A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Study of Invitation Strategies As Produced by Indonesian and Yemeni EFL Language Learners

Ali Mohammed Saleh Al-Hamzi, Ni Wayan Sartini, Nurul Fitri Hapsari, Ayoub Gougui, Raghda Mansour Ali Al-Nozili

Abstract


Based on cross-cultural pragmatic research perspectives, the present study aimed at comparing the attainment of speech acts of invitation between Indonesian and Yemeni EFL learners. The study participants were 30 undergraduate students from Airlangga University, Indonesia, and 30 undergraduate students from Sana’a University, Yemen. All of the participants were different in terms of their cultural background. The data were gathered by using Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and then analyzed on the bases of Bruder and Tillitt (1999), Al-Khatib (2006), and Suzuki (2009) compilations of invitation strategies. The findings of the study displayed some similarities and differences in terms of invitation making. Some invitation strategies seemed to be culturally specific to one culture and others are universal across the two cultures. In this regard, Indonesian EFL learners preferred to be indirect in the use of speech acts while invitation making with the high preference to use Yes/No questions, asking for willingness and Wh. questions strategies. They believe that the use of such strategies helps them to add some polite expressions that they use in their daily conversation while using their first language. In contrast, Yemeni EFL learners favored being direct in the use of the speech act of invitation, with the highest percentage of imperative strategy followed by Yes/ No questions strategy. This might show a portion of the effect of their first language on their answers. They also know that direct invitations are mostly accepted in their culture. Besides, the findings of the study revealed that Indonesian and Yemeni EFL learners translated the utterances in their mother tongue into the target language without considering the variations between the two languages in patterns of sentences and the order of words. Implications of the study are supplied too.

Keywords


Direct Invitation, Indirect Invitation, Indonesian EFL Learners, Invitation, Politeness, Yemeni EFL Learners

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abbood, H. (2016). Investigating the use of the two speech acts of invitation and offer Among Iraqi EFL University Learners. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University Science Malaysia. USM. Malaysia.

Al-Khatib, M. A. (2006). The pragmatics of invitation making and acceptance in Jordanian society. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5(2), 272–294.

Al-Zumor, A. W. (2003). Apologies in Arabic and English: An inter-language and cross-cultural study. Retrieved May 13, 2007.

Amelia, F. (2015). Speech acts of invitation in English. Journal of Speech Acts of Invitation in English.volume 6. issue 1.

Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words (Vol. 88). Oxford university press.

Balcı, B. (2009). A comparative study on the performance of requests and apologies by Turkish and American teenagers: A pragmatic competence point of view. University of Çukurova, The Institute of Social Sciences, The Department of English Language Teaching, Unpublished MA Thesis, Adana.

Billmyer, K. (1990). “ I really like your lifestyle”: ESL Learners learning how to compliment. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics (WPEL), 6(2), 3.

Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Norwood. NJ: Ablex. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/3.1.29

Brown, P., Levinson, S. C., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage (Vol. 4). Cambridge university press. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085

Bruder, M. N., & Tillitt, B. (1999). Speaking naturally (Twelfth pr). Cambridge University Press.

Clyne, M., & Clyne, M. G. (1996). Inter-cultural communication at work: Cultural values in discourse. Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. (1992). An Encyclopedia Dictionary. Language and Languages. Oxford: Blackwell.

Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face interaction. Chicago: Aldine.

Green, G. M. (1996). Pragmatics and natural language understanding. Psychology Press.

Hancher, M. (1979). The classification of cooperative illocutionary acts. Language in Society, 1–14. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005911

Hatch, E. (1992). Discourse and language education. Cambridge University Press.

Isaacs, E. A., & Clark, H. H. (1990). Ostensible invitations. Language in Society, 19(4), 493–509.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500014780

Jordà, M. P. S. (2005). Third language learners: Pragmatic production and awareness (Vol. 12). Multilingual Matters.

Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness; or minding your Ps and Qs in (eds) C. Corum et Al. Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society.

Leech, G. N. (2016). Principles of pragmatics. Routledge.

LoCastro, V. (2013). Pragmatics for language educators: A sociolinguistic perspective. Routledge.

Novick, P. (2000). The holocaust in American life. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Paltridge, B., & Burton, J. (2000). Making sense of discourse analysis. Gold Coast.

Pateda, M. (1990). Sosiolinguistik Suatu Pengantar. Jakarta: PT Gramedia.

Rakowicz, A. (2009). Ambiguous invitations: The interlanguage pragmatics of Polish English language learners. New York University.

Reiter, R. M. (2000). Linguistic politeness in Britain and Uruguay: A contrastive study of requests and apologies (Vol. 83). John Benjamins Publishing.

Richard, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (2010). Dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics. Essex: Longman, 4th edition, Longman: Pearson Education.

Salmani-Nodoushan, M. A. (2006). A Socio-Pragmatic Comparative Study of Ostensible Invitations in English and Farsi. Online Submission.

Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and Meaning. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511609213

Sukesti, L. A. (2014). Interlanguage pragmatics of invitation By Indonesian EFL learners. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta.

Suzuki, T. (2009). How do American University Students “Invite” others?: A Corpus-based Study of Linguistic Strategies for the Speech Act of “Invitations” ⑴. Matsuyama University: Japan, 85-106. WASEDA.JP. Web. 25 Sept. 2017.

Van Dijk, T. A. (1997). Discourse as interaction in society. Discourse as Social Interaction, 2, 1–37.

VAN TRONG, N. (2017). A comparative study on invitations in English and Vietnamese in terms of cross-cultural perspective. . MA thesis. Dong Thap University, LUANVAN. Web. 2 Jan. 2017.

Wierzbicka, A. (2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics. De Gruyter Mouton.

Wolfson, N. (1989). Perspectives: sociolinguistics and TESOL. Newbury House Publishers.

Wolfson, N., Marmor, T., & Jones, S. (1989). Problems in the comparison of speech acts across cultures. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, 31, 174–196.

Y. M. A. & Suraih, N. (2019). Invitation Strategies as Produced by Yemeni EFL Learners. Applied Linguistics Research Journal, 3(2), 15–34.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics: Oxford University Press. Oxford.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.9n.6p.42

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature

To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.