Twelve Activities for Teaching the Pragmatics of Complaining to L2 Learners
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AMANDA HILLIARD United States Twelve Activities for Teaching the Pragmatics of Complaining to L2 Learners ake a moment to think of your students. Can they use English politely to talk to a variety of people without offending anyone? T Would they be able to interact with someone from Asia just as effectively as with someone from South America? Do they know how to complain appropriately in English and to respond in English to the complaints of others? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your students would definitely benefit from an increased focus on pragmatics in your English language classes. Pragmatic competence, or the ability to use from different language backgrounds (Olshtain language appropriately in a variety of contexts, and Weinbach 1993; Murphy and Neu 1996). is a critical skill for communication in a second Even advanced learners tend to transfer language (L2). Thus, teaching that focuses on pragmatics from their first language and culture developing students’ abilities to communicate to their L2. For example, when comparing the effectively in an L2 must also include a focus on complaints of native and non-native speakers developing students’ pragmatic competence. of Hebrew, Olshtain and Weinbach (1993) This article discusses issues related to pragmatics found that non-native learners tended to give in general as well as specific pragmatic challenges longer and less severe complaints, while native one group of English as a second language speakers’ complaints were shorter, more (ESL) students in the United States faced direct, and more severe. when complaining in their L2. Next, activities for teaching the pragmatics of complaining Although pragmatic differences can result in are suggested. It is hoped that by highlighting positive transfer if the speech act is similar specific problems with one group of students in the first and second languages, it can also and presenting ways to address these issues, result in negative transfer if there are cultural this article will encourage teachers to examine and pragmatic differences between the two their own classes, discover their own students’ languages. For example, when Russians and pragmatic issues, and incorporate activities to Moroccans were asked to react to the idea teach pragmatics into their own classes. of someone stealing their parking space in a parking lot, the Russians responded with SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND warnings and threats, while the Moroccans PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE either opted not to complain or used much softer strategies. The Russians felt that people Research clearly shows that cultural differences should “play fair” in a parking lot, while lead to pragmatic differences among learners the Moroccans felt that it was not a serious 2 ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM 201 7 americanenglish.state.gov/english-teaching-forum offense and something that they might even their students will not develop a sufficient do themselves (Olshtain and Weinbach 1993). level of pragmatic competence for effective Similarly, Eslami-Rasekh (2005) tells the story communication in English. of a female graduate student in the United States feeling offended after being complimented on In brief, pragmatic and cultural differences can her appearance by a male office mate because result in negative transfer and inappropriate in her country, “compliments on looks and behavior and speech for L2 learners. In appearances by a male to a female can have addition, students’ pragmatic competence sexual connotations” (203). These examples may lag behind their other skills and language show that different cultural and language knowledge; it may also suffer from insufficient backgrounds can lead to miscommunication input and lack of coverage in English language and pragmatic errors for L2 learners. textbooks. As pragmatic competence is critical for communication in any language, In addition, research shows not only that lessons targeting the instruction of pragmatics the pragmatics of native speakers and L2 through various speech acts should be learners are often quite different, but also that incorporated into the L2 curriculum. learners’ pragmatic competence is often less advanced than their grammatical knowledge THE SPEECH ACT OF COMPLAINING (Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei 1998). Röver (2005) suggests that developing pragmatic Speech acts are the most basic unit of competence may be especially difficult for communication, with each speech act students in an English as a foreign language accomplishing a different communicative (EFL) environment; while ESL students— function. This article focuses on developing living in an English-speaking country—are L2 students’ pragmatic competence for the exposed to plentiful pragmatic input through speech act of complaining, which is used to daily interactions with English language express the speaker’s dissatisfaction. Speech speakers, for many EFL students the greatest acts can be broken down into smaller source of pragmatic input is most likely their components, or strategies, that speakers use English language teacher. Furthermore, to accomplish the communicative function. research shows that pragmatic activities For example, Murphy and Neu (1996, 199– in English language textbooks suffer from 203) identify four strategies that can be used a lack of contextualization, insignificant in the speech act of complaining. The speaker coverage of pragmatic information, and first initiates the conversation and explains inconsistent coverage of various pragmatic the purpose, then makes a complaint. This features (Diepenbroek and Derwing 2013). is followed by a justification or explanation This finding suggests that if EFL teachers rely for the complaint and a request to rectify the solely on materials from language textbooks, situation, as shown in Table 1. Strategy Example 1. Initiation and explanation of “Excuse me, professor, but I wanted to talk to you purpose about my grade.” 2. A complaint “My grade’s too low.” 3. A justification “I come to every class, and I study hard. I just didn’t do well on one test.” 4. A request “Can I do an extra credit assignment to improve my grade?” Table 1. Four strategies for complaining (adapted from Murphy and Neu 1996, 199–203) americanenglish.state.gov/english-teaching-forum 2017 ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM 3 Depending on the relationship of the Results speakers, the situation, and the context, not For all three complaint role plays, the native every complaint will include every strategy. speakers followed the same format, including However, knowing the available strategies an initiation, a statement of the complaint, a for completing a specific speech act is a good justification or explanation of the complaint, starting place for analyzing L2 learners’ ability and a request. In contrast, the L2 students did to accomplish pragmatically appropriate not always include all four strategies in their speech acts in their L2, as well as for creating complaints. Although all the students included materials and classroom activities to develop a clearly stated complaint in their role students’ pragmatic competence for a plays, some did not include an initiation, a particular speech act. justification or explanation of their complaint, or a request. To many English speakers, ESL STUDENTS’ PRAGMATIC leaving out an initiation or justification makes COMPETENCE FOR COMPLAINTS the student appear rude or impolite, while not including a request could mean that To determine the pragmatic competence the student will not receive a satisfactory of my own ESL students, I recorded the resolution to the complaint. complaints of 27 students completing a role play in pairs. The students were allowed to The students’ videos were also evaluated choose from three scenarios: complaining to determine whether they successfully to a server at a restaurant, complaining to a completed the speech act. Eighty-six percent neighbor about a noisy party, and complaining of the students successfully completed the to a teacher about a grade. The students’ complaint in the restaurant role play; the most videos were analyzed for the speech act of common problem was that students were too complaining and then compared to videos aggressive and wound up criticizing rather of six native-speaking English teachers than complaining. For the noisy-neighbor completing the same tasks. Finally, the overall situation, 73 percent of the students offered pragmatic appropriateness of the L2 learners pragmatically correct complaints; the most was judged by a native speaker to determine common problems were being either too whether the students were able to successfully aggressive or too indirect. Only 56 percent complain in their L2. of students successfully completed the Problem Example from Video Aggressive Complaint “Is there something wrong with me? Why you hate me?” “It’s not fair. Everyone in the class get A, A. Just me. It’s not fair.” Criticism of Teacher “And you put me low grade. And you, you didn’t grade me that well.” Distrust of Teacher “I have my American friend, he always help me. So I’m sure 100 percent of my answers, they are correct. So don’t tell me it’s wrong or something, because I’m sure.” “But when you check and you write on blackboard, are you sure this is my name? You put my grades in my name, you don’t put somebody else? Because you have some guys, you know, they are lower grade, but you put for them A.” Threat “I will gonna go to the office and complain about you. I will wait till tomorrow. Nothing change, I will gonna go to the office and complain. I don’t want to do that, but … ” Table 2. Pragmatically inappropriate complaint to a teacher by an L2 student 4 ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM 201 7 americanenglish.state.gov/english-teaching-forum When complaining, L2 learners who lack pragmatic competence in their second language may appear rude, impolite, or aggressive, particularly if they are speaking to someone with higher status. complaint to the teacher; common problems complaining as the native speakers. In addition, included making inappropriate requests and between 14 and 44 percent of the students aggressively blaming the teacher.