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Interlanguage Pragmatics of EFL Advanced Learners: Insights from a Longitudinal Study into the Development of the Speech Act of Request in the Polish Context

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Classroom-Oriented Research

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

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Abstract

In this paper the acquisition of pragmatic competence in English among advanced Polish learners of English is investigated. A sample of linguistic written data was collected in a discourse completion task of an open-response format in a longitudinal study on EFL acquisitional pragmatics. The responses provided, in this particular case requests, were studied mostly following Blum-Kulka et al. (1989), Rue and Qiao (2008), Takahashi (2001), and Bardovi-Harlig (2001). This means that internal and external mitigating devices were investigated together with strategies for expressing directness of requests. On this basis, conclusions about the interlanguage pragmatic competence of the participants are drawn. Also, selected aspects of L2 pragmatics which may require further instruction are mentioned.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I am aware of the ongoing debate about definitions of bilingualism or multilingualism. However, these students were expected to reach a high level of proficiency in both languages and in most cases the boundary between language learners and bi-(multi-)lingualism is fuzzy. I use these terms interchangeably also because at the time of the study they remained learners of languages as such. Additionally, because the foreign languages were also the languages of instruction, I consider them users of these languages.

  2. 2.

    With his permission granted to the present author.

  3. 3.

    A more detailed analysis of responses to this scenario collected in FY can be found in Szczepaniak-Kozak (2013).

  4. 4.

    My detailed analysis of FY responses to this scenario can be found in Szczepaniak-Kozak (2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak

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  1. Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak
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Correspondence to Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak .

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  1. Zakład Filologii Angielskiej, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Wielkopolskie, Poland

    Mirosław Pawlak

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Szczepaniak-Kozak, A. (2016). Interlanguage Pragmatics of EFL Advanced Learners: Insights from a Longitudinal Study into the Development of the Speech Act of Request in the Polish Context. In: Pawlak, M. (eds) Classroom-Oriented Research. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30373-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30373-4_13

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