This has important implications for both students and teachers.

Students maximize their learning by using concept mapping in their essay writing; hence

they feel more independent and feel more responsibility for their own learning. Because

concept mapping is easily adopted by the students, it doesn’t rely too much on teacher’s

involvement. Teachers may enhance their students’ self­regulation in writing by

familiarizing them with the concept mapping strategy.

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Although the present study suggests that the strategy of concept mapping is beneficial

to university students, there are areas that need to be studied further. In regard to

university students, it needs to be investigated whether the benefits of concept mapping

would be the same for the students at the elementary level of English proficiency.

Furthermore, it needs to be studied whether the concept mapping strategy would have

positive effects on students’ self­regulation in other courses such as reading

comprehension.

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Appendix A. Test of Self­regulation ­Please answer the following questions by circling the response that best describes how

you feel when you study and practice writing courses. Not at all true of myself

Slightly true of myself

About halfway true of myself

Mostly true of myself

True of myself

1. During class time I often miss important points because I’m thinking of other things.

1 2 3 4 5

2. When writing for this course, I make up questions to help focus my writing.

1 2 3 4 5

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3. When I become confused about something I’m writing for this class, I go back and try to figure it out.

1 2 3 4 5

4. If course writing tasks are difficult to do, I change the way I am writing.

1 2 3 4 5

5. Before I write new course material thoroughly, I often try to organize it.

1 2 3 4 5

6. I ask myself questions to make sure I understand the material I have been studying in this class.

1 2 3 4 5

7. I try to change the way I write in order to fit the course requirements and the instructor’s teaching style.

1 2 3 4 5

8. I often find that I have been reading for this class but don’t know what it was all about.

1 2 3 4 5

9. I try to think through a topic and decide what I am supposed to learn from it rather than just reading it over when studying.

1 2 3 4 5

10. When writing for this course I try to determine which concepts I don’t understand well.

1 2 3 4 5

11. When I write for this class, I set goals for myself in order to direct my thoughts in each period.

1 2 3 4 5

12. If I get confused while writing in class, I make sure I sort it out afterwards.

1 2 3 4 5

13. I usually write in a place where I can concentrate on my course work.

1 2 3 4 5

14. I make good use of my writing time for this course.

1 2 3 4 5

15. I find it hard to stick to a study schedule.

1 2 3 4 5

16. I have a regular place set aside for writing.

1 2 3 4 5

17. I make sure that I keep up with the weekly readings and assignments for this course.

1 2 3 4 5

18. I attend this class regularly. 1 2 3 4 5

19. I often find that I don’t spend very much time on this course because of other activities.

1 2 3 4 5

20. I rarely find time to review my notes or readings before an exam.

1 2 3 4 5

21. I often feel so lazy or bored when I write for this class that I quit before I finish what I planned to do.

1 2 3 4 5

22. I work hard to do well in this class even if I don’t like what we are doing.

1 2 3 4 5

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 86

23. When course work is difficult, I either give up or only study the easy parts.

1 2 3 4 5

24. Even when writing tasks are dull and uninteresting, I manage to keep working until I finish.

1 2 3 4 5

25. When studying for this course, I often try to explain the material to a classmate or friend.

1 2 3 4 5

26. I try to work with other students from this class to complete the course assignments.

1 2 3 4 5

27. When writing for this course, I often set aside time to discuss course material with a group of students from the class.

1 2 3 4 5

28. Even if I have trouble writing the material in this class, I try to do the work on my own, without help from anyone.

1 2 3 4 5

29. I ask the instructor to clarify concepts I don’t understand well.

1 2 3 4 5

30. When I can’t understand the material in this course, I ask another student in this class for help.

1 2 3 4 5

31. I try to identify students in this class whom I can ask for help if necessary.

1 2 3 4 5

Based on and adapted from Printrich, P. R., Smith, D. A., Garcia, T., & McKeachie, W. J. (1991).A manual for the use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ).

Appendix B: Instructional Material

1. What is a concept map? Concept map is a graphic representation of ideas and concepts. It consists of concepts or nodes linked by labeled lines to show relationships and inter­relationships between terms. Concepts are arranged hierarchically so that the most inclusive, subsumptive concepts appear at the top of the map, with less inclusive, subordinate concepts below (Jonassen & Grabowski, 1993, p.439). Look at following example of concept map:

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 87

2. Concept mapping as a learning tool ­ To summarize reading materials ­ To organize knowledge domains ­ To organize ideas for writing and research ­ To plan your research project and identify the variables in it ­ To fix learned materials in long­term memory ­ To revise effectively for examination

3. Uses of concept mapping ­ Develop an understanding of a body of knowledge ­ Explore new information and relationships ­ Access prior knowledge ­ Gather new knowledge and information ­ Share knowledge and information generated

4. How to organize our thoughts through concept mapping A concept map is simply a way to visually display the concepts and relationships among ideas. This will help you to further organize your ideas and define your topic. It allows you to quickly write down your ideas and then see the organization of your topic. As you map, think about what issues you would like to focus on related to the main idea. Also think about the ways you will collect data and present the material Later you can return to your concept map as you create your outline. You can turn each level of bubbles (main topic, subtopics, etc.) into a level on your outline. This is a way for you to gain exposure to multiple dimensions of a topic that you might not have considered. To create a concept map you have to follow steps 1 through 5.

1. Identify the general/broad topic that you are interested in.

Example: You are interested in the general topic of obesity

2. Brainstorm on the general topic and list all the concepts and themes that are related to the topic on a large piece of paper. Keep the concepts as concise as possible

3. using unlined paper, write the main theme in the center of the page.

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4. Take the other concepts identified in the brainstorming and connect them to the center concept. You can use other organizational patterns such as branches, arrows or groups. More important ideas should be put nearer to the center and less important ones closer to the edge. Identify the relationship between the concepts

5. After the map has been created, look at the organizational patterns to see if the pieces fit together and make sense and if there is anything missing. After the map has been created, look at the organizational patterns to see if the pieces fit together and make sense and if there is anything missing

5. Critical questions

After you created the map, you may ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the central word, concept, research question or problem around which to build the map?

• What are the concepts, items, descriptive words or telling questions that you can associate with the concept, topic, research question or problem?

• What is said about the concepts? Record the quotes or paraphrase.

6. Practice concept mapping ­ Think about the sport that you most like. Then try to map out the general

and specific ideas on a diagram. Here is an example:

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7. Some tips on making concept maps

• Use a top down approach, working from general to specific or use a free association approach by brainstorming nodes and then develop links and relationships. Use different colors and shapes for nodes and links to identify different types of information. Use different colored nodes to identify prior and new information. Use a cloud node to identify a question.

• Gather information to a question in the question node.

8. Final words

Different students may have different ways to represent what they think. Your concept map should reflect your information of a topic. It is always advisable to write down notes describing what you have mapped.

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Appendix B.1. Sample Tasks

A. Create concept maps according to the following topics and compare yours with other students.

­ travel ­ recreation

B. Identify the concepts and fill in the concept map boxes.

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A Contrastive Analysis of English and Persian Newspaper Headlines

Farzaneh Khodabandeh

Mobarakeh Payame Noor University, Iran

Bio Data: Farzaneh Khodabadeh has been teaching English for 10 years at schools and 4 years at university. She has a Master's in Teaching English from Isfahan University in Iran. She is currently teaching Discourse Analysis, Testing and Research Methods at Mobarakeh University. Her areas of research include Discourse Analysis. She has written 5 articles and published two books ­ Pre­intermediate College English and Intermediate College English.

Abstract

Considering the absence of contrasting English and Persian newspaper headlines, the present study was an attempt to conduct a contrastive analysis between the newspaper headlines of English and Persian languages in order to find the major similarities and differences between them. The analysis was based on a one­week corpus of the headlines of English and Persian languages. Utilizing CA, the researcher analyzed the variability of syntactic and lexical features across and within the English and Persian newspaper headlines. It was concluded that the headlines of English and Persian languages were similar in using dynamic verbs, active voice, short words, declarative sentences, finite clauses, and simple sentences and different in the use of tense forms, headline types, modification, and omission of words. This study has pedagogical implications for teaching journalistic English and translation.

Keywords: Contrastive analysis, headlines, syntactic and lexical features.

1. Introduction

Conventionally, it is believed that newspapers have more readers than any other kind of

written text. According to Van Dijk (1986), "for most citizens, news is perhaps the type

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of written discourse with which they are confronted most frequently" (p. 156). In the

newspaper it is the headlines that have the highest readership. It summarizes the content

of a story, and entices an audience into reading the article. According to Ungerer (2000),

"a headline describes the essence of a complicated news story in a few words. It informs

quickly and accurately and arouses the reader's curiosity" (p. 48). News headlines are

particularly important for the way readers comprehend a news text, they are markers that

monitor attention, perception and the reading process (Van Dijk, 1988).

Many students of English find that newspaper headlines are especially difficult to

understand. Obviously, it is not just a matter of vocabulary; even the style of writing is

different from any other text they have met in their studies. The language of headlines is

special and has its own characteristics on the lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical levels for

its brevity, attractiveness, and clarity (Reah, 1998). These language features pose a great

challenge to foreign learners of English when they begin to read English newspapers.

This is hardly surprising for, as Waterhouse (as cited in Sanderson, 1999, p. 29) points

out, "this genre of language is not one that people actually use in normal, everyday

speech." There is, however, a clear pattern in this special genre; once the rules and tactics

are understood a lot of difficulties may disappear.

The key to ease the difficulty of this special genre lies in the comparison between

foreign and native languages (Connor, 1996). Thereby, a systematic contrastive analysis

of English and Persian headlines was conducted to investigate the similarities and

differences between the newspaper headlines of English and Persian languages.

2. Review of the related literature

Headlines are obviously one of the striking features of modern newspapers. Therefore it

is not surprising that they have been studied quite extensively not only by journalists but

also by linguists. Some of the few existing linguistic studies of headlines will be reviewed

below.

Straumann's (1935) study of headline English is undoubtedly pioneer work. His

approach was to treat the language of headlines as an autonomous language. He

classifieds headlines in terms of neutrals, nominals, verbals and particles. The first

section of his classification contains words in their common form. In the following

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sections he arranges them in s­forms, and in three variables, semi­variables and

invariables. Classification is further arranged in d­forms, ing forms, ly­, er­ and (e) st­

forms.

The complexity of headlines has been investigated by Brisau (1969). He measured

complexity in terms of clauses, which were thus singled out from other units as a gauge

of complexity. In 3000 headlines Brisau found 264 examples of headlines containing two

or more clauses, which was less than 10% of the total number. Brisau concluded that

more complex structures than two very simple clauses linked together rarely occurred in

headlines. He mentioned, however, that the linguistic make­up of the headline could vary

widely from one newspaper to another.

Mårdh (1980) offers an exhaustive study of the characteristic features of the headlines

of a range of English newspapers. She identifies the following linguistic features as

typical of headlines in English newspapers: the omission of articles; the omission of

verbs and of auxiliaries (the verb 'to be' for example); nominalisations; the frequent use

of complex noun phrases in subject position (in theme position); adverbial headlines, with

the omission of both verb and subject; the use of short words ('bid' instead of 'attempt');

the widespread use of puns, word play and alliteration; the importance of word order,

with the most important items placed first, even, in some cases, a verb; and independent

'wh' constructions not linked to a main clause (an example: Why the French don't give a

damn), a form not found in standard English.

Van Dijk (1988) analyzed a five­decker from the New York Times. He sees the

journalistic process as beginning with a headline and working through lead to body copy.

He analyzed over 400 headlines in the Dutch press reporting the 1985 Tamil panic, an

occasion of racial tensions between the Dutch and immigrant groups. He found that the

authorities dominated first position in the headline, with active verbs. When the

disadvantaged Tamils were mentioned first, the verb tended to be passive.

Kniffka's (as cited in Bell, 1991) detailed comparison of leads and headlines found a

high level of structural correspondence between the two. The subeditor tends to

reproduce the syntactic patterns of the lead in the headline. Kniffka (1980) found that the

presence of active or passive voice in the lead was carried over to the headline.

According to Kniffka, headline structures appear to be very regular across languages. He

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confirmed his analysis of both German and American English news texts, finding their

leads and headlines structurally identical. The regularity is so consistent that he concludes

there is a shared international grammar of lead­and headline­writing.

Mouillaud and Tétu (as cited in Develotte & Rechniewski, 2000), analysing Le Monde,

suggest the following features as typical of headlines: the suppression of spatial and

particularly temporal markers; the use of the present tense of verbs (where they are used)

as opposed to ­ or in place of ­ any other tenses; the replacement of verbs by

nominalisations; the suppression of declarative verbs and the disappearance of signs of

speech (quotation marks; personal pronouns).

Scollon (2000), in his study of five days of three editions of the same newspaper in its

Chinese and English editions, argues that the English headlines, following on general

western journalistic practice put the main point right in the headline in what has also been

called a deductive rhetorical mode. The Chinese headline, on the other hand, uses the

headline to establish the setting but do not provide any further information about the

content of the talks, which is the inductive ordering of the topics elsewhere found in

contrast between Chinese and English language news stories. In other words the major

difference lies in whether the headline focuses directly on the central topic found within

the body of the story or the setting.

Sullet­Nylander (2000) described and analysed the textual "genre" of the French

newspaper headlines. According to him, the macrosyntactic configuration of a press

headline can be represented in four types of phrasal constructions, one of which is

considered relatively "unmarked." The three other types namely: parataxis, noun phrase +

prepositional and single nonverbal phrase are considered more specific of headlines.

Compared with similar kinds of utterances such as book titles or captions, the complete

sentence is much more frequent in newspaper headlines. His thesis shows that a headline

can be characterized by regular linguistic/textual features, even though each newspaper

has diverse ways of constructing and staging the news in its headlines, depending on the

communicative functions assigned to them.

As mentioned in the literature review of this study, some contrastive studies of

headlines have raised the question of whether similar features can be found in varying

cultures and languages. Considering the absence of such an analysis related to English

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and Persian, this study intended to investigate the application of syntactic and lexical

features in newspaper headlines in order to uncover to what extent the two languages

were compatible in these domains.

3. Method

The information regarding the research method, materials and procedures is presented

below.

3.1. Materials

To carry out the comparison between the headlines, an English and a Persian news site

were randomly selected from among all available online news sources from the Internet,

namely Yahoo news for the English headlines and IRIB news for the Persian ones. The

headlines issued during a seven­day period from November 29 to December 05, 2003.

The number of English and Persian headlines arrived at a total of 792 and 725 from the

two sources respectively.

3.2. Procedure

This research was directed toward studying the syntactic and lexical features of English

and Persian corpora in such a way that by a systematic comparison, the differences and

similarities between the sample headlines of the two languages would be identified. At

the start, the investigation began with the description of the basic units of analysis in the

English headline structures (categories, word classes, constructions) and continued with

the analysis of the Persian headlines. In doing so, for the analysis of the structure of

English headlines, the grammatical framework provided by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech

and Savartvik (1985) was chosen, and for the analysis of Persian headlines, the grammar

provided by Natel Khanlari (1979) was used to inform the study.

As mentioned before, this study pinpointed the cases of utilization of lexical and

syntactic features in English and Persian headlines in order to see in what ways the two

languages are different. Below is a brief description of syntactic and lexical features.

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3.2.1. Syntactic features

Syntax refers to the rules for ordering and connecting words into sentences. More

generally, it refers to the study of the interrelationships between all elements of sentence

structure, and of the rules governing the arrangements of sentences in sequences. It

allows various possibilities to be exploited for effective linguistic communication

(Crystal, 1992; Radford, 1997; Trask, 1999).

A systematic description of syntactic features of headlines includes headline types,

functional types, and complexity in headlines of the two languages.

3.2.1.1. Headline types

In order to get an overall picture of the structure of English and Persian headlines,

Mårdh's model (1980) was chosen. Following Mårdh's model, the corpus was divided

into three basic groups: verbal, nominal and adverbial headlines.

3.2.1.1.1. Verbal headlines

A verbal headline contains a verb phrase or part of a verb phrase that is not dominated by

a noun phrase (Mårdh, 1980). In the sample headlines, the main structural types of verbal

headlines were distinguished according to finite verb phrases, non­finite verb phrases,

headlines with omitted auxiliary, subject complement (SCs) headlines, and subject

adverbial (SA) headlines.

3.2.1.1.1.1.

Finite verb phrases contain a finite verb form which may be either an operator or a simple

present or past form (Quirk et al., 1985).

Australian Opposition Leader Quits (30.11.2003)

Iran qæhreman koshti asiya shod (10.9.1382)

(Iran became the champion in Asia.)

3.2.1.1.1.2.

Non­finite verb phrases consist of a participle or infinitive which may be followed by an

object or an adverbial (Spears, 1976).

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Getting a Small Audience for Bad News (30.11.2003)

Koshteh shodæn 54 æraqi dær atæsh sozi (12.9.1382)

(54 Iraqi were killed in a fire.)

3.2.1.1.1.3.

Subject adverbial headlines have no verb, but a form of the copula be can be inserted

between the noun phrase and adverb in English sentences (Mårdh, 1980; Schneider,

2000), and æst at the end of the Persian ones.

Bush ø in Baghdad (29.11.2003)

70% zæxayer næft jæhan dær xaværemiyaneh ø (8.9.1382)

(70% of oil supplies ø in Middle East.)

3.2.1.1.1.4.

Subject complement phrases or omission­of­copula type consist of a noun phrase as

subject and a noun phrase as subject complement. In English structures, a form of the

verb be, may be inserted between the subject noun phrase and the noun phrase

functioning as subject complement (Mårdh, 1980; Quirk et al., 1985), and in the Persian,

æst or shod can be inserted at the end of the sentence.

Supreme Court opinions ø Not Private Enough (3.12.2003)

Rezazadeh behtærin værzeshkar jæhan ø (9.9.1382)

(Rezazaded ø the best athlete in the world)

3.2.1.1.1.5.

Verbal headlines with omitted auxiliary are headlines in which the verb is non­finite and

in which forms of 'be' are left out before the verb (Mårdh, 1980).

Six Spanish Intel Officers ø Killed in Iraq (29.11.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

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3.2.1.1.2. Nominal headlines

A nominal phrase is an expression headed by a noun (Radford, 1997). In order to

examine syntactic variation within the noun phrases across the two languages, the

structural types of nominal headlines were analyzed according to unmodification,

premodification, postmodification and pre [+] post modification.

3.2.1.1.2.1. Unmodification:

Structures in which the head of noun phrase is not modified by any other item are

referred to as unmodified structures (Quirk et al., 1985; Spears, 1976).

Chief (30.11.2003)

Felestin (8.9.1382)

(Palestine)

3.2.1.1.2.2. Premodification:

A premodifier is a modifier that precedes the word it modifies (Quirk et al., 1985; Spears,

1976).

Artificial Sweeteners (30.11.2003)

14 koshteh dær hadeseh otobos dær malezi (9.9.1382)

(14 people were killed in a bus accident in Malaysia.)

3.2.1.1.2.3. Postmodification:

A postmodifier is a modifier or quantifier that follows the constituent it modifies (Quirk

et al., 1985; Spears, 1976).

The Future of Data Storage (5.12.2003)

Zob yæxchalhaye tæbie (10.9.1382)

(Glacier melting)

3.2.1.1.2.4. Pre [+] post Modifications:

Structures which have both pre­ and post­modifiers are referred to as pre [+] post

modified headlines, e.g.

The Solar System that Neptune Built (1.12.2003)

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Sevomin hæmayesh meli zæfæran (12.9.1382)

(The 3rd international meeting of Saffron)

3.2.1.1.3. Adverbial headlines

An adverbial clause (headline) is an expression headed by a word, phrase, or clause that

is equivalent in its structural role to an adverb (Fallahi, 1991).

Before You Babysit (4.12.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

3.2.1.2. Analyzing headline types by function

Headlines can be divided into four functional types: statements, questions, commands and

exclamations (Mårdh, 1980; McLoughlin, 2000).

A statement headline describes a state of affairs, actions, feelings or belief.

China to Let Foreign Banks Provide Money (1.12.2003)

Rezazadeh behtærin værzeshkar jæhan (9.9.1382)

(Rezazaded the best athlete in the world)

A command headline expresses a request or advice.

Put These Question Marks by the Hardware (30.11.2003)

Be mærdom æraq komæk konid. (10.9.1382)

(Help the Iraqi people.)

An exclamation headline shows the writer's or speakers feelings.

Turkey + Duck + Chicken = Turducken! (29.11.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

A question headline is addressed to a reader or listener and asks for an expression of fact,

opinion, belief etc.

Hot Cocoa, the Healthy Drink? (5.12.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

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This study focused on the cases of functional headline types in the English and Persian

headlines to see whether they are used commonly in the two languages.

3.2.1.3. Complexity in headlines

The classification of headlines was done in terms of simple, compound and complex

sentences.

A simple headline contains only one predicate.

Bush Focuses on Raising Campaign Funds (1.12.2003)

Iran emros barany æst. (10.9.1382)

(Today, it is rainy in Iran.)

A complex headline contains one or more dependent clauses, in addition to its

independent, or main clause.

DNA tests say Lindbergh fathered three children in Germany (29.11.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

A compound headline contains two or more independent clauses which are joined by

coordination.

Report: Teen Admits Subway Slay (1.12.2003)

Oropa hoshdar dad, amrica tærefeh ra læqv kærd (13.9.1382)

(Europe ordered, the United States rejected the tariff.)

Following Mårdh's model (1980), headlines which consisted of more than one clause

were divided into two types: edited quotation and unedited quotation.

3.2.1.3.1. Edited quotations:

In edited quotations the items that would occur in direct speech are left out.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 101

Report: Tiger Woods ø Engaged (29.11.2003)

Xærazi: tænha rahe hæle æraq (12.9.1382)

(Kharazi, The only solution of Iraq)

3.2.1.3.2. Unedited quotations:

In contrast to edited quotations, unedited quotations do not differ from what may actually

be heard in speech.

Judge to Babs: You Are Dismissed (4.12.2003)

Ivankovich: razi nistæm (8.9.1382)

(Ivankovich: I am not satisfied.)

3.2.1.4. Structure of verb phrases

In terms of the structure of the verb phrase, the English and Persian headlines were

divided into finite clauses, non­finite clauses and verbless clauses in order to investigate

their similarities and differences in the two languages.

Finite clauses are clauses in which the first or only word of the verb is a finite form.

Bush Plane Flew Under False Cover on Iraq Trip (5.12.2003)

Zelzeleh mazændran ra lærzand (12.9.1382)

(Earthquake hit Mazandaran.)

Non­finite clauses are clauses whose phrase is non­finite, i.e. the verb lacks tense,

number, and mood.

Man Caught with 177 Cigarette packs in Trousers (29.1.2003)

Napædid shodæn 10 mohajer dær espania (10.9.1382)

(10 immigrants disappeared in Spain.)

Verbless clauses are clauses which contain no verb element, e.g.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 102

Factory Growth Fastest in 20 Years (30.11.2003)

Rezazadeh behtærin værzeshkar jæhan (9.9.1382)

(Rezazaded the best athlete in the world)

3.2.1.5. Headline length

In order to examine the equality of length in the headlines of the two languages, the

headlines in the corpora were investigated with respect to the average number of words

per headline.

For example, the longest headlines found in the English and Persian headlines were

consisted of 12 and 15 words in each sample respectively.

Yes, I'll Give You My Cells­ If You Back Man United (29.11.2003)

Reisjomhor: ma tælash mikonim ke rævabete dostaneh væ hæsæneh ba hæmeyeh

keshværhayeh hæmsayeh dashteh bashim. (8.9.1382)

(President: we try to maintain friendly relations with all of our neighbors.)

3.2.2. Lexical features

Lexicology, in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary; and, in its

technical sense, it deals with the analysis of words (Quirk et al., 1985). Under lexicology,

the individual words such as nouns, verbs, articles, adjectives, adverbs, numerals,

conjunctions, pronouns and prepositions were analyzed in both English and Persian

headlines in order to determine the frequency of their occurrence.

3.2.2.1. Nouns

A noun is a word which (a) can occur as the subject or object of a verb or the object of a

preposition, (b) can be modified by an adjective, and (c) can be used with determiners.

Nouns typically refer to people, animals, places, things, or abstractions (Murphy, 1997,

Natel Khanlari, 1979).

Bush Comments on Surprise Trip to Baghdad (30.11.2003)

Ivanoif: englis beh rosiyeh tohin kærd (9.9.1382)

(Ivanoif: England insulted Russia.)

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 103

The distinct features of nouns used in headlines are the frequent appearance of the

proper nouns, the acronyms, and the abbreviations (Baddock, 1988). These features were

investigated in headlines of the two languages to determine the frequency of their

occurrence.

3.2.2.1.1. Proper nouns

Proper nouns are basically names of specific people, places, months, days, festivals,

magazines, and so forth (Quirk et al., 1985).

IOC Member Robbed in Athens (29.11.2003)

Pirozi, saypa ra mæqlob kærd (9.9.1382)

(Pirozi defeated Saypa.)

3.2.2.1.2. Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words. This process is widely

used in shortening extremely long words or word groups in science, technology and other

special fields (Fromkin & Rodman, 1998).

Palestinian PM Rules Out Immediate Sharon Talks (29.11.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

Abbreviation is a reduced version of a word, phrase, or sentence. It is also called clipping

(Crystal, 1992).

Japan Govt. to Nationalize Regional Bank (30.11.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

3.2.2.2. Verbs

Verb is an important lexical category, and one which is seemingly universal. In both

English and Persian languages, verb is the part of speech which, carries markers of

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 104

grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and mood and refers to an

action or state (Leech & Svartvik, 1994; Natel Khanlari, 1979; Trask, 1993).

Verb categories were analyzed in both English and Persian headlines to see differences

and similarities across the two languages.

3.2.2.2.1. Tense and aspect forms

"Tense" stands for the relationship between the from of the verb and the time of the

action or state it describes. Every language is capable of expressing limitless distinctions

of time. Traditionally, tense is classified into present, past, and future. (Crystal, 1992;

Nobahar, 1995; Quirk et al., 1985).

One of the idiosyncratic features of the English headlines is the special uses it makes of

tenses, which are different from those of ordinary, non­headline language. In general,

there is not a one to one correspondence between grammatical senses and the real time of

occurrence of an event. Tenses are used in English headlines as follows (Baddock, 1988;

McLoughlin, 2000; Sanderson, 1999):

The simple present is often used to refer to events which happened in the past.

Bush Ends Steel Tariffs (4.12.2003)

The past tense is sometimes used to refer to events which happened in the past.

Bush Plane Flew Under False Cover on Iraq Trip (3.12.2003)

The infinitive is used to refer to future events.

Books to Brighten the Joyous Season (4.12.2003)

The –ing form of the verb, representing the present progressive, is used to refer to

events that are happening at the moment, and also to events which happen in the future.

Actress Geena Davis Expecting Twins (2.12.2003)

Tense forms are used in Persian headlines as follows:

The simple present is used to refer to events which happened in the present.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 105

Reisjomhor be amrica mirævæd. (13.9.1382)

(The president is going to the United States.)

2. The past tense is used to refer to events which happened in the past.

Zelzeleh mazændran ra lærzand (12.9.1382)

(Earthquake hit Mazandaran.)

3. The future tense is used to refer to events which happened in the future.

Færda Shahed tæzahorat milyoni mærdom khahim bod. (10.9.1382)

(Tomorrow we will see the massive demonstration of thousands of people.)

Aspect is a grammatical category which deals with how the event described by a

verb is viewed, such as whether it is in progress, habitual, repeated, momentary, etc. In

both English and Persian, aspect may be indicated by prefixes, suffixes or other changes

to the verb, or by auxiliary verbs (Natel Khanlari, 1979; Quirk et al., 1985).

Happiness is not chasing the buck. (1.12.2003)

(No example from the Persian corpus)

Many headlines are unmarked for tense (Mårdh, 1980). They have no finite form of be in

English and æst in Persian. They have no verb to indicate time.

Japanese Companies ø More Optimistic (4.12.2003)

Særætan dovomin amel mærg o mir dær jæhan ø (11.9.1382)

(Cancer ø the second factor of people's death in the world)

This study focused on the tense and aspect forms which were used in the English and

Persian headlines to examine their similarities and differences in these respects.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 106

3.2.2.2.2. Voice

Voice is the form of the verb which shows the relation between the action and its subject.

In English and Persian there are two voices: the active and the passive. If the subject

performs the action, then the verb form is in the active voice. If the subject receives the

action, then the verb form is in passive voice (Fallahi, 1991; Frank, 1993 Nobahar, 1995).

Solich ø Fired As Nebraska Football Coach (30.11.2003)

7 kargær xareji dær japon robodeh shodænd (8.9.1382)

(7 foreign workers were kidnapped in Japan.)

Voice was considered in this study to examine the frequency of its occurrence in the

headlines of the two languages.

3.2.2.2.3. Dynamic and static verbs

According to their lexical meanings, verbs can be divided into dynamic and static verbs.

A type of verb which typically occurs in the progressive form and in the imperative, and

which expresses such meaning as activity, process, and bodily sensation is referred to as a

dynamic verb (Natel Khanlari, 1979; Quirk et al., 1985).

Motorist Registers During Traffic Stop (5.12. 2003)

Pirozi, saypa ra mæqlob kærd (9.9.1382)

(Pirozi defeated Saypa.)

A contrast is drawn with static verbs (also called stative or state verbs), which do not

usually occur in the progressive nor in the imperative, and which express a state of affairs

rather than an action (Natel Khanlari, 1979; Quirk et al., 1985).

Decision Is Harmful (5.12.2003)

Takestor dær dærman særætan sineh moæser æst (13.9.1382)

(Takestor is effective in the treatment of the breast cancer.)

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 107

3.2.2.3. Deletions in the headlines

Omission is one of the major features of newspaper headlines (Baddock, 1988; Bell, 1991;

Reah, 1998; Tahririan, 1995). Turner (1972, p. 72) says: "Determiners and the verb ''to

be'' are almost universally omitted in headlines". For the sake of brevity and saving space,

most closed words and some open words in headlines are often omitted or reduced to a

minimum in headlines.

Grocers, Union Talks ø Set to Resume (30.11.2003)

Yæzd dovomin shæhr jæhan æz næzær baft tarixi ø (8.9.1382)

(Yazd ø the 2nd historical city in the world.)

As can be seen from the above examples, the verb 'are' in the English headline and 'æst'

in the Persian one were omitted.

In the sample headlines an investigation was made in order to find out the frequency of

omission of words across and within the two languages.

3.2.2.4. Word syllables of headlines

In headlines, monosyllabic verbs and nouns are used frequently as substitutes for longer,

more colloquial expressions. For example: win for victory, ex for former, job for

appointment, o.k. for accept. The analysis of nouns and verbs according to their syllables

in the English and Persian corpora was done in order to investigate their similarities and

differences in the two languages in this respect.

Bush Names Baker As Envoy on Iraqi Debt (5.12.2003)

Sun Snub Eclipse (4.12.2003)

Aqaz saxt nirogah bærq xorasan (10.9.1382)

(The building of the Energy department was started in Khorasan.)

Iran nayb qæhreman koshti asiya shod (10.9.1382)

(Iran became the wrestling champion in the world.)

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 108

4.1. Data analysis

The analysis of data was conducted in two stages. In both stages, a detailed description of

the headlines at lexical and syntactic levels was done to see the similarities and

differences between the two languages.

4.1.1. First level of analysis

A corpus of 792 English and 725 Persian headlines were analyzed lexically and

syntactically in order to examine the features of the headlines in these domains.

The first level consisted of the analysis of the syntactic features of the headlines across

and within the two languages. In the following sections, the results of the analysis are

presented.

4.1.1.1. Syntactic features

As for the syntactic features, the following three major areas were studied in the

headlines of the two languages: headline types, functional types, and complexity in the

headlines.

4.1.1.1.1. Headline types

In order to get an overall picture of the structures of headlines, the English and Persian

headlines were divided into three basic groups: verbal, nominal, and adverbial headlines.

The frequency of the different types of headlines is shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Observed frequency of headline types in the English and Persian corpora

Table 4.1 shows that the proportion of verbal headlines was considerably higher in the

English headlines (94.82%) than in the Persian ones (24.27%).

English Persian Type of headline N % N % Verbal 752 94.82 176 24.27 Nominal 36 4.67 549 75.73 Adverbial 4 0.51 0 0 Total 792 100 725 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 109

As can be noticed in Table 4.1, there were only 4 adverbial headlines in the corpus, all

of which occurred in the English headlines.

4.1.1.1.1.1. Verbal headlines

Five main structural types of verbal headlines were distinguished in the English and

Persian sample headlines which are shown in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 The frequency of the verbal headline types in the English and Persian corpora

As can be noticed in Table 4.2, the large majority of headlines were finite in the English

headlines (74.34%) and in the Persian ones (81.25%).

4.1.1.1.1.2. Nominal headlines

Considering the information presented in Table 1, the English and Persian headlines were

significantly different in the case of nominal headlines. 75.73% of the headlines in

Persian and 4.67% of those in English were nominal headlines.

Nominal headlines in the English and Persian sample headlines were analyzed in terms

of unmodification, premodification, postmodification and pre [+] post modification.

The frequency of different types of nominal headlines in the sample headlines are

shown in Table 4.3.

English Persian

Type of verbal headlines

N % N % Finite 559 74.34 143 81.25 Non­finite 14 1.87 6 3.41 Omitted auxiliary 148 19.68 0 0 SCs 13 1.72 21 11.93 SA 18 2.39 6 3.41 Total 752 100 176 100

Type of nominal headlines English Persian

N % N % Unmodified 12 21.42 2 0.11 Premodified 27 48.21 14 0.79 Postmodified 16 28.58 1743 98.80

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 110

Table 4.3 Observed

frequency of

different types of nominal headlines in the English and Persian corpora

Table 4.3 shows that most nominal headlines in the English sample were premodified

(48.21%), while postmodification was high in the Persian corpus (98.80%). Unmodified

nominal headlines were comparatively few. They were, however, more found in the

English nominal headlines (21.42%) than in those of Persian (0.11%).

The different types of premodifiers and postmodifiers and their distribution will be

presented in the following sections.

4.1.1.1.1.2.1. Premodified nominal headlines

Two types of items may precede the head in the English premodified nominal headlines:

closed system and open class premodifiers. The closed system premodifiers can not be

extended by the creation of additional members. The set of open class premodifiers is

extendable, i.e. new items may be added to the class (Jucker 1992; Quirk et al., 1985).

Open class premodifiers preceded the head of the noun phrase in the English and

Persian nominal headlines as Table 4.4 shows.

Table 4.4

Pre[+]postmodified 1 1.79 5 0.28 Total 56 100 1764 100

English Persian Type of open class pre­modifier N % N %

Common noun 11 44 0 0 Proper noun 0 0 0 0 Noun with genitive s 1 4 0 0 Noun with plural s 1 4 0 0

Adjective 14 56 14 100 Total 25 100 14 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 111

Observed frequency of premodifiers in the English and Persian nominal headlines

As shown in Table 4.4, adjectives were the most common type of premodifying items

in both English (56%) and Persian (100%) headlines. The other items which were

preceded the noun phrase head of the English headlines were common nouns (44%),

nouns with genitive s (4%) and nouns with plural s (4%).

4.1.1.1.1.2.2. Postmodified nominal headlines

As indicated by Table 4.3, the Persian corpus had a high number of postmodification in

nominal headlines (98.80%) compared with the English ones (28.58%).

Different kinds of postmodifications in the nominal headlines of English are presented in

Table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Observed frequency of postmodification in the English nominal headlines

As appears from Table 4.5, prepositional modification was by far the most frequent

type of postmodification in the English nominal headlines.

In the following Table, the frequency of different kinds of postmodifiers in the Persian

headlines is given.

English Type of postmodification N % Restrictive relative clause 2 12.5 Prepositional phrase 12 75 Adverb 2 12.5 Total 16 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 112

Table 4.6 Observed frequency of postmodifiers in the Persian nominal headlines

Table 4.6 shows the different kinds of postmodifiers that occurred in the Persian nominal

headlines such as adverbial phrases (11.42%), nouns (63.63%), prepositional phrases

(7.92%) and adjectives (17.03%).

4.1.1.1.2. Headline types by function

Headlines can be divided into four functional types: statements, questions, commands and

exclamations. The distribution of the functional headline types is shown in Table 4.7.

Table 4.7 Observed frequency of functional headline types in the English and Persian

corpora

As shown in Table 4.7, exclamations, commands and questions were rare in both

samples, where they constituted a part of only 1.5% in the English sample headlines and

0.42% in the Persian ones. As it can be seen from the above Table, statements were the

largest in number of the functional headline types: no less than 98.48% of the headlines

in English sample headlines and 99.58% of those in Persian corpus.

Persian Type of postmodifiers in the Persian headlines N %

Common noun 847 Proper noun 124 Noun with plurals 138

48.59 7.12 63.63 7.92

Adjective 297 17.03 Prepositional phrase 138 7.92 Adverb 199 11.42 Total 1743 100

English Persian Functional headline types N % N % Statements 780 98.48 722 99.58 Questions 7 0.89 0 0 Commands 4 0.50 3 0.42 Exclamations 1 0.13 0 0 Total 792 100 725 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 113

4.1.1.1.3. Complexity in headlines

Headlines can be classified in terms of simple, complex and compound sentences. The

frequency of the headlines in terms of their structure is given in Table 4.8.

Table 4.8 Frequency of sentences classified by structure in English and Persian corpora

According to Table 4.8, in the English and Persian corpora simple headlines

outnumbered any of the compounds and complex ones.

4.1.1.1.3.1. Headlines with more than one free structure

In headlines with more than one free structure, verbal, nominal, or adverbial structures

may occur together.

The following Table (4.9) shows the occurrence of headlines with more than one free

structure in the English and Persian corpora.

Table 4.9 Observed frequency of free structures in the English and Persian corpora

In both samples, a high number of nominal + verbal structures can be seen, 76.27% in

the English headlines and 72.72% in the Persian ones. The results obtained from the

English Persian Headlines classified by structure N % N % Simple 682 86.11 714 98.48 Complex 33 4.16 0 0 Compound 77 9.72 11 1.5 Total 792 100 725 100

English Persian Headlines with more than one free structure N % N % Verbal + verbal 0 0 0 0 Verbal + nominal 12 20.34 0 0 Nominal + nominal 2 3.39 3 27.28 Nominal + verbal 45 76.27 8 72.72 Total 59 100 11 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 114

Table 4.27 indicate that the Persian headlines had 27.28% nominal + nominal headlines

and the English ones had 3.39%.

4.1.1.1.3.1.1. Edited and unedited quotations

Headlines with more than one free structure may be divided into two subtypes: edited

quotation and unedited quotation headlines.

The following Table shows the distribution of edited and unedited quotations in the

English and Persian corpora.

Table 4.10 Frequency of edited and 'unedited' quotations

Table 4.10 reveals that unedited quotation headlines were more frequent in both English

(66.11%) and Persian headlines (72.72%).

4.1.1.1.4. Verb phrases in headline structures

In terms of the structure of the verb phrase, headlines divided into finite clauses, non­

finite clauses, and verbless clauses. Table 4.11, shows the percentage of these three

clauses in the English and Persian corpora.

Table 4.11 Frequency of clauses classified by structure of verb phrase in the corpora

Table 4.11 shows that finite clauses were frequently used in the English headlines,

numbering 549 and occupying 69.32%. Non­finite clauses and verbless clauses occurred

English Persian Type of free structure headline N % N % Edited quotation 20 33.89 3 27.28 'Unedited' quotation 39 66.11 8 72.72 Total 59 100 11 100

English Persian Clauses classified by structure of verb phrase N % N % Finite 549 69.31 143 19.73 Non­finite 172 21.72 6 0.83 Verbless 71 8.97 576 79.44 Total 792 100 725 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 115

21.85% and 8.83% respectively in the English corpus. In the Persian headlines, the use of

verbless clauses (79.44%) was favored much more than the other two.

4.1.1.1.5. Headline length

The length of the headlines was calculated in terms of the average number of words per

headlines.

Table 4.12 Average length of a headline in terms of number of words

The figures obtained were about 7 and 5 words for the English and Persian headlines

respectively.

4.1.2. Second level of analysis

The second level of the analysis consisted of the lexical features of the headlines across

and within the two languages.

4.1.2.1. Lexical features

The analysis of lexical features of headlines was carried out in three levels whose results

are presented and tabulated in the following sections.

4.1.2.1.1. Parts of speech in sample headlines

Words are classified into ten parts of speech as follows: noun, verb, article, adjective,

adverb, numeral, article, conjunction, pronoun, and preposition.

In order to have a clear picture of words used in headlines, the researcher made an

investigation of the frequency of different parts of speech in the sample headlines the

results of which are shown in Table 4.13.

English Persian Length of words in headlines N Mean N Mean Number of the whole words 5231 4146 Number of headlines 729 7.17 725 5.71

Adverb 41 0.80 4 0.09 Adjective 541 10.59 604 14.34 Article 63 1.25 34 0.80

Conjunction 83 1.64 82 1.93 Modal 58 1.15 1 0.02 Noun 2758 53.97 2740 65.12

Numeral 118 2.30 111 2.62 Preposition 569 11.15 480 11.40 Pronoun 41 0.80 8 0.19

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 116

Table 4.13 Frequency of different parts of speech in English and Persian headlines

From among the aforementioned parts of speech used in headlines, nouns and verbs are

dealt with in the following sections.

4.1.2.1.1.1. Nouns

Nouns are one of the most important parts of speech (Lock, 1996). This has been

confirmed by the information given in Table 4.13. As the table indicates, the frequency of

nouns prominently outnumbered that of any other parts of speech, 53.97% in the English

sample headlines and 65.12% in the Persian ones. Because of the importance of nouns in

headlines, an analysis was done to examine such features as common and proper nouns.

In Table 4.14, the frequency of distinct features of nouns in the sample headlines is given.

Table 4.14 Frequency of nouns in the English and Persian corpora

Verb 840 16.45 143 3.39 Total 5112 100 4207 100

English Persian Nouns N % N % Abbreviation 105 3.82 0 0 Acronym 113 4.09 0 0 Proper noun 441 15.99 647 23.62 Common noun 2099 76.10 2093 76.38 Total 2758 100 2740 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 117

As can be seen in Table

4.14, abbreviations

and acronyms seem to be

more in the English sample

headlines, about 3.82% and

4.09% respectively but

not in the Persian corpus.

4.1.2.1.1.2. Verbs

Because of the importance of verbs in headlines, an investigation was done on the

frequency of the occurrence of verbs in the English and Persian corpora.

Table 4.16 shows that verbs occurred 16.45% and 3.39% in the English and Persian

sample headlines respectively, which was the second biggest group of words used in the

English headlines. So in this section, the features of the verbs used in headlines will be

analyzed.

4.1.2.1.1.2.1. Dynamic and static verbs

What follows are the observed frequencies (Table 4.15) of these two kinds of verbs in

both sample headlines.

Table 4.15 Frequency of dynamic and static verbs in the English and Persian sample

headlines

From the Table 4.15, it is clear that there are many more dynamic verbs than static verbs

in both English and Persian sample headlines. In the sample headlines 95.35% in the

English Persian Tense forms N % N %

Present 519 79.61 50 29.42 Past 30 4.61 91 53.53 Unmarked (SCs + SAs) 31 4.75 27 15.89 Future 50 7.66 1 0.58 Present progressive 22 3.37 0 0 Present perfect 0 0 1 0.58 Total 652 100 170 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 118

English and 67.83% in the Persian corpus were dynamic verbs while static verbs occurred

4.65% and 32.17% in the two samples respectively.

4.1.2.1.1.2.2. Tense and aspect forms

Different kinds of tense and aspect forms were investigated in the corpora. What follows

is the output of this analysis.

Table 4.16. The distribution of tense and aspect forms in the English and Persian corpora

Comparing the English and Persian headlines as to the proportion of tense forms, the

English headlines had a higher proportion of present tense (79.61%) than the Persian ones

(29.42%) while past was more frequent in the Persian sample (53.53%) than in the

English (4.61%).

Besides tense, the aspects used in the headlines were analyzed. As can be seen, in both

sample headlines, the non­

progressive forms were far

more frequent than the

progressive forms. Only 22

instances of the progressive form ­3.37% of the English verbal headlines­ were found in

the corpus.

Many headlines are unmarked for tense. As Table 4.16 indicates, unmarked tense forms

occurred in both English (4.75%) and Persian (15.89%) headlines

4.1.2.1.1.2.3. Voice

The distribution of active and passive patterns in the English and Persian headlines is

shown in Table 4.17.

Table 4.17 Frequency of passive and active headlines in both samples

English Persian Verbs N % N % Dynamic 801 95.35 97 67.83 Static 39 4.65 46 32.17 Total 840 100 143 100

Voice English Persian N % N %

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 119

As Table 4.17 shows, 86.84% of the verbal headlines in the English samples and 96.59%

of those in the Persian ones were active constructions and about 13.16% and 3.41% in

passive patterns in the English and Persian samples respectively.

3.1.2.1.4. Word syllables of headlines

What follows is the output of the analysis of nouns (Table 4.18) and verbs (Table 4.19)

according to their syllables in the English and Persian corpora.

Table 4.18. Observed frequency of nouns with different syllables in the English and

Persian corpora

Table 4.19 Observed frequency of verbs with different syllables in the English and

Persian corpora

4.1.2.1.2.1. Omission of verb ''be''

Table 4.20 demonstrates the observed frequency of ''be'' omission in the sample headlines.

Table 4.20 The frequency of the omission of verb 'be' in the corpora

Active 653 86.84 170 96.59 Passive 99 13.16 6 3.41 Total 752 100 176 100

English Persian Nouns with different syllables N % N % Mono syllabic noun 1367 49.57 1987 72.51 Bisyllabic noun 1013 36.73 753 27.48 Polysyllabic noun 378 13.70 0 0 Total 2758 100 2740 100

English Persian Verbs with different syllables N % N %

Mono syllabic verb 579 68.91 71 49.63 Bisyllabic verb 230 27.39 72 50.37 Polysyllabic verb 31 3.7 0 0 Total 840 100 143 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 120

Information given in Table 4.20 indicates that the verb ''be'' as a linking verb and as an

auxiliary verb was left out about 17.32% and 82.68% respectively in the English

headlines.

The

linking

verb which

was

omitted in the Persian headlines was the word "æst", which was left out completely of

total omissions of the verb "be."

As a whole, 208 different types of the verb "be" were needed in the English headlines

but there were only 29 cases in which they were used. It shows that about 86.05% of the

verb "be" was omitted. In the Persian headlines, the tendency was to use the verb "æst"

(63.02%).

Table 4.21 The frequency of verb 'be' in the English headlines

Table 4.22 The frequency of verb 'æst' in the Persian headlines

English Persian Omission of verb 'be' N % N % 'be' as a linking verb 31 17.32 æst 27 100 'be' as an auxiliary verb 148 82.68 0 0 0 Total 179 100 27 100

English verb 'be' Need

ed appear Frequency of omitted 'be'

Frequency of the usage of 'be'

'be' 208 29 86.05 13.95

Persian verb ' æst ' Need

ed appear Frequency of omitted 'æst'

Frequency of the usage of 'æst'

'æst' 73 46 36.98 63.02

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 121

4.1.2.1.2.2. Omission of ''say''

The word "say" sometimes is omitted and replaced by colons in headlines (Baddock,

1988).

Table 4.23 displays the occurrence of the word ''say'' and also its omission in both sample

headlines.

Table 4.23 Observed frequency of the usage and omission of 'say' in the corpora

Table 4.23 demonstrates that the omission of the word ''say'' was preferred in both

English (75.65%) and Persian (100%) headlines.

5. Conclusion

Based on the results of the study, the most important quantitative similarities and

differences between the English and Persian headlines were deduced as follows:

The headlines of the two languages were similar in the following areas:

­ Dominant use of nouns: The use of nouns prominently outnumbered that of any other

parts of speech in both English (53.97%) and Persian (65.12%) headlines.

­ Preference for dynamic verbs: In the sample headlines 95.35% of verbs in the English

and 67.83% of those in the Persian data were dynamic verbs.

­ Preference for the use of active voice: 86.84% of the verbal headlines in the English

sample and 96.59% of those in the Persian one were active constructions.

­ Frequent omission of words: The verb 'be' was omitted in both English (86.05%) and

Persian (36.98%) headlines and also the omission of the word 'say' was preferred in the

English (75.65%) and Persian (100%) corpora.

­ Preference for short words: Mono syllabic nouns were used in both English (49.57%)

and Persian (72.51%) headlines.

English Persian Usage and omission of "say" N % N % Usage of ''say'' 19 24.35 0 0 Use of colon 55 70.52 11 100 Use of dash 4 5.13 0 0 Total 78 100 11 100

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 122

­ Dominance of declarative sentences: The use of statements was the largest in number of

the functional headline types in both English (98.48%) and Persian (99.58%) headlines.

­ Expansion of simple sentences: 86.11% of the headlines in the English sample and

98.48% of those in the Persian corpus were simple sentences.

­ Preference for the use of unedited quotations: Unedited quotation headlines were

frequent in both English (66.11%) and Persian headlines (72.72%).

­ Preference for finite clauses: Finite clauses were frequently used in the English

headlines (74.34%) and the Persian ones (81.25%).

The headlines of the two languages were different in the following areas:

1. Acronyms and abbreviations were highly used in the English headlines but not in the

Persian ones.

2. Tense in Persian headlines did not follow the English verb system. In general, the

Persian headlines were not different from those of ordinary, non­headline language.

3. There were more present tense forms in the English headlines: 79.61% vs. 29.42% in

the Persian ones, whereas past tense forms were more common in the Persian headlines

(55.48%) than in the English ones (4.41%).

4. Frequent omissions of certain words such as omission of articles, “and”,

“people/person”, “pronoun” and "that" were major features of English headlines.

5. In the English corpus the use of monosyllabic verbs (68.93%) was preferred by the

reporters, whereas in the Persian sample headlines, the use of compound verbs was more

than the simple ones (50.37% and 49.63% respectively).

6. Verbal headlines were more frequently used in the English sample headlines (94.82%)

than in the Persian ones (23.44%). English and Persian headlines were significantly

different in the case of nominal headlines (4.67% and 76.56% respectively). The

placement of verbs by nominalization was characteristic of the Persian headlines.

7. In a comparison between the English and Persian newspaper headlines, it appears that

postmodified nominal headlines were almost four times more frequent in the Persian

headlines (98.79%) than the English ones (28.58%), whereas premodified nominal

headlines were more found in the English (48.21%) than in the Persian headlines (0.80%).

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 123

8. There were only 4 (0.51%) adverbial headlines in the English sample headlines but

none in Persian ones.

9. Exclamations and questions (0.13% and 0.89% respectively) occurred in headlines of

English corpus but not in the Persian sample.

To sum up, it was concluded that the headlines of English and Persian languages were

similar in using dynamic verbs, active voice, short words, declarative sentences, finite

clauses, and simple sentences and different in the use of tense forms, headline types,

modification, and omission of words.

5.1. Implications of the English and Persian headlines comparison

The results of contrasting English and Persian headlines have pedagogical implications

for teaching journalistic English and translation.

5.1.1. Implications for teaching journalistic English

Teachers can benefit from the findings of the analysis of headlines in Persian and English.

It can assist the teacher to be aware of the structural conflicts of the headlines of the two

languages and, as a result, help his students get a better understanding of the language of

headlines.

An EFL teacher of reading journalistic English with relevant contrastive information can

be a better language teacher in a shorter period of time than a person without such

information.

Knowledge of the syntactic and lexical features of headlines helps teachers to use them

as a guide to their teaching. The teacher who is familiar with the similarities and

differences between Persian and English headlines will know better what the real learning

problems are and can better provide for teaching them.

5.1.2. Implications for teaching translation

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 124

Knowledge of the learners' language and its differences and similarities with the

second/foreign one is of practical teaching use in many ways, one of which is translation.

In order to translate the English headlines, EFL students should have a good command

of headline features of both languages. As Lefevere (1992) says, "the first rule for EFL

translators is to know both languages well" (p. 121).

By recognizing the lexical and syntactical features of the headlines and the differences

of their distributions across Persian and English, the elements that may hinder the

Iranians' headlines comprehension can be determined. For instance, this study illuminated

that the omissions of certain words can create hurdle for comprehending the English

headlines. Knowledge of these difficulties can aid the students in understanding the

language of headlines.

Contrasting English and Persian headlines can help learners become more conscious of

the features of headlines in the two languages and avoid problems in the use of either,

especially when they translate.

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“You will come when?” The pragmatics of certain questions in Cameroon English 1

Daniel Nkemleke, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany

Bio Data: Daniel A. Nkemleke, Ph.D., is senior lecturer in English Language and Linguistics in the Department of English in Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) of the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. He has over 12 years of experience in ELT and has published in a number of refereed journals including World Englishes, English World­Wide, Nordic Journal for African Studies and Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics etc. He teaches the following courses in ENS: TEFL, academic writing and functional English syntax. His research interest includes text (corpus) linguistics and writing and since 1992 he has been involved in a project to build a written and spoken corpus of Cameroonian English. He is presently a guest researcher in the Department of English of the Technische Universität Chemnitz (Germany), having been awarded a 12­month research fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to further develop his Cameroonian corpus.

Abstract This contribution discusses how some Cameroonians perform the speech act of “asking” in informal contexts. Data used for the study is derived from transcripts of taped conversations and recordings from personal encounters. In all, 160 examples of “questions” (of the type “you will come when?”) that could not fit any of the categories of questions in native English as outlined in Quirk et al (1985) are analyzed. In a cross­ linguistic perspective, I demonstrate that the “you will come when­type” questions reflect similarities found in Cameroonian home languages of the Bantu origin, spoken by all interlocutors from whom the data was obtained. Furthermore, the paper contends that interplay of the syntax of these home languages and English may be responsible for the questions of the type stated above. The paper concludes that speech act research of this nature may guide teachers to design teaching materials that specifically address the nature of spoken interaction in interpersonal communication.

Key Words: Pragmatics, questions, informal contexts, Cameroon English, pedagogic relevance

1 I am thankful to the anonymous reviewer for useful suggestions made on the first version of this article. I also wish to acknowledge the encouragement of John Adamson of TLJ. This study was conducted during a research stay in TU Chemnitz, made possible by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH).

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1. Introduction

A lot of research has been done on the contextual coordinates of language organisation

(cf. Levinson, 1983; Leech, 1983) and one such contextual coordinate is speech act

theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969). For example, research has shown that there are

significant cross­cultural differences in the way that “similar” speech acts are performed

in different cultures and languages (see Carrell and Konneker, 1981; Cohen and Olshtain,

1981). Scholars such as Sridhar (1986, 1989a, 1991), Kachru (1982, 1983, 1990), Smith

(1983) and D’souza (1987) have in various ways focused on the pragmatic aspects of

variation in English in the Outer Circle. Sridhar (1989a), for example, examined how the

speech act of requesting is performed in Indian English. This current investigation

follows this tradition and examines how some Cameroonians perform one specific type of

speech act, namely asking questions in informal contexts.

2. Background

The semantics and pragmatics of questions has long been the subject of linguistic

exploration. There are several types of questions in English: yes­no questions, wh­

questions, alternative questions, tag questions, declarative questions, exclamative

questions and rhetorical questions (see Quirk et al, 1985; Lisa Lai­Shen, 1997). A brief

discussion of these forms of questions is necessary here.

Yes­no questions are usually formed by placing the operator before the subject and

giving the sentence a rising intonation. Also the addressee is usually expected to supply a

truth value by specifying “yes” or “no”. Other possible answers indicating various

degrees of certainty do exist (see Biber et al, 1999). The addressee may choose to say

“definitely”, “certainly” etc. as an alternative to a “yes” response, for example. Again,

s/he may supply additional information to a “yes” or “no” response. For example, in

response to a question: Would you come for dinner this evening? a possible answer could

be No; I am too busy this evening. It is also important to note, however, that yes­no

questions are often used for purposes other than asking information (see Biber et al,

1999) 2 . Yes­no questions often use assertive or non­assertive forms. Questions which

2 Biber et al (1999) explain that the interrogative structures in the following examples express an exclamation: Isn’t that lovely! Isn’t that, that terrible! (p. 207).

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have positive orientations are said to be assertive and those that employ “any” and “ever”

are non­assertive. The difference between the two can be illustrated with the examples

below.

a. Did someone call yesterday?

b. Has the train left already?

c. Did anyone call last night?

d. Have you taken your visa yet?

The first two questions (a­b) have a positive orientation and are therefore assertive.

According to Biber et al (1999), assertive questions have a bias towards an underlying

positive proposition in which an assertive form such as “somebody”, “someone” or

“already” would appear. The use of the assertive words (italicized) in a­b above (rather

than the non­assertive form “yet” as in d, for example), suggests that the speaker is

already inclined to assume that the truth of the assertion is positive (i.e. anticipating a

yes­response). The last two questions (c­d) on the other hand, are non­assertive because

they leave open whether the answer is positive or negative. In fact, Quirk et al (1985:808)

observe that questions with ‘non­assertive forms point to common ground between

questions and negative statements’.

The wh­questions are usually marked by the presence of one or more of the

interrogative words who, whom, which, whose, what, where, when, why, how, or their

compounds in –ever: whoever, whatever etc (see Huddleston, 1988, p. 366). Quirk et al

(1985, p. 817ff) state two rules that govern the realisation of this type of questions. Firstly,

the Q­element (i.e. clause element containing the Q­words) generally comes first in the

sentences. Secondly, the Q­word itself takes first position in the Q­element. For example,

On what did you base your forecast? What did you base your forecast on?

Another type of question in native English is the alternative question. An alternative

question is one whose reply includes one of two or more options (alternatives) present in

the question, as the example below illustrates.

e. Would you like ↑oranges, ↑mangoes, or ↓bananas?

A possible reply here could be: I prefer some oranges. This type of alternative question is

structurally similar to a yes­no question (because it opens with an operator which is

followed by the subject), although it also differs from it in two ways. First, the response

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in an alternative question cannot be “yes” or “no” (as in a yes­no question), but rather one

of the choices provided in the question. Second, instead of the final rising tone (as it is the

case with a yes­no question), the alternative question may contain a separate nucleus for

each alternative: a rise (represented by ‘↑’) occurs on each item in the list, except the last,

on which there is a fall (represented by ‘↓’), indicating that the list is complete.

According to Quirk et al (1985, p. 823), this difference of intonation between the

alternative question and a yes­no question is important, in that ignoring it can lead to

misunderstanding­ as the contrast between the replies below indicates (examples from

Quirk et al p.823, with intonation signs modified):

f. alternative: A: Shall we go by ↑bus or ↓train? B: By ↓Bus.

g. yes­no: A: Shall we go by bus or ↑train? B: No, let’s take the ↓car.

Biber et al (1999, p. 208) explain that some alternative questions are related in function

to wh­questions in that they both have interrogative clauses which ask for specification of

an unknown element. However, in the case of the alternative question this specification of

the unknown is represented by listed alternatives and in the case of the wh­question it is

represented by a wh­word. The example below (taken from Biber et al, p. 208) is used to

illustrate both contexts 3 .

h. Which one should I use, the blue or the pink?

Since an alternative question by definition presupposes the truth of only one of the

propositions, the wh­question (or component) of the example above is followed by

elliptical alternative questions (...the blue? or ... the pink?), from which the addressee

may choose one.

Declarative questions (DQ), exclamatory questions (EQ), rhetorical questions (RQ) and

tag questions (TQ) constitute a relatively less perceptible category of questions in English.

In fact, Quirk et al (1985, p. 825) refer to them as ‘minor questions’. Their status is not

easily defined in terms of an auxiliary or wh­word as in the other categories just

discussed above. The DQ is identical in form to a statement, except for the final rising

question intonation: You’ve got the telephone ↑card? The EQ is a question in form, but is

functionally like an exclamation. The most characteristic type is a negative yes­no

3 Biber et al (1999, p. 208) observe that an alternative question and a wh­question may combine in the same context. Note, however, that the examples for alternative questions provided by Biber et al are not marked for intonation (cf. compare f and g above from Quirk et al).

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 132

question with a falling instead of a rising tone: Hasn’t she ↓grown! The RQ is one which

functions as a forceful statement. More precisely, a positive rhetorical question is like a

strong negative assertion, while a negative question is like a strong positive one: Is that

the reason for ↑hopelessness? (Surely that is not the reason), Is no one going to ↑assist

me? (Surely someone is going to assist me). TQ consists of an operator plus a pronoun

with or without a negative particle. The choice and tense of the operator are determined

by the verb phrase in the superordinate clause (e.g. The plane hasn’t left, has it? Peter

recognized you, didn’t he?).

In the article, I concentrate on one peculiar type of question in Cameroon colloquial

speech, which for lack of a better expression I would call “you­are­coming­when­type”

(“you­wh”) question. The “you­wh” questions are similar to the yes­no questions and wh­

questions in that the type of responses that are expected for yes­no and wh­questions in

English are also expected in the “you­wh” type. However, the “you­wh” type questions

are different in that the wh­word is usually placed at the final position and the auxiliary is

somewhere in the medial position. In Standard English (SE) the ‘locus of interrogation’

(Hedberg and Sosa 2001) of a yes­no question is rather the fronted auxiliary. For example:

Q: “Mama is in the house”? (Cameroon English colloquial speech (= auxiliary at the clause medial position)

Q: “You are coming when”? (Cameroon English colloquial speech (= wh­word at the clause final position)

Standard English would phrase these questions as:

Q: Is mama in the house? (Fronted auxiliary) Q: When are you coming? (Fronted wh­word)

3. Data

The data used in this current investigation is derived from two sources. The first major

source is a transcript of taped conversations from where the “you­wh” type questions

(comprising 123 examples) were taken. These conversations were recorded

surreptitiously in the city of Yaoundé over a period of 18 months (September 2002 to

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March 2004) by a group of three graduate students in the Department of English of the

University of Yaoundé I. The group was equipped with a pocket tape­recorder, and had to

tape the conversations of fellow students and other adults in and out of the university

campus on topics either initiated by them or in which they were witnesses or participants.

These informants were of different educational and social background (students, teachers,

businessmen, administrators), but all of them can roughly be described as having attained

at least high school education. More than 50 per cent of them were university students.

All the informants spoke at least one home language of the Bantu family plus Pidgin

English. The majority of them could speak French also since most of the data was

collected in the capital city­ Yaoundé, where French (one of Cameroon’s official

languages) is the dominant language. The following places were targeted: the university

restaurants, students’ residential quarters and other social gatherings such as students’

cultural meetings, community gatherings, etc. These taped conversations were later on

transcribed. The other (minor) source of data was my own personal recordings based on

personal daily encounters with students and non­students in and out of campus. I have

marked these recordings as “personal observation” in the discussion. Up to 37 examples

were obtained in this way. In all, this study is based on a database of 160 “you­wh”

question types.

4. Analysis

The discussion here is in two parts. Firstly, I will discuss the “you­wh” questions, with

focus on two response types, namely (i) where the simple affirmative/negative answer is

required, and (ii) where some kind of information is required. These two response types

correspond to those of the yes­no questions and wh­questions (already mentioned above:

cf. Quirk et al 1985) respectively. Secondly, I will show how the “you­wh” pattern of

“asking” is analogous to a similar pattern of asking questions in four Cameroonian home

languages of the Bantu origin.

“You are coming when­type” questions

As already mentioned, the “you­wh” types of questions do not have the same structure as

yes­no­ and wh­questions in English. To evaluate them as questions requires pragmatic

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knowledge of the context within which they are used. The examples (1­11) below

illustrate these types of questions. (Note that SE stands for Standard English.)

(1) A: My red pen I cannot see. “Please you have my pen?”

B: Yes! This is the pen (TPE1.02).

Context: in a classroom sitting on the same desk.

SE: ‘Please do you have my pen?’

(2) Alóo! Who’s speaking? OK! “You are coming to Yaoundé when?” (TPE1.03)

Context: a telephone conversation.

SE: ‘When are you coming to Yaoundé?’

(3) A: You wait until you see me before you start pretending to WORK!

B: NO MADAM (in a chorus).

A: “You have finished the work?” (TPE2.02)

Context: an exchange between a teacher and her pupils in a local school down town.

SE: ‘Have you finished the work?’

(4) A (Teacher): Ok please put up the chart on the board Essam.

B (Student): (Essam moves towards the blackboard and as he fixes the chart).

A: Now! See the food items on the chart. “You eat in the morning before coming to

class?”

B: I ate bread and cheese this morning before coming.

A: That’s right, next (pointing at the dormant section of the classroom).

(Personal observation)

Context: a student teacher on practice teaching in a classroom in Yaoundé.

SE: ‘Do you eat in the morning before coming to class?’

(5) A: Please give me Martin’s paper.

B: What? I will keep it! “He is your brother?” (TPE2.04)

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Context: in a classroom when a teacher was giving back scripts of a previous

assignment.

SE: ‘Is he your brother?’

(6) A: Tuesday afternoon is a good day you can come to our house…because I don’t want

Pa to be in you see. He will be in church…..

B: “The members of your family are going to church everyday?” (TPE4.04)

Context: a conversation between two friends. One is extending an invitation to the

other on a certain Tuesday he knows his father is supposed to be in church.

SE: ‘Do members of your family go to church everyday?’

(7) “The name of our literature teacher is what?” (TPE3.03)

Context: a new student inquiring to know the name of a new teacher he has not met

before.

SE: ‘What is the name of our literature teacher?’

(8) “Mary’s situation was how when you took her to the hospital?” (TPE5.04)

Context: a conversation among students in a residential area.

SE: ‘How was Mary’s situation when you took her to the hospital?’

(9) “The night watchman was where when the thief came?” (TPE4:04)

Context: a group of onlookers watch how a thief broke into a local provision store and

took away valuable things.

SE: ‘Where was the night watchman when the thief came?’

(10) A: “Yesterday you were where?”

B: I was in throughout.

A: But I came to your place and didn’t see you! (TPE4.04)

Context: a conversation between two students.

SE: ‘Where were you yesterday?’

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(11) A: “The food is too salty?”

B: No! Mama it is OK.

Context: A mother at lunch table with her husband and children.

(Personal observation)

SE: ‘Is the food too salty?’

These examples exemplify a typical questioning pattern that one finds in most informal

settings in Cameroon. The interrogative utterances marked by a question sign (?) all

perform the same discourse­pragmatic function­ that of asking for a simple response in

either affirmative/negative or providing some kind of information. This interpretation is

reached because of one basic consideration without which such a reading would be

untenable. This consideration seems to relate to the structure of the utterances themselves.

That is, they all reflect the interrogative structure of home languages (Bantu in this case)

as I will show in the next section.

To further assess the degree of recognition of these interrogative forms, I decided to

cross­check some of the transcribed utterances with a selected group of 23 people (8

secondary school teachers, 5 university teachers, 5 graduate students, 5 workers in

government offices). They were required to use an adverb of frequency to respond to the

question: How often do you hear people ask questions of the type “You are coming when”?

The results of this assessment are presented in Table1 below.

Table 1: Recognition rating of “you­wh” type questions in Cameroon

Assessment of regularity by informants Range of “you­wh” type questions

Often (%)

Sometimes (%)

Rarely (%)

Never (%)

“He said that what?”, “That is what?” 23 (100) ­ ­ ­

“Is what?”, “Is who?” 23 (100) ­ ­ ­

“You will eat?” 23 (100) ­ ­ ­

“You want what?” 20 (87) 3 (13) ­ ­

“You are going to where?” 17 (74) 6 (26) ­ ­

“You are calling for me?” 15 (65) 6 (26) 2 (9) ­

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“The students are where?” 14 (51) 9 (39) ­ ­

“You are where?” 13 (57) 7 (30) 3 (13) ­

“You prefer which one?” 12 (53) 7 (30) 4 (17)

“There is electricity in your village?” 11 (48) 4 (17) 8 (35) ­

“The book is where?” 10 (43) 12 (52) 1 (5) ­

“The children have taken supper?” 9 (39) 8 (35) 4 (17) 2 (9)

“The man is suffering from AIDS?” 9 (39) 7 (30) 4 (17) 3 (13)

“You are coming to my house?” 8 (35) 8(35) 5 (21) 2 (9)

“There are people in the hall?” 8 (35) 5 (21) 2 (9) 8 (35)

As Table 1 above shows, there is a high degree of acceptance rating of the “you­wh” type

questions by my informants. Most of them selected the adverb with the highest frequency

rating in the list (“often”) for their responses. We can therefore conclude that this

approval rating is indicative of the general picture of what happens in most informal

contexts in Cameroon.

We can easily situate the prevalence of the type of questions discussed above within the

context of the spread of English into new territories and cultures, which have

linguistically dependent communicative norms. Innovation and/or nativization of the

native English wh­questions and yes­no questions formulation as evident above (1­11)

may therefore be seen as a consequence of this expansion of English. One of the felicity

conditions for interpreting utterances of this nature as question denotation in discourse

situations is the fact that the interlocutors share a common linguistic or verbal repertoire.

According to Kachru (1990, p. 57) the terms ‘linguistic repertoire’, ‘code repertoire’ and

‘verbal repertoire’ are used more or less identically to refer to the same range of codes

which members of a speech community have available for their linguistic interaction.

Because each code repertoire has what Scherer and Giles (1979, p. xxxiv) refer to as

‘markers’ or ‘clues’ (cf. Trudgill, 1984, p. 14), the concept of linguistic repertoire may

also refer to the repertoire of styles from substrate languages 4 . Understandably, therefore,

4 Substrate (substratum) refers to a linguistic variety or set of forms which has influenced the structure or use of a more dominant variety or language within a community (see Trudgill 1984 Ch. 3). In the context of this study, the home languages and to a certain extent Pidgin English and French are substrates.

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one would assume the interplay between Cameroonian home languages and, to a certain

extent, other languages of wider communication (e.g. Pidgin English and French) 5 in

Cameroon as having influenced the realization of “you­wh” type questions. The next

section presents some examples of how interrogative questions are realized in four

Cameroonian home languages of Bantu origin, spoken by my informants 6 . The examples

were selected from a short text I asked these informants to translate from English into

their home languages.

Interrogative utterances in some Cameroonian home languages

As the examples (12­24) below illustrate, the four Cameroonian home languages are

similar in the way they form interrogative questions. First, the translated question in the

home language is given, followed by a literal translation of it into English (in square

brackets) and the Standard English version (in parentheses), respectively.

Kenyang

(12) Wә rәŋ fǎ?

[“You going where?”]

(Where are you going to?)

(13) Bǎ bέŋә wә nà?

[“You are called what?”]

(What is your name?)

(14) Mә ǎ di yirέ?

[“Child is crying what?”]

(Why is the child crying?)

(15) Mә mna yǎ àtchi àŋyәbέ?

[“My mother’s child is in the house?”]

(Is my mother’s child in the house?)

5 A Pidgin English rendition of the SE question When are you coming to Yaoundé? (ex. 2 above) would be: “You de come Yaoundé when”? Equally, most Cameroonians would use the French version: “Tu viens à Yaoundé quand”? rather than “Quand venez­vous à Yaoundé”? 6 These informants were my 4 th year students of the 2003/2004 academic year in the School of Education of the University of Yaounde I.

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Itάŋkom

(16) Wà ndu wó?

[“You go where?”]

(Where are you going to?)

(17) Ìjin i zέ nt ?à ndàال

[“Name you is who?”]

(What is your name?)

(18) Wàjn nt ndzt الà?

[“Child is crying what?”]

(Why is the child crying?]

nŋwέ

(19) Nnwa tse ndèy kõ?

[“Child is crying what?”]

(Why is the child crying?)

(20) Lelen lo là kõ?

[“Your name is what?”]

(What is your name?)

(21) Ndõ gè à ndia?

[“Brother you is in the house?”]

(Is your brother in the house?)

Mbetta

(22) Ò kéh là?

[“You going where?”]

(Where are you going to?)

(23) Di loňg lè bèh zéh?

[“You name is what?”]

(What is your name?)

(24) Múeh à shi zéh?

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[“Child is crying what?”]

(Why is the child crying?)

As the examples above show, the realization of interrogative questions in Cameroonian

home languages is quite different from their realization in Standard English. Whereas in

English the “locus of interrogation” of a wh­question is the fronted wh­word (e.g. 12­13),

and the “locus of interrogation” of a yes­no question is the fronted auxiliary (as in 15 and

21), in Cameroonian languages it is not the case. It is obvious that home language

interrogative structure is responsible for the realization of the “you­wh” questions

presented above. These influences have been frequently found in students’ writing in

Cameroon 7 .

5. Concluding remarks

This current contribution is an interesting discovery of the subtle innovative ways in

which the speech act of “asking” is performed by some people in informal situations in

Cameroon. The investigation is relevant in two respects. Firstly, it adds to the existing

body of literature on creative usage in Cameroon English (see also Nkemleke, 2004,

2006a). Secondly, it further re­emphasises the point (already made in several other

studies, e.g. Sridhar, 1989b;1991) that speech act research in L2 contexts may provide

useful insights into the bilingual’s speech patterns and the range and depth of the

contextualization of English in these areas. This may have implications for other

disciplines, namely literacy planning, issues of intelligibility and inter­cultural

communication and more importantly, formal language instruction.

Language is not necessarily a collection of correct sentences (good as that is), but rather

it is a form of practice and of doing things. While we probably insist on students speaking

and writing in a certain manner (“Standard”) for purposes of cross­cultural

communication, it is also important that practising teachers in bilingual /multilingual

settings should try to enrich the English language teaching and learning game by

incorporating pragmatic questions into their curricula. The questions are, for example,

7 Nkemleke (2006b:35) cites exmples such as big book, big school (literally ‘studying in the university’) and when I came university etc., from students’ essays, which are direct translation from home languages.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 141

why do people speak/write the way they do? What do they imply when they speak/write

in certain ways? What is it that they have not mastered? These questions may address

topics related to performance phenomena in conversational English and the

constructional principle of conversational grammar (see Biber et al, 1999, Ch. 14).

Hence, the view of language as action and interaction, and on this basis other issues such

as formality and informality of context, semantic and pragmatic correctness could be

introduced into the classroom.

References

Austin, J.L. (1962). How to do things with words. London: Oxford University Press.

Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad, & E. Finegan (1999). The Longman

grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman

Carrell, P. L., & B. H. Konneker (1981). Politeness: Comparing native and non­native

judgements. Language Learning 31(1), 17­30.

Cohen, A. D., & E. Olshtain (1981). Developing a meaning of sociocultural competence:

The case of apology. Language Learning, 31(1), 113­34

D’souza, J. (1987). South Asia as a sociolinguistic area. PhD Dissertation, Department of

Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana.

Hedberg, N. & Sosa, J. (2001). The prosodic structure of topic and focus in spontaneous

English dialogue. Paper presented at the Linguistic Society of America Workshop on

Topic and Focus, University of California at Santa Barbara, July 2001.

Huddleston, R. (1988). Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Kachru, B. B. (1982). The other tongue: English across cultures. Urbana: University of

Illinois Press.

Kachru, B. B. (1983). The Indianization of English: The English language in India. Delhi:

Oxford University Press.

Kachru, B. B. (1990). The alchemy of English: The spread, functions, and models of non­

native Englishes. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Lai­Shen, L. (1997). On the typology of WH­questions. New York: Garland Press.

Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.

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Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nkemleke, D. (2006a). Nativization of dissertation acknowledgements and private letters

in Cameroon. Nordic Journal for African Studies, 15(2), 166­184.

Nkemleke, D. (2006b). Some characteristics of expository writing in Cameroon English.

English World­Wide: A Journal of Varieties of English, 27(1), 25­44.

Nkemleke, D. (2004). Job applications and students’ complaint letters in Cameroon.

World Englishes, 23(4), 601­11.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum S., G. Leech and J. Svartvik (1985). A comprehensive grammar of

the English language. London: Longman.

Scherer, K. & H. Giles (eds.). (1979). Social markers in speech. London: Cambridge

University Press.

Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech act: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Smith, L. E., (ed.). (1983). Readings in English as an international language. Oxford:

Pergamon.

Sridhar, K. K. (1991). Speech acts in the indigenized variety: Socio­cultural values and

language variation. In Jenny Cheshire (Ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic

perspectives (pp. 308­18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,.

Sridhar, K. K. (1989a). Pragmatic differences between native and indigenized varieties:

Requesting in Indian English. In J. Walsh (Ed.), Synchronic and diachronic

approaches to linguistic variation and change (pp. 326­41). Georgetown University

Round Table on Language and Linguistics 1988. Washington D.C: Georgetown

University Press.

Sridhar, K. K. (1989b). English in Indian bilingualism. Delhi: Manohar.

Sridhar, K. K. (1986). The pragmatics of South Asian English. In R. Baumgardner (Ed.),

South Asian English: Structure, Use, and Usage, (pp. 141­157). Urbana and Chicago:

University of Illinois Press.

Trudgill, P. (1984). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction: 2 nd ed. London:

Penguin.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 143

Does Exposure to Second Spoken Language Facilitate Word Reading Ability?

Raphiq Ibrahim University of Haifa and Cognitive Neurology Unit

Rambam Medical Center, Haifa

Bio Data: Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim is a cognitive and neuropsychologist interested in visual and auditory word perception, language and bilingualism and hemispheric specialization for higher cognitive function. He lives in the Galilee region in Israel and works in research and teaching. He is a lecturer at the Learning Disabilities Department of Haifa University and, in addition, works as a Neuropsychologist in the Cognitive Neurology Unit at Ramba Medical Center in Haifa. Among the courses he teaches are: Integrative Introduction to Language Acquisition, Spoken Language, an Introduction to Developmental Neuropsychology, Psychological and Neuropsychological Assessment, and Verbal Information processing in Arabic: Processes and Disabilities.

Abstract This study examines the relationship of reading skills to previous exposure to a second language. Its purpose is to provide direct evidence of a causal role for bilingualism in reading acquisition. Single word reading, connected text measures, and vocabulary measures are compared among three groups of first graders of monolingual Hebrew speakers, bilingual Russian­Hebrew speakers and monolingual Arab speakers. One­way ANOVA and correlations between the measure of reading speed and errors of text and measures of vocabulary are compared in Hebrew and Arabic groups. The results reveal that language experience affects reading, as Russian­Hebrew bilinguals are faster and more accurate in reading text than monolingual Hebrew children, and both are better than Arabic children. It was concluded that exposure to a second language in early childhood positively affects reading skills at the first­grade level. This finding concurs with other reports showing that bilingualism is a powerful predictor of the speed and effieciency of reading acquisition (Da Fontoura and Siegel, 1995).

Key words: Single word reading, connected text measures, vocabulary measure, Russian­Hebrew bilinguals, Hebrew monolinguals, Arab speakers

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 144

Introduction

Focusing on reading performance and the variables that influence it have revealed strong

correlative relations with language experience. The majority of previous investigations of

the relationship between bilingualism and reading ability were conducted in English and

other Indo­European languages. The general pattern of the effects of bilingualism is that

bilinguals achieve higher scores than monolinguals on tests of arbitrariness (Ben­Zev,

1977; Edwards & Christofersen, 1988) and phonological awareness (Dash & Mishra,

1992), and lower scores than monolinguals on tests of vocabulary size (Doyle,

Champagne & Segalowitz, 1978). Concerning phonological awareness, many studies

have demonstrated that children’s performances in various phonological awareness tasks

are strongly related to the acquisition of reading skills in English (Bradly & Bryant, 1985;

Tunmer & Nesdale, 1986), Italian (Cossu, Shankweiler, Liberman, Katz, & Tola, 1988),

French (Bertlson, Morais, Alegria, & Content, 1985), Spanish (de Manrique & Gramigna,

1984) and Hebrew (Share, Jorm, Maclean, & Matthews, 1984). As for the focus of this

study, that is the vocabulary size, a number of researchers have found that monolingual

children have a larger vocabulary than bilingual children in the dominant language (e.g.

Abudarham, 1997; Doyle et al., 1978). The fact that bilinguals achieve lower scores in

vocabulary when compared to monolinguals is due to the fact that they use their

languages in different contexts and therefore develop only the necessary vocabulary in

these contexts. With the necessity of sharing their language experiences between two

languages, bilinguals have fewer opportunities to experience the vocabulary of either, and

consequently achieve lower scores in comparison to monolinguals in both their first and

second languages. This is compatible with Grosjean’s (1989) claim that a bilingual is not

two monolinguals in one person and the two language systems–in terms of linguistic

processing as well as linguistic representations– cannot be identical in all respects (see

also Grosjean, 1998). This interpretation, however, does not mean that bilinguals always

are lacking vocabulary knowledge. Grosjean explained that in a bilingual mode, once a

base language has been chosen, bilinguals can bring in the other language (the "guest" or

"embedded" language) by shifting completely to the other language for a word, a phrase

or a sentence. The other way is to borrow a word or short expression from that language

and to adapt it morphologically (and often phonologically) into the base language. Thus,

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 145

unlike code­switching, borrowing is the integration of one language into another. In this

type of processing, the bilingual extends the meaning of a word to correspond to that of a

word in the other language and thus creates a new meaning. This become part of a new

language and different vocabulary. What I do suggest is that these comparisons between

bilinguals and monolinguals are important but of limited usefulness for the purposes of

this study.

In a former study, Eviatar and Ibrahim (Eviatar & Ibrahim, 2001) examined the effects

of the relationship between a bilingual's languages and the emergence of metalinguistic

skills in childhood. They used the following logic: given that bilingual children reveal

heightened metalinguistic abilities as a result of acquiring two rather than one linguistic

systems, do preliterate and newly literate Arab children evince this effect before they

have been exposed to any other language? They tested samples of monolinguals

(Hebrew), bilinguals (Hebrew and Russian) and Arabic speaking kindergarten and first

grade children. The Arabic speakers’ first language was spoken Arabic and they were

exposed to Literary Arabic via children’s books, television, and formal instruction in

kindergarten and first grade. The Russian­Hebrew bilingual children came from Russian­

speaking homes and studied in Hebrew at school. They showed higher performance

levels in metalinguistic tests compared to monolinguals, and it was concluded that

Arabic speaking children who are exposed to Literary Arabic behave as bilinguals.

Characteristics of Arabic and Hebrew

In Hebrew and Arabic, both of which are Semitic languages, all verbs and most nouns are

written primarily as consonantal roots that are differently affixed and voweled to form the

words of the lexicon (Berman, 1978). Despite this similarity, there are interesting

differences between Arabic and Hebrew. Formally, Arabic has two forms: Literary

Arabic and Spoken Arabic, but there is a need for clarity in describing these different

varieties of Arabic, especially when discussing skills. Literary Arabic is universally used

in the Arab world for formal communication and is known as “written Arabic”. Since this

phrase adds the element of culture (literature) to the picture and is not relevant to this

psycholinguistic study, the well­known phrase "Modern Standard Arabic" (MSA) is more

appropriate. The predominant form of Spoken Arabic, on the other hand, is one of a

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 146

number of local colloquial dialects but also includes, in certain contexts which vary from

one Arabic­speaking region to another, spoken MSA. The statement “Arabic has two

forms” is controversial. Many modern linguists (Badawi, 1996) have pointed out that

absolute categories do not describe the language­situation in Arabic with sufficient

accuracy. While there may be two “poles” at either end of a linguistic spectrum, Arabs

use a multitude of different levels of Arabic; Badawi himself identifies six major “levels”

of language in common use in the Arab world, very contextually determined (and very

different from one region to another). He also argued the case that “spoken Arabic has no

written form” claiming that there are large numbers of plays (and a few novels) written

partly or entirely in colloquial dialect. However, he admitted that the dialects are

languages of day­to­day communication and are not generally used in written form.

Furthermore, popular preachers and political leaders regularly use colloquial dialect in

their speeches, while such language­use is considered totally inappropriate in other parts

of the Arabic­speaking region. Although sharing a limited subgroup of words, the two

forms of Arabic are phonologically, morphologically, and syntactically somewhat

different. For example, certain vowels (such as ‘e’ and ‘o’) exist in Spoken Arabic, but

not in Literary Arabic; in Spoken Arabic, words may begin with two consecutive

consonants or with a consonant and a ‘schwa’, while this is not permitted in Literary

Arabic; the two forms utilize different inflections (such as plural markings) and different

insertion rules for function words; also, the two forms have different word order

constraints in sentence structure. As Spoken Arabic has no written form, Literary Arabic

becomes part of everyday life. It is the language in which news is reported (both written

and orally) and the language of prayer and of public occasions. This added complexity is

found in several characteristics that occur in both orthographies, but to a much larger

extent in Arabic than in Hebrew. The first has to do with diacritics and dots. In Hebrew,

dots occur only as diacritics to mark vowels and as a stress­marking device (dagesh). In

the case of three letters, this stress­marking device (which does not appear in

unvowelized scripts) changes the phonemic representation of the letters from fricatives

(v, x, f) to stops (b, k, p for the letters פ ק ב respectively). In the unvowelized form of the

script, these letters can be disambiguated by their place in the word, as only word or

syllable initial placement indicates the consonant stop. In Arabic, the use of dots is more

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 147

extensive: many letters have a similar or even identical structure and are distinguished

only on the basis of the existence, location and number of dots (e.g., the Arabic letters

representing /t/ and /n ( ) become the graphemes representing /th/ and /b/ (

) by adding or changing the number or location of dots.

The second characteristic of the two orthographies is that some letters are represented

by different shapes, depending on their placement in the word. Again, this is much less

extensive in Hebrew than in Arabic. In Hebrew there are five letters that change shape

when they are word final: ( ם ­ מ , ן ­ נ , ץ ­ צ , ף ­ פ , ך ­ כ ). In Arabic, 22 of the 28 letters in the

alphabet have four shapes each (for example, the phoneme /h/ is represented

as: ). Thus, the grapheme­phoneme relations are quite complex

in Arabic, with similar graphemes representing quite different phonemes, and different

graphemes representing the same phoneme. Ibrahim, Eviatar, & Aharon­Perez (2002)

have shown that adolescent native Arabic­Hebrew bilinguals process Hebrew letters

faster and more accurately than Arabic letters.

The other important issue is written vowel materials. In Arabic and Hebrew, there are

four letters which also specify long vowels, in addition to their role in signifying specific

consonants. However, in some cases it is difficult for the reader to determine whether

these dual­function letters represent a vowel or a consonant. When vowels do appear (in

poetry, children's books and liturgical texts), they are signified by diacritical marks

above, below or within the body of the word. Inclusion of these marks specifies the

phonological form of the orthographic string, making it completely transparent in terms

of orthography/phonology relations. As the majority of written materials do not include

the diacritical marks, a single printed word is often not only ambiguous between different

lexical items (this ambiguity is normally solved by semantic and syntactic processes in

text comprehension), but also does not specify the phonological form of the letter string.

Thus in their unpointed form, Hebrew and Arabic orthographies contain a limited amount

of vowel information and include a large number of homographs. In their unpointed form,

Hebrew and Arabic orthographies contain a limited amount of vowel information and

include a large number of homographs. As the homograph phenomenon is very common,

several studies have tested the role of vowels and their influence on reading. Frost (1994)

showed that presentation of voweled words facilitates naming of even non­homographic

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 148

words in Hebrew in skilled readers. Abu­Rabia and Siegel (1995) found that poor readers

in Arabic rely on context for word recognition more than skilled readers (as in English).

One of the questions that was discussed in recent studies is what good readers do to

distinguish themselves from poor readers. Kintsch (1998) claimed that readers apply

prior knowledge when they read, in order to build an overall meaning structure of the text.

In doing so, each text element is processed and the new proposition is added to the text

and integrated. Kintsch asserts that the integration that takes place at sentence boundaries

is likely to fill the working memory and in the next sentence it must be cleared to make

place for it. What has been constructed is transferred later to long term memory except to

those propositions that are retained due to their relevance for further processing.

Anderson (1995), claimed that both skilled and poor readers seemed to use the same kind

of strategies during reading. This seems to indicate that strategic reading is not a matter

of knowing what strategy to use, but of how to use the strategy successfully and

orchestrate its use with other strategies. According to Anderson, poorer readers are aware

of the right kinds of strategies to use but may not know how to determine if they are

successful in applying the strategies. Also, beginner learners may know what strategies to

use but, due to a lack of vocabulary, may not have a strong enough language foundation

to build on.

The Present Study

The present study focuses on first grade children from the Jewish (Hebrew monolinguals

and Russian­Hebrew bilinguals) and Arab populations in Israel, presenting them with two

types of reading tasks: text reading measured by reading rate and accuracy, and single

word and nonword reading measured by errors because of the difficulty of measuring

reading time. It is important to note that the monolingual groups were tested in their

native languages. The Russian­Hebrew bilinguals did the reading tests in their second

language. This came about because the Russian­Hebrew bilinguals do not learn how to

read Russian. I hypothesize that the relative weight of language experience may affect

both groups differently.

All the participants completed a test of vocabulary size. Given that bilinguals tend to

have smaller vocabularies than monolinguals (in both their languages) (Abudarham,

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 149

1997; Doyle, Champagne & Segalowitz, 1978), I tested whether the relationship between

vocabulary and reading skills would be affected by language experience. The second

group of Arabic speakers were members of the Druze minority and called Arabic

speakers. Although socio­economic data on our participants were not collected

specifically, the overall socio­economic status of the Jewish and Druze villages from

which our samples were taken was similar (according to the Central Statistical Office in

Israel).

Method

Participants

The participants were 59 children sampled from three population groups in the northern

region of Israel. These populations differ in native language and in their language

experience: 20 monolingual native Hebrew speakers (10 males), 19 children of Russian

immigrants (9 males), where the language spoken at home is Russian and the children are

bilingual in Russian and Hebrew, and 20 native Arabic Druze speakers (10 males). All

the children from each population were in the first grade. Only children aged between 6

years 10 months and 7 years 3 months were included in the study. All the participants live

in villages. The Hebrew­speakers and Russian­Hebrew bilinguals live in the same large

village (population=10,000), and attend the village state schools. The lifestyle, language,

and social norms of Israeli Hebrew­speakers are similar to those of Russian­Hebrew

bilinguals who were born in Israel. In that regard, the proficiency of Russian­Hebrew

speakers in Hebrew is the same as that of monolingual Hebrew speakers since they have

undergone the same time period of exposure to Hebrew. The fact that the parents of

Russian children are immigrants has no effect on their attitudes toward Hebrew or on

their alliance with native Jews since they have a similar ideology of being Israeli citizens,

having been successfully integrated into Israeli society. Russian immigrants have close

contact to each other and to Israeli Jewish society. Despite some normal adjustment

problems, the overall socio­economic status of the Russian­Jewish children is similar to

native Jewish children and they attend a mixed Hebrew school. Both the monolingual and

bilingual Hebrew speakers are taught in Hebrew and were tested in Hebrew. The Arab

children attended Arab and are taught in Arabic; they are not exposed to Hebrew. For this

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 150

reason they were tested in Arabic. None of the children suffer from known neurological,

emotional or attention disorders. Only children without a known reading disability were

tested.

Materials

Vocabulary Test

The vocabulary subtest from the translated versions of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale

for Children­Revised (WISC­R) (Wechsler, 1974) to Hebrew and to Arabic was used (see

Appendices a, b). The vocabulary subtest is considered the best single verbal measure of

vocabulary tests appeared in the literature and of general intelligence on the WISC­R

(Searls, 1985). The vocabulary was assessed with open­ended questions where the child

was presented with a word and asked to explain what it means in his/her own words. Raw

scores were used, where easy items receive scores of either 0 or 1, and more difficult

items receive scores between 0 and 2. The maximum score is 36. There are 22 items in

the test.

Reading Tests

Text Reading

The texts were constructed in collaboration with the teachers of the first grade classes in

the respective schools and were designed to reflect the expected level of reading at each

testing time. The text was unknown but taken from the reading book. The text in both

Arabic and Hebrew consisted of 47 pointed words. The text did not contain any unlearned

letters or vowel marks. The child was told, “You are going to see a new text that you

have not seen before, but it is no more difficult than what you are used to reading. You

should read it as quickly as possible but try not to make errors”. The reading session for

each subject was recorded for later coding of reading time and errors.

Single Word and Nonword Reading

Separate word and nonword reading tests were compiled. For both words and nonwords,

two subtests were created, one including 12 single syllable stimuli and one with 12 two­

syllable stimuli. The children were presented with each list and asked to read the words.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 151

The words were presented in unpointed form, and all forms of the homographs were

accepted as correct readings. The children were told that some of the stimuli would not be

real words. All the sessions were recorded for later coding.

Procedure

All the children were tested individually in a relatively quiet room at school. Each session

was 40 minutes long and the tests were given in a fixed order in each session: final

phoneme identification, initial phoneme identification, phoneme/syllable deletion,

vocabulary test and reading tests.

Each test was preceded by practice trials to verify that the child understood the task.

During the practice trials, the children were given feedback and, when necessary, the task

was explained again and further examples were given. No feedback was given during the

experimental trials. All the sessions were recorded for later transcription and coding. The

Russian­Hebrew bilinguals performed the reading tests in their second language while the

monolinguals read in their first language.

Results

Text reading times and number of errors are illustrated in the middle panels of Figure 1.

The analysis for reading time (RT) of the text revealed a significant effect of language

experience, F (2,56)=7.65, p<0.005, with Russian­Hebrew bilinguals showing the faster

RT (M=112 sec.), Arab children having the slowest RT (M=191 sec.), and monolingual

Hebrew children between (M=127 sec). Planned comparisons revealed that the reading

times of the Hebrew monolinguals and Russian­Hebrew bilinguals did not differ from

each other (p>0.48) and that the reading times of both differ significantly from those of

Arabic readers (Arabic readers vs. Hebrew monolinguals: F (1,56)=9.0, p<0.005; Arabic

readers vs. Russian­Hebrew bilinguals, F (1,56)=13.41, p<0.001).

The same statistical analysis for the number of errors in text reading revealed a similar

pattern. The language experience effect was found to be significant, F (2,56)=5.29,

p<0.01, with the Russian­Hebrew bilinguals making the smallest mean number of errors

(M=3), Arabic readers making the highest mean number of errors (M=8.6), and

monolingual Hebrew speakers between (M=5.6). Planned comparison revealed that the

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 152

Hebrew monolinguals and Russian­Hebrew bilinguals did not differ from each other

(p>0.14) and that both differ from the Arabic readers (Russian­Hebrew bilinguals vs.

Arabic readers: F (1,56)=10.52, p<0.005; Hebrew monolinguals vs. Arabic readers:

F(1,56)=3.22, p=0.08).

Figure 1: Top panels: Score of the three groups in the tests of vocabulary. Error bars are

standard deviations. Middle panels: Reading text measures. Error bars are standard

deviations. Bottom Panel: Number of errors in single item reading. Error bars are

standard deviations.

Vocabulary

0

5

10

15 20

25

30

35

Hebrew monolinguals

Russian­ Hebrew bilinguals

Arabic speakers

language group

# co

rrect

Text Reading Speed

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Hebrew monolinguals

Russian­ Hebrew bilinguals

Arabic speakers

RT

Errors in Text Reading

0 2 4 6 8

10 12 14 16

Hebrew monolinguals

Russian­ Hebrew bilinguals

Arabic speakers

# errors

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1­syllable 2­syllable 1­syllable 2­syllable

nonw ords w ords

# errors

Hebrew monolinguals Russian­Hebrew bilinguals Arabic speakers

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 153

The measure of Vocabulary Test for the sample in this study is illustrated in the top

panel of Figure 1. The Vocabulary Test revealed a significant main effect of language

experience, F(2,56)=10.97, p<0.0001. Here the Hebrew monolingual group achieved

significantly higher scores than both the Russian­Hebrew bilinguals (F(1,56)=16.78,

p<0.0001) and the Arabic speakers (F(1,56)=15.98, p<0.0001), while these groups did

not differ from each other (p>0.8). This result shows that exposure to the Russian

language in early childhood negatively affects Hebrew vocabulary skills.

Correlation between the measure of reading speed and errors in the text and the

measure of vocabulary were computed. As can be seen in Table 1, vocabulary extent is

not related to text reading speed accuracy for Russian­Hebrew bilinguals, but is

significantly related to both speed and accuracy for monolinguals and to text reading

speed for Arabic­readers.

Table 1: Correlations between measure of vocabulary and mean text reading time (RT)

and errors (ER). Only significant correlations are shown (p<0.05).

Hebrew monolinguals

N=20

Russian­Hebrew bilinguals

N­19

Arabic readers

N=20

Text reading RT ERR RT ERR RT ERR

Mean 127 sec 5.6 112 sec 3.1 190 sec 8.6

SD 69.2 6.4 55.7 4.1 74.1 5.0

Vocabulary ­0.55 ­0.52 NS NS ­0.54 NS

Separate one­way analyses of variance for each of the single one and two syllable word

and nonword lists were computed, with number of errors as the dependent variable and

language experience as the independent variable. These means are illustrated in the

bottom panel of Figure 1. Language experience approached significance only for the list

of two syllable words, F (2,56)=2.91, p=0.06, where the Arabic readers made the smallest

mean number of errors while Russian­Hebrew bilinguals and monolingual Hebrew

speakers made more mean errors. In general, the trend was that children reading Arabic

made fewer errors than children reading Hebrew. Correlations between vocabulary and

single word and nonword reading are listed in Table 2. It can be seen that vocabulary

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 154

extent is related to single word and nonword reading only for the monolingual Hebrew

readers.

Table 2: Correlations between measure of vocabulary and number of errors in single

word and nonword reading. Only significant correlations are shown (p<0.05).

Hebrew monolinguals

N=20

Russian­Hebrew

Bilinguals

N=19

Arabic readers

N=20

Single items words nonwords words nonwords words nonwords

Vocabulary 1­syllable items

NS ­0.44 NS NS NS NS

2­syllable items ­0.45 NS NS NS NS NS

In order to examine more closely the contribution of vocabulary to reading, regression

analyses for each of the reading measures were computed. The most salient aspect of

these data is that the vocabulary measure predictive of text reading ability and the

regression model of vocabulary measure showing the percentage of variance explained

the situation to a greater degree for the monolinguals, to a significantly smaller degree for

the Arabic speakers, and not at all for the Russian­Hebrew bilinguals. The results of the

same type of regression analyses for single word and nonword reading are shown in the

right section of Table 3. Here it can be seen that vocabulary measures predict the variance

in word reading for all the groups, and in nonwords to a lesser extent.

The results suggest that there may be a dissociation between the type of reading task,

text or single stimuli, and language experience. Therefore, correlations between the

performance of the children on the text reading tasks and on the single stimuli reading

tasks were computed. These are presented in Table 3. Here it can be seen that there are

large positive correlations between the two types of reading tasks for the monolingual and

bilingual Hebrew readers, and only one, much smaller correlation between the two types

of tasks for the Arabic readers.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 155

Table 3: Correlation co­efficients between measures of text reading (RT and errors) and

number of errors in single word and nonword reading. Only significant correlations are

shown (p<0.05).

Text RT Text errors

Single

Items Monoling ual

Hebrew

readers

Bilingu al

Hebrew

readers

Arabic

readers

Monoling ual

Hebrew

readers

Bilingu al

Hebrew

readers

Arabic

readers

1­

syllable 0.72 0.53 NS 0.86 0.58 0.49

words

2­

syllable 0.82 0.68 NS 0.89 0.67 NS

1­

syllable Ns 0.53 NS 0.44 0.56 NS

nonwords

2­

syllable 0.76 0.62 NS 0.77 0.77 NS

Discussion

The present study explores the relationship between language experience and reading

skills in first grade. To elaborate on this issue, I asked if there is an advantage in

bilinguals over monolinguals that carries over to reading performance. As expected, I

found that there are large positive relationships between language experience as measured

by our tests and reading performance. This finding joins the list of studies mentioned in

the Introduction that have observed such relationships.

I looked for specific effects of language characteristics and the linguistic history of our

participants on the reading measures themselves and on the relations between these

measures and the vocabulary measure. For text reading, I found that the groups that were

reading Hebrew performed significantly better than the group that was reading Arabic,

while a trend in the opposite direction was found for reading single words and nonwords.

Most importantly, these two types of tasks also gave rise to an interesting dissociation in

their relationship to vocabulary measure. Further analysis showed that the Russian­

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 156

Hebrew bilinguals achieved higher scores on the syllable deletion test than the

monolinguals, while their reading scores were equivalent to those of the monolinguals. In

addition, the data in Table 3 reveal that vocabulary size accounts for almost 30% of the

variance in text reading for monolinguals, but not at all for bilinguals. Thus, it may be

that there are other variables that allow the Russian­Hebrew bilingual children to

compensate for their smaller vocabularies. These finding are consistent with the

observation of Da Fontoura and Siegel (1995) in Portuguese­English bilingual children

and Chiappe and Siegel (1999) in Punjabi­Canadian bilingual children.

An interesting result concerning language group results was that the Arab children had

lower scores than Hebrew monolinguals on the tests of vocabulary, and their performance

on the text reading measures was significantly poorer. In addition, there were strong

correlations between single item reading measures and text reading measures for the

children reading in Hebrew, but not for the children reading in Arabic. Although this was

not measured directly, I interpret both findings as reflecting differential attentional

requirements in the two languages. Thus, in addition to the children’s linguistic history

variable, the charactersitics of the language that the children learned to read constitute an

important variable; however, this falls beyond the scope of this study and a further study

is needed to explore this issue. This supports the hypothesis that the bilingual children

reading Hebrew were paying more attention to the task, as they made fewer errors than

the monolingual children reading Hebrew. However, when the children were reading the

text, a large attentional demand made by a Russian­Hebrew speaker in the letter and word

identification stage resulted in less attentional resources available for the higher

processing of syntax and comprehension. This hypothesis is further supported by

examination of the types of errors made by the bilingual children reading the text in

Hebew, which were mostly inaccuracies related to using false affixes (diacritics or letters)

that generally represent the syntactic roles in the sentence and not false identification of

the word itself.

In conclusion, this study provides additional evidence that exposure to a second

language in early childhood affects reading skills in children in the first grade (Da

Fontoura and Siegel, 1995; Chiappe and Siegel, 1999) and that bilingualism is a powerful

predictor of the speed and effieciency of reading acquisition. In that regard, this study

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 157

adds an important contribution to our understanding of the relation between bilingualism

and literacy development in languages that have some unique features and have not been

extensively investigated.

1 The lifestyle, language, and social norms of the Druze are similar to the Arab natives. Although both groups are characterized by strong native language cohesion, they differ in their identification with the majority (Jewish) group. Based on a historical alliance with the Jewish people, Israeli Druze have close contact with Israeli society on the one hand, and close ties and identification with Arab culture and language on the other hand (Abu­ Rabia, 1996; Seginer & Halabi­Kheir, 1998)

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Edwards, D., & Christophersen, H. (1988). Bilingualism, literacy and meta linguistic

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Frost, R. (1994). Prelexical and postlexical strategies in reading: Evidence from a deep

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Appendix A:

אוצר מלים

אמור לי מה פירוש המילה , שים לב , ע אני רוצה לראות כמה מלים אתה יוד " אמור : הוראות : כשאתה חוזר בכל שאלה , המשך עם שאר המלים בסדר המובא " ? מהי נעל ? ... הזאת נעל

עם ילדים אינטליגנטיים יותר אפשר לוותר על השאלה ? ... או מה פירוש " ? מהו " " ? מה זה " : " אמור , אינה ברורה אם תשובתו של הילד . אחרי המלה השלישית ואז הצג רק את המלה

ה מצוי ה שאינ תשובה . או חזור על השאלה בהדגשת המלה " פרט עוד " " ספר לי קצת יותר אם יש היסוסים לגבי קבילותה של המלה יבקש מהנבדק לתת ו במילונים לא מזכה בנקודות

. הסבר נוסף יבקש הבוחן הסבר , אם מילת ההסבר הניתנת דומה בצלילה אך לא במשמעותה למילה המוצגת

.... " איזה עוד פירוש יש ל : " נוסף באמורו . שלונות רצופים י כ 8 לאחר : הפסק

נעל : מילה דוגמא

: המלים פרווה . 17 מסמר . 9 כובע . 1 ארמון . 18 מטרייה . 10 סכין . 2 גיבור . 19 מכתב . 11 אופניים . 3 לחבר . 20 . התחרות . 12 קוביה . 4 יהלום . 21 בנזין . 13 חמור . 5 אדיב . 22 רימון . 14 עשן . 6

ליבש . 15 משור . 7 לטבוע . 16 מטרייה . 8

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 161

Appendix B:

الثروة اللغوية

اسمعني امنيح وقول لي شو معنى كل كلمة . انا اسا بدي اقواك كلمة " قل : التعليمات ؟ شو ..... شو هذا : وارجع في كل كلمة على سؤال , تقدم في الكلمات حسب ترتيبها ". ؟ .... ؟ شو معنى ..... شو هذا عندما يكون المفحوص على قدر من الذكاء يمكن االستغناء عن هذا النص بعد الكلمة الثالثة وعلى . ؟ .... معنى

أذا كان الجواب غير واضح أو بدل تعريف الكلمة قد يعرف الطفل كلمة اخرى . لمة كما يعرفها الطفل الفاحص لفظ الك ؟ .... شو معنى . اسمع منيح , على الفاحص ان يقول . ال يزكى الطفل بنقاط " جذر " بدل " جزر " مثال , تشبهها في اللفظ

. يجب اال تهجى الكلمة

. مرات من الفشل المتتالي 8 بعد : التوقف حذاء : كلمة نمودج

: ألكلمات قصر . 17 مسمار . 9 قبعة . 1 بطل . 18 مكتوب . 10 سكين . 2 يوصل . 19 مسابقة . 11 دراجة هوائية . 3 احجار كريمة . 20 بنزين . 12 مكعب . 4 يمنع . 21 قنبلة . 13 حمار . 5 مؤدب . 22 تنشيف . 14 دخان . 6

يغرق . 15 منشار . 7 فروة . 16 شمسية . 8

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 162

A Functional Study of the Final Particle mono in Japanese Conversational Discourse

Yan Wang

Bio Data: In 2004, after obtaining her MA degree in Japanese linguistics, Yan Wang embarked upon her Ph.D degree at the department of East Asian Languages and Literature in University of Wisconsin­Madison, USA. The major foci of her research are on discourse analysis and pragmatics, and she has presented papers on Japanese sentence­final particles and “fillers” on several linguistic conferences in the United States. The present study on the sentence­final particle “mono” is based on her MA thesis. She is currently working on her Ph.D. dissertation, which is a comparative study of Japanese and Chinese question forms.

Abstract This study aims at investigating the discourse and pragmatic functions of the sentence­ final particle (FP) mono in Japanese conversations. By employing discourse analysis as methodology, and upon analyzing the structure patterns of mono­utterances in natural conversations, I examined how the FP mono contributes to the cohesion of on­going talks by organizing the sequences, and how it shows speakers’ attitudes towards both propositions and addressees. In particular, the FP mono is divided into two types: 1) The “self­justification mono,” which serves to justify the speaker’s position that has been explicitly or implicitly challenged; and 2) The “other­justification mono,” which supports the position of others, primarily of the prior speaker, who tends to challenge a “third party” outside the conversation. By marking the logic as an inevitable and natural consequence, mono qualifies speakers’ reasoning as generally accepted knowledge located within common grounds. Hence, rather than neutrally providing supplementary information, mono conveys speakers’ subjectivity and thereby functions as a modality marker in conversational discourse.

Key words: sentence­final particle, causal logic, common ground, justification, challenge

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1. Introduction

Mono, a regular noun in Japanese (e.g. Example (1)), has experienced a process of

grammaticalization and is frequently used as a sentence­final particle (FP) (e.g. Example

(2)) in daily conversations (cf. Tanabe, 1998).

(1) Konna mono ga aru.

this­kind thing NOM there­is

‘There is this kind of thing.’

(2) M: Mendoo miru no taihen na n da yo:: Ore moo sonna hima nai mon:: 4

trouble see NML hard COP NML COP SFP I already such leisure NEG

‘It is hard to take care (of her). I don’t have such free time any more mono.’

Yet, the previous studies of mono have been focused on its usage as a connective particle

(e.g. mono no, mono o) or an auxiliary very (e.g. mono da) (e.g. Teramura, 1978; Sadake,

1984; Shinozaki, 1984), while the FP mono has received little attention.

According to Maynard (1991:382), FPs in Japanese typically convey "the speaker's

subjective, emotional and psychological attitude toward the speech act itself or toward the

interlocutor". Traditionally, the FP mono is seen as a self­justification marker occurring

in conversations between participants with an intimate relationship in an informal

situation (cf. Sakuma, 1952). Recent studies (Takashi, 1994; Hashimoto, 1998, 2000)

have identified mono as a “modality” indicator.

In the present study, I investigated the usages/functions of the FP mono in actual

interactions with the methodology of discourse analysis and argue that 1) in different

contexts, the FP mono can be used not only for justifying the speaker’s own position, but

also for supporting the addressee’s opinion or assertion; 2) it not only serves as an

“expressive” marker showing the speaker’s emotions or attitudes, but also functions in

discourse for the speaker to organize the sequence of speech acts such as demonstrating

support or justification. I further propose that the various functions of the FP mono in

discourse and interaction are rooted in its semantic source; that is, a causal logic, which is

a natural and inevitable antecedent­consequence relationship located within the “common

ground” of the conversationalists.

The database of this study draws from two sources. The first source includes 12 two­

party face­to­face conversations arranged between young native Japanese speakers. 5 The

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participants include 8 males and 16 females with ages ranging between 20s and 30s.

Most of the speakers were intimate friends except for one pair who were young couples.

All the speakers speak so­called hyoojun­go “standard language” or kyootsuu­go

“common language” most of the time. The conversations were arranged in

informal/casual settings where the participants were asked to make “free conversations”

without specific topics or tasks assigned. Each of the conversation lasts about 10­30

minutes and all the conversations were video taped. Among each conversation, about 5­

10 minutes of segments were transcribed for investigation. The second source is the

conversational data book Shufu No Isshuukan No Danwa Shiryoo “One­week

Conversational Materials of Housewives” (Ide, 1984), which provides rough transcripts

of conversations among the members of one Japanese family and between housewives

whose ages were 30s to 50s. Both sources involve natural interactions. In total, 72 cases

of FP mono were obtained and investigated. 6

2. Previous studies

Most of the dictionaries (e.g. Gendaigo no joshi/jodooshi –yoohoo to jitsurei, Daijirin)

state that the FP mono is used for the speaker to explain the reason with emotions such as

fuman “dissatisfaction”, fuhei “discontent”, urami “hatred”, amae “dependency”.

Sakuma (1952) emphasizes the function of uttae “appealing” in the usages of the FP

mono, that is, mono is used to express the speaker’s attitude or emotion toward the

addressee. Later on, the function of “appealing” was interpreted in terms of “modality”

by Takashi (1994) and Hashimoto (1998). The question is: why does mono can carry the

speaker’s such emotion or attitude toward the addressee?

Tsubone (1996) attempts to give a coherent interpretation of the usage of mono by

employing the concepts of ippansee “normality” and seitooka “properness.”

(3) Watashi wa sugu ayamaru wa. Kenka nanka shitakunai mono.

I TOP immediately apologize FP quarrel FI do­want­NEG

‘I apologize immediately. I don’t want to do things like quarrel mono.’

According to Tusbone (1996), Example (3) can be interpreted as “it is normal or proper

to apologize if (you) don’t want to quarrel.” It implies that there is a commonly accepted

logic indicated by the FP mono. Unfortunately, Tsubone overlooks the logic and fails to

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figure out how it works for the various usages of the FP mono. Also, as Hashimoto (1998)

criticizes that the concepts of “normality” and “properness” are unable to account for all

the cases of the FP mono.

In contrast, Takashi (1994) claims that there exists a “causal relationship” between S1

and S2 — S1 is the condition and S2 is the natural consequence of what is described in

S1, which is syntactically embedded in all the uses of grammaticalized mono (1994, p. 6).

Using Takashi’s notion of “causal relationship,” Example (3) can be analyzed as

“Because I don’t want to do things like quarrel, I apologize immediately.” Furthermore,

Takashi points out that the causal relationship is the “core meaning” (context­free

meaning) of mono, from which the diverse extended meanings (context­bound meanings)

are derived. Regarding the extended meanings, the FP mono is identified as a “discourse

modality indicator,” conveying the subjective attitudes of the speaker such as inevitability

and amae “dependency (Takashi 1994, p. 6).” 7

Similarly, Hashimoto (1998) also proposes a so­called hanashite no ronri “the

speaker’s logic” to explain the function of the FP mono. She hypothesizes that the causal

logic used by the speaker of the FP mono for explanation is the speaker’s personal or

subjective logic, in that the speaker believes that his/her reasoning or explanation is

natural and rightful, even though it might be contrary to the facts or common knowledge.

Both Takashi (1994) and Hashimoto (1998, 2000) suggest that the modality marker FP

mono shows the speaker’s emotions or attitude such as dependence, and helplessness,

which are based on the presumption of the addressee’s kindness and willingness to accept

the speaker’s explanation or logic. However, neither Takahashi nor Hashimoto attempts a

systematic analysis to answer the questions such as: Why can the FP mono carry such

positive as well as negative emotions? How are those emotions expressed by mono

related to the causal relationship in different contexts? In addition, it seems that none of

the previous studies provides a systematic classification of different types of FP mono,

and none of them has given a close examination of their actual textual structures as well

as the interactional functions in various contexts. In this sense, the questions concerning

in what texts and contexts the FP mono occurs and how it contributes to organize the

sequence of the speaker’s argument still remain unclear.

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Another problem with those previous studies is their data source. All the previous

studies collect their data from either dictionaries or conversations in fiction texts, which

tend to choose the most typical and normal usage of certain linguistic forms or structures.

Only through examining authentic data can we fully understand how people actually use

language. By doing so, the present study intends to provide a more complete and detailed

discussion of the uses and functions of the FP mono.

3. The semantic meanings ofmono

This section clarifies the basic semantic meanings and implications of the FP mono,

which underlie its various usages and pragmatic functions.

As the previous studies have demonstrated, the FP mono marks a causal logic indicating

an antecedent­consequence relationship between S1 and S2. To avoid confusion, in this

study the logical symbols [p] and [q] are employed to signal the logical relationship. [p]

signals the antecedent, and [q] refers to the consequence. As mentioned previously, the

FP mono is attached to [p] rather than [q].

First, let us reconsider Example (2), which shows a typical case of the causal logic.

(2) M: Mendoo miru no taihen na n da yo:: Ore moo sonna hima nai mon::

trouble see NML hard COP NML COP SFP I already such leisure NEG

‘It is hard to take care (of her). I don’t have such free time any more mono.’

In this example, the speaker M is complaining to F about his own girlfriend, who is

hard to please. Here both [p] and [q] appear in M’s single turn as the structure

[q. p mono]. In M’s assumption, [p]: Ore moo sonna hima nai “I don’t have such free

time any more” provides a reasonable reason/cause for [q]: Mendoo miru no taihen na n

da “It is hard to take care of her” and [q] is a natural consequence of [p]. In other words,

M believes that if a person does not have enough time (to please a spoiled girlfriend),

certainly he will have a hard time taking care of her.

However, in most cases, [p] and [q] occur across turns rather than in single turns. For

instance, in the following example, M told A that in Japanese private school English is

treated as one of the yonkyooka “Four subjects” which are the subjects that are less

stressed in the college­entrance exams. Facing A’s passive response, M further explains

why English is not taken seriously.

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(4)

1 M: De, watashi no itteita shiritsu kookoo no eego tteiu no wa(.)

So I NML was saying private high school NOM English QM NML TOP

2 sono yonkyooka atsukai=

that four­subject treatment

‘In the private school that I had mentioned, English was treated as yonkyooka.’

3 A: =E­::? Yonkyooka ni haitchau no? USOO::::?(Laugh)

four­subject to enter Q lie

‘Eh? It is counted as “yonkyooka”? That’s a lie!’

4 M: Datte kankee nai mon (.) syuusyoku ni

But relation NEG job­hunting to

‘But it has nothing to do with job­huntingmono.’

5 A: A, sokka.

That Q

‘Oh, I see.’

Here, [p]: Datte kankee nai mon (.) syuusyoku ni (Line 4) appearing in M’s extended

turn is separated from her prior turn [q]: watashi no itteita shiritsu kookoo no eigo tte iu

no wa, so no yonkyooka atsukai (Line 1,2) by A’s turn. The causal relationship between

[p] and [q] is explicit: because English is not related to job­hunting, it is put into the

account of “yonkyooka.” [p] provides a reason­explanation for the given assertion [q].

Also, [p] and [q] can appear in different speakers’ turns, in which [q] is usually not

overtly stated by the speaker of the mono­utterance, but is embedded in the prior

speaker’s talk. Example (5) is such an example, in which the husband H blames the wife

W for failing to keep the house clean and W makes an excuse.

(5) H: Sugoku kitanai ne

Extremely dirty FP

‘It is very dirty, isn’t it?’

W: Datte isogashii n da mon.

But busy NML COP

‘But I am busymono.’

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In this case, the consequence or result [q]: Sugoku kitanai “It is very dirty” is contained

in the prior speaker H’s turn instead of W’s own turn. W provides a causal explanation

toward the situation criticized by her husband, that is, “Because I am busy, the room is

dirty (since I don’t have time to clean up).” The logic underlying the FP mono implies

that it is a natural and inevitable consequence for the room to become dirty under the

condition that a person is busy with other things.

Despite [p] and [q] appearing in one speaker’s single turn or across turns, in one

speaker’s turn or across two speakers’ turns, the logic is embedded in the text or implied

in the context. The general structure involving the occurrence of the FP mono can be

illustrated in the following diagram, in which the antecedent [p], marked by the FP mono,

provides explanation or elaboration for the consequence [q], which can be identified in

the prior text or context.

Figure 2 The general structure of the FP mono usage

q (…) p mono However, in some cases, the logic marked by the FP mono seems “illogical” or

“unreasonable” to normal way of thinking. Example (6) provides such an example

involving “illogical” logic. Prior to this sequence, G told Y that one of her male

classmates has invited her to dinner and she hoped that they would not become a couple.

Y gives her own opinion on this issue and provides her own personal experience to justify

her prediction about the development of G and her classmate’s relationship.

(6)

1 Y: A:: demo, koibito ni naru to omou [yo?

But boyfriend to become QM think FP

‘But, I think he will become your boyfriend.

2 G: [Ma:ne::: shiyoo ga nai yone.

Well FP method NOM NEG FP

‘Well, there is nothing I can do.’

3 Y: Un:::

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4 G: Nat temo ne:=

Become even­if FP

‘Even if we become couples’

5 Y: =Watashi datte (.) sore ni natta mon (.) Atashi

I even that to became I ‘I have become somono. I have.’

By claiming things like “since my experience was so, the same thing will happen to

you,” the speaker Y tries to show her belief that the supplementary information she

provides definitely will lead to the consequence described in her previous assertion.

Although the logic sounds subjective or unreasonable, Y assumes that it is a “natural” and

“inevitable” consequence because of the similarity between G’s and her own situations.

Overall, the crucial point about the FP mono is that, no matter how subjective or

emotional the logic is, the speaker seems to imply that the consequence is “normal,”

“natural” and “inevitable,” and the logic is commonly accepted by everyone in the world.

In other words, the antecedent­consequence relationship between [p] and [q] underlying

the usage of the FP mono displays strong nuances of “inevitability,” “regularity” (Takashi,

1994, p. 10), or ippansee “normality”(Tusbone, 1996). Here I argue that such “normality”

or “inevitability” is closely related to the concept of “common ground.”

Typically, “common ground” is defined as “a set of propositions representing what the

participants take to be mutually believed or at least mutually assumed for the purpose of

discourse” (Gunlogson, 2003, p. 27). Agreeing with such a traditional interpretation,

Hashimoto (2000) suggests that the FP mono indexes the so­called “common ground” for

the reason that it marks shared information or common knowledge.

As a matter of fact, in a considerable number of cases (e.g. (4) and (5)) in the present

database, the FP mono can be interpreted as a device marking information that is

obviously or reasonably shared between the conversationalists. Nevertheless, in many

other cases such as (2) and (6), the FP mono also marks information that clearly is not

known or believed to be known by the partner. Let us consider another typical example,

in which the mono­utterance involves unshared information. In the context preceding

example (7), W told M about her recent change in sleeping habits; that is, she now sleeps

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a lot, and gets up very late. In this sequence, W defends herself since she was criticized

by her parents for leading an undisciplined life.

(7)

1 W: Kedo ne::: okorarechatta (0.2)kono mae. Anta:: saikin hiru to yoru ga

But FP was­got­angry this before you recently day and night NOM

gyakuten shitenru no yo::

reversed doing FP FP

‘ But, I got angry with my parents, last time. (They said,) “Your day and night are

reversed recently!”

2 M: Gyakuten shiteru no?=

reversed doing Q?

‘Are you reversed?’

3 W: =Sonna koto nai yo nee:: Datte(.) jyuuni ji da mon:: Jyuuni ji ni neru

Such thing NEG FP FP Because 12 o’clock COP 12 o’clock at sleep

Nanteiu (.) sugoku futsuu da yone:::

QM very normal COP FP

‘There is no such thing. I sleep at 12am mono. Sleeping at 12 am is very normal,

right?!’

4 M: Futsuu dewanai no kamo. Shinnai kedo saa::

normal COP­NEG NML maybe know­NEG but FP

‘Maybe it is not normal. I don’t know.’

Notice that the speaker W uses [p]: she sleeps at twelve o’clock to support her own

preceding claim [q]: “There is no such thing.”(i.e., Her day and night are not reversed).

Obviously, the specific personal information about W’s new sleeping schedule is beyond

M’s “territory of information” (Kamio, 1997); that is, the piece of information falls into

W rather than M’s territory. However, by using mono, W shows her strong belief or

assumption that M must share the same obvious and normal logic and thereby must be

able to infer the consequent from the antecedent. In other words, W expects M to draw

the inference that it is certainly not an undisciplined life style at all if a person goes to bed

at twelve o’clock at night.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 171

Therefore, I suggest that even in cases not involving shared knowledge or information

between the conversationalists, the “common ground” between the speaker and the

addressee is still indexed by the FP mono. In such contexts, instead of marking shared

information, mono marks the implication of the causal logic as a “common ground.” In

fact, even in the examples where the information contained in the mono­utterance is

actually or possibly shared, the FP mono is not meant so much to signal that the speaker

believes the recipient knows the fact, but rather that the speaker believes the recipient

knows the implication of the logic. Through the employment of the FP mono, the speaker

signals to the recipient his/her assumption or belief that “you certainly share the same

logic with me, because it is so obvious and inevitable.”

The “normality” or “inevitability” indexed in the causal logic, which marks the

speaker’s reasoning as a kind of “common ground knowledge” shared by the addressee,

qualifies the FP mono as a “self­justification” marker as well as an “other­justification”

marker and forms the basis of its multiple pragmatic functions.

4. The discourse functions of the FP mono

We have discussed that on the semantic level, the FP mono expresses the speaker’s view

of a kind of natural causal relationship existing in a course of events in a possible world.

This section investigates how the FP mono contributes to the organization of the

sequences where the speakers manage to justify their own or another’s opinion, action or

situation in interaction.

Based on the analysis of the 72 cases in the database, the usages of FP mono are divided

into two types: the first type is “self­justification” which serves to support the position of

the speaker him/herself; and the second type is “other­justification” which functions to

support the position of others, primarily the prior speaker or the addressee. While the

self­justification type occurs in the context where the given or implied position is actually

or potentially challenged, the other­justification type does not necessarily involve

challenge or disagreement except that it often occurs in the context where the prior

speaker challenges a “third party” outside the conversation or the circumstance 8 .

In the 72 tokens of data, the self­justification type dominates the data occupying 48

tokens (67 %), while the other­justification type occupies 24 tokens (33%).

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 172

4.1 Self­justification

According to the data analysis, the “self­justification mono” tends to occur in two kinds

of sequential structures in conversations.

First, the FP mono provides support or justification for the speaker’s own prior

statement, as shown in the following model.

Model <1> of Self­justification

When a speaker presents an opinion or assertion, he/she expects the recipient to show

agreement, which is one kind of “preferred response.” However, in the contexts where

the recipient shows disagreement, raises clarification questions such as “what do you

mean?” or partially repeats the prior talk with a rising intonation, the initial speaker’s

statement is challenged. All these practices indicate the recipient’s lack of agreement to

the prior statement and may foreshadow an upcoming disagreement later in the sequence

(cf. Mori, 1999). If we call explicit disagreement “actual challenge,” those clarification

questions and repetitive questions can be called “suggested challenge” or “potential

challenge” (Maynard: 1992, 1993). In the contexts where the speaker’s position is

challenged, the speaker is capable of being aware of the explicit or potential problems

with the uptake of his/her prior statement and thus tends to add elaborations,

clarifications or justification to support the prior statement.

The previously discussed example (4) provides a typical case of Model <1>.

(4)

1 M: De, watashi no itteita shiritsu kookoo no eego tteiu no wa(.)

So I NML was saying private high school NOM English QM NML TOP

sono yonkyooka atsukai=

that four­subject treatment

‘In the private school that I had mentioned, English was treated as yonkyooka.’

Speaker A: STATEMENT [q] Speaker B: CHALLENGE

(disagreement /clarification questions etc. ) Speaker A: ELABORATION / ACCOUNT [p] mono

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 173

2 A: =E­::? Yonkyooka ni haitchau no? USOO::::?(Laugh)

four­subject to enter Q lie

‘Eh? It is counted as “yonkyooka”? That’s a lie!’

3 M: Datte kankee nai mon (.) syuusyoku ni

But relation NEG job­hunting with

‘But it has nothing to do with job­huntingmono.’

4 A: A sokka.

That Q

‘Oh, I see.’

In the dispreferred response to M’s initial statement, A initiates her disagreement by a

clarification backchannel “Ee­?(eh),” which is followed by repetition of the problematic

point with a rising tone and a strong disagreement expression uso “lie.” Facing A’s

challenge, in the extended turn, M qualifies her prior assertion by explaining the

reason/cause why English receives less attention. Furthermore, as discussed in the prior

section, the attachment of mono grants the speaker’s reasoning a sense of “normality”;

that is, if a subject does not play a role in job­hunting, it is normal and natural to treat it

as a minor subject, so­called “yonkyooka.” The FP mono conveys the speaker’s internal

voices such as “The reason is so obvious, isn’t it?!”

However, explicit disagreement is relatively limited in the communications of Japanese

people. The cases like (8) are more common, in which the recipient S shows attitude of

doubt toward the prior speaker K’s information with a series of questions.

(8)

1 K: Kyoo sakki sa::, [nanka tomodachi ni, (0.3) keetai denwa no mo=

Today right­now FP FI friend to cell phone NML too

‘Today I just called my friend’s cell phone right now.’

2 S: [un

3 K:=Nihon no [tomodachi? Denwa shita no.

Japan NML friend phone do­PST FP

‘I called my friend in Japan.’

4 S: [un un.

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5 Keetai denwa kakeraren no?

Cell phone call­can Q

‘Can you call cell phone?’

6 K: Kakerareru, kakerareru.

Call­can call­can

‘I can. I can.’

7 S: E? Amerika kara keetaidenwa ni kakerare[ru no?

America from cell phone to call­can Q

‘Eh? Can you call to cell phone from America?”

8 K: [Kakerareru kakerareru

call­can call­can

‘I can. I can.’

9 Kaketeru mon date tama: ni (.) hotondo kakenai kedo.

Call­ing because sometimes almost call­NEG but

‘Because I calls sometimes mono. I rarely call, though.’

10 S: Uso:::

Lie

‘That is a lie.’

S’s continuous conformational questions in Line 3, 5, 7 indicate that she does not fully

believe that K’s information about calling cell phone in Japan is true. Given the lack of a

straightforward uptake of his statement, K further justifies himself by providing a piece

of evidence in Line 9— he does call cell phones in Japan occasionally. The FP mono

occurs in such an extensional turn serving for self­justification.

In addition to justify the speaker’s prior statement which has been challenged by the

recipient, the utterances ending with mono can also serve to defend the speaker’s

personal action or situation, which is implicitly embedded in the context. In such cases,

the FP mono appears in the “second pair part” of “an adjacency pair,” (c.f. Schegloff,

1984) while the challenge from the conversationalist occurs in the “first pair part,” taking

the form of a negative comment/evaluation of the mono­speaker’s action/situation or as a

command. In addition, a question­answer adjacency pair is frequently observed, in

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which the inquiree takes the question from the inquirer as a kind of criticism or challenge

and thereby uses a mono­utterance to defend his/her own position in the response.

The structure of those adjacency pairs can be illustrated in Model <2>.

Model <2> of self­justification

The following is one of the examples 9 matching Model <2>, which presents an

illustration of the adjacency pair where the mother M criticizes the daughter for always

making the same mistake in piano practice and the daughter D self­justifies her position.

(9)

M: Anata soko ittsumo yureru kireru kara, soko dake kiotsuke nasai yo.

You there always shake break because there only be careful IMP FP

‘You always shake and break there, so just pay attention there.’

D: Iya. Moo kiotsuke temo moo dame na n da mon

No already pay attention even­if already useless COP NML COP

‘No. Because even if I have already paid attention, it is useless at allmono.

In the second part of this adjacency pair, D responds to M’s criticism and command

with a strong emotional refusal expression iya “no,” which is immediately followed by an

account. Since refusal is a type of “dispreferred response,” the mono­utterance in D’s turn

tends to be seen as a case of “accounts for dispreferred responses.” Although apparently

the mono­utterance accounts for D’s decline of M’s demand, essentially, it functions to

justify or defend D’s challenged situation/action. For the purpose of self­justification, D

prefaces a piece of causal explanation: “Even if I pay attention, I still cannot do it well.

So I do not want to try any more.” Despite the emotionality embedded in the reasoning,

by using mono, D implies that it is natural for people to stop further effort under the

condition that no matter how careful they are, they still cannot avoid making the same

mistakes. Therefore, the FP mono shows D’s attitude of lack of responsibility for the

Speaker B: CHALLENGE (Negative evaluation/critical interrogation/command)

Speaker A: (DISPREFERRED RESPONSE) + ACCOUNTmono

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uncontrollable mistake, and indicates her assumption that M would understand her

helpless situation and forgive her refusal.

So far I have examined the two typical models observed in the cases of self­justification

mono, in which the FP mono is characterized as a device for justifying or accounting for

the speaker’s own position in the context of being “explicitly” or “implicitly” challenged

by another conversationalist. The data analysis further suggests that the speaker’s

emotional attitude such as helplessness or “dependency” is generally indexed in most of

the cases of self­justification. Also, in some cases, both positive and negative attitudes

can be simultaneously conveyed by mono. The FP mono, on one hand, carries positive

nuances such as “I know you will accept my excuse;” on the other hand, it may sound

like blaming the recipient that “You should have known that it is not my fault!” or “Why

don’t you understand me?!” The present study hypothesizes that the various complex

emotions and attitudes indicated by the FP mono are all derived from the “normality” and

“inevitability” of the causal logic and the implication of the “common ground,” which are

embedded in the semantic meanings of the FP mono.

4.2 Other­justification

Both traditional views and previous studies treat the FP mono merely as a device for

managing self­justification. 10 However, in the present database, many cases of mono are

found in non­challenging contexts where the recipient delivers agreement with the prior

speaker. On such occasions, the sentence ended by mono serves to justify or to support

the opinions or evaluations proffered by the prior speaker.

Consider one of the examples which do not have any involvement of challenges: the

conversation participants cooperate with each other by providing supportive assertions or

information. In (10), S, Y and C are housewives in a cooking class, who are talking about

the dish that one of their friends, Nakagawa­san might be fond of.

(10)

1 S: Nakagawa­san suki soo ne. Koo iu mono.

like likely FP this say stuff

‘Nakagawa­san might like,this kind of stuff (food).’

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2 Y: koo iu no ga dai sukina n desu, karashi no.

This say NML NOM very like NML COP spicy NML

‘He likes this kind very much, the spicy one.’

3 C：Datte, osake suki da mon.

because alcohol like COP

‘He likes alcohol mono.’

4 Y: Soo desu ne.

right COP FP

‘That is right.’

5 S：Osake sukina kata wa koo iu mono suki ne

alcohol like person TOP this say stuff like FP.

‘The people who like alcohol like this kind of thing.’

Initially, Y shows support of S’s assertion by claiming that Nakagawa­san may like this

dish since he likes spicy food (Line 2). In order to justify Y’s statement, the speaker C

further provides a piece of additional information that Nakagawa­san likes alcohol with

an ending of the FP mono (Line 3). As the speaker S summarizes at the end of this

sequence (Line 5), the causal logic underlying C’s mono­utterance is that everyone who

likes alcohol certainly likes spicy food, and thereby likes this kind of dish. It is interesting

to see how the interlocutors cooperate with and support each other in this data. The FP

mono helps to establish such a cooperative rapport conversation. Meanwhile, by using

mono, the speaker attempts to show an attitude of “solidarity” with the other

conversational participants by indicating the sharedness of both the information (e.g.

Nakagawa­san likes alcohol) and the causal logic among them.

Similarly, in the following example, no sign of actual or potential challenge among the

participants of the conversation is observed. W is complaining about the topic of the final

paper suggested by their professor. The classmate T agrees with W and provides

supplementary information about the difficulty in data collection to justify W’s opinion.

(11)

W: Sore chotto muri janai?

that a little unreasonable TAG

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‘That is like unreasonable, isn't it?’

T: So::. Datte (.) zenzen tsukawanai mon::

right because completely use­NEG

‘Right. Because (we) don't use it at all mono.’

In this case, the FP mono serves to demonstrate recipient T’s agreement with W. T’s

response is a typical structure of “Agreement­plus­elaboration” (Mori, 1999), in which

she first claims her agreement with W and then qualifies W’s statement by a piece of

supplemental evidence displayed in the mono­utterance. Note that in the mono­utterance,

T joins W’s critique of the professor’s suggestion. Specifically, by using mono, T

prefaces her assumption that W not only shares the knowledge about the logic (i.e., it is

impossible to write a paper if native speakers do not use the expression frequently), but

also shares the feeling of dissatisfaction with the professor’s suggestion. In this sense, the

FP mono serves as a solidarity creator or “positive politeness strategy” (Brown &

Levinson, 1987) to show T’s alignment with W against the professor, who is a “third

party” outside of the conversation, and thereby to elicit W’s feeling as a peer.

In short, as discussed above, in the cases of “other­justification,” [q] is not embedded in

the speaker of the mono­utterance's own prior turn; rather, it must be sought in the other

conversationalist's utterance. In such contexts, the FP mono functions to show the present

speaker’s agreement with or support to the prior speaker’s position. In addition, the other­

justification mono often occurs in the contexts where the speaker intends to show miuchi

ishiki “solidarity” by reinforcing the shared stance of challenging someone or something

else.

5. Conclusions

This study has examined the various uses of the FP mono and has attempted to

demonstrate that the underlying causal logic forms the basis of its multiple discoursal and

interactional functions. It suggests that the logic between [p] and [q] is marked by the FP

mono as an “inevitable” and “natural” consequence, which is presented as normal

knowledge located in the “common ground” between conversational participants.

Therefore, the FP mono implies that the consequence is beyond the speaker’s control and

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 179

the speaker’s reasoning should be obviously acceptable and understandable to everyone

including the addressee. With the contribution of this implication, the speaker intends to

justify his/her own position or support the prior speaker’s assertion.

As summarized in Table 1, two types of mono are discussed in terms of the discourse

structure in which the FP mono occurs. First, as a “self­justification” marker, mono is

employed to justify the speaker’s own position, which has been explicitly or implicitly

challenged. Second, as an “other­justification” marker, the mono­utterance serves to

support the prior speaker’s position, which, in many cases, tends to challenge a “third

party” or the given social/physical circumstance. In the cases of either self­justification or

other­justification, rather than neutrally providing supplementary or elaboration

information, the FP mono displays the speaker’s subjectivity and shows his/her complex

attitude/emotion, which vary in different contexts. In general, self­justification mono can

reveal the speaker’s internal voices such as “The reasoning is so obvious and natural,

isn’t it?!” “You certainly will accept my explanation” or “Why do you blame me for such

an issue beyond my control?!” Other justification, on the other hand, tends to convey the

speaker’s attitude of alignment or solidarity with the addressee in a stronger affective

tone and thereby to elicit the addressee’s feeling of being a peer.

Table 1 The summary of the differences between “self­justification mono” and

“other­justification mono”

self­justification mono Other­justification mono

48 tokens 67% 24 tokens 33 %

Functions: supporting the speaker’s own position supporting the prior speaker’s position

Contexts: being challenged by the addressee challenging a third party

Attitudes: dependence, helplessness, faultlessness solidarity, alignment

In the present database, self­justification predominates, occupying two­thirds of the

total cases. The predominance of this type explains why traditional views exclusively

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 180

treat the FP mono merely as a self­justification marker, while ignoring its usage in

collaboration with others.

From the case study of the FP mono, we can see the speaker’s attempt and effort to

regulate communication with others; that is, to organize the sequence of his/her talk for

the purpose of conducting certain speech acts, and to show his/her subjective

attitude/emotion so as to elicit the addressee’s understanding/empathy or feeling of

solidarity. Therefore, rather than examining grammatical structures or forms as entities

independent of their actual production in real conversations, the study of grammar in

contextualized interaction should be considered as one of the biggest tasks that linguists

face. Also, the study of the FP mono has valuable implications for those acquiring

Japanese as a second language. The richness of sentence­final elements of Japanese is an

important and difficult part for learners. Learning how to manipulate FPs to express

feelings or to show attitudes in conversation advances Japanese learners’ comprehension

as well as communication skills.

Notes:

(1) The FP mono often takes reduced phonological form of mon in colloquial

conversations. The process of this derivation remains unclear in the current relevant

studies.

(2) The 12 transcripts were shared at a seminar called “Studies of Japanese linguistics” at

the University of XXXX.

(3) Among the 72 tokens, 14 tokens are combined with the other sentence­final particle

ne, taking the form of mono ne. The subtle difference between mono and mono ne is

one of the topics that I will explore in the future.

(4) The concept amae “dependency” is regarded as the base of Japanese prototypical

social relationships and communicative style. It has complex meanings and

implications. As Clancy (1986) defines it, to amaeru is to depend upon or presume

upon another’s benevolence.

(5) The labels of position, support and challenge are borrowed from Schiffrin (1987) In

particular, position is defined broadly to include assertions or opinions, situations and

actions of the given individuals; support is realized by explanation, justification, and

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 181

defense of a position that can be disputed; and challenge is defined as the existence of

problems with the acceptance of the given position by other people. In other words,

when one’s statement, action or situation has difficulties in being understood or

agreed upon by others, who show doubts, confusion, disagreement or criticism in the

interaction, the given position is challenged.

(6) Since (9), (10) are examples taken from Syufu no issyuukan no danwa shiryoo “One­

week Conversational Materials of Housewives” (Ide, 1984), the detailed

transcriptions including prosodic features are not available.

(7) Hashimoto (1998) mentions the usage of mono to justify the addressee’s prior

statement, and names it katagawari benmee “peer­justification.” Nevertheless, she

fails to provide further analysis on this issue.

Linguistics Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 182

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