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While acquiring a second language, learners may encounter challenges and difficulties in effectively carrying out verbal communication in the second language. Mastering the apology speech act is a challenge for L2 learners. The objective of this study is to identify the apology strategies utilized by individuals learning the Japanese language, as well as the specific types and underlying causes of errors produced during the execution of apologetic speech acts. The results of this study were gathered via the Discourse Completion Test (DCT), which encompassed a sample of 150 Japanese language learners. The gathered data were further classified using eight semantic formulas based on the research conducted by Haristiani and Sopiyanti (2019), while the various types and sources of error categorization were conducted based on the theories proposed by Corder (1981) and Richards (1975). The results of this study suggest that Japanese learners utilize the same primary strategies in apology speech acts. Furthermore, the study findings indicated that learners at the intermediate level displayed a higher frequency of errors in their speech compared to learners at the beginner levels and pre-intermediate levels, particularly in the strategy of taking responsibility. The main reason for this was primarily a lack of familiarity with the conventions of sentence structures, the proper use of language, and the appropriate use of expressions. The other sources of errors in language learning are likely to be ignoring language rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, the learner's false hypothesis, overgeneralization, and language transfer. This study is anticipated to function as a point of reference for research in interlanguage pragmatics, second-language acquisition, and error analysis. Gaining comprehension of the various problems and difficulties encountered when performing the speech act of apology in Japanese can assist both learners and educators in reducing these errors.

This paper presents findings from a quasi-experimental study that examined the effect of corrective feedback (CF) on L2 pragmatics, specifically comparing Face-to-Face (FF) and Technology-Mediated (TM) modes. The study involved a total of forty-four ESL students from three parallel intact classes. The primary focus of this paper is to report the results obtained from data collected through production tasks employing Role-play scenarios. To analyze the data, a mixed-model Analysis of Variance was conducted, examining the main and interaction effects of CF, delivery mode (FF and TM), speech act type (request and refusal), and time (pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test). The results demonstrated that CF had a substantial positive effect on L2 pragmatic production, resulting in significant overall improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that both FF and TM modes of CF were similarly effective for enhancing pragmatic production. Additionally, the study demonstrated that the effects of CF on pragmatic production were durable and long-lasting. Altogether, these findings support the utilization of corrective feedback in technology-mediated language instruction within L2 classrooms.

This study aims to examine the diverse strategies employed in apology and request, investigate the influence of cultural factors, social power, and social distance on these strategies, and explore the existing limitations and gaps in the literature for future research. Data collection is conducted using the qualitative technique. Qualitative content analysis is employed for data analysis. The SLR process provides a structured framework for analyzing various strategies employed in speech acts and investigates the impact of cultural variables and social distance on these strategies. Through the implementation of a predetermined review procedure, a total of 16 papers published between 2018 and 2022 were identified and analyzed. The findings demonstrated that many studies examined apologies and requests using different strategies and sub-strategies. Notably, politeness usage by Indonesian English teachers reflected social power dynamics, while linguistic strategies among Thai students and EFL learners were shaped by social distance. Thai study underscored the importance of cultural immersion, variations among interactants, and teaching factors in pragmatic competence. The PRISMA-guided systematic review effectively synthesized existing literature. The gaps, novel insights, and unresolved issues identified provided a roadmap for researchers to propel the field forward. This systematic review contributed a snapshot of current knowledge, charted a course for future investigations, identified gaps, and leveraged the strengths of systematic approaches.

This study investigates the types of directive speech acts employed by English teachers in online classroom interaction with their students. In addition, the study details the frequency with which teachers in the third grade of SD IT Widya Cendekia use directive speech acts in the context of online learning and classroom interactions. As a descriptive research method, this analysis was designed. The information gleaned from the English class video recording through the Microsoft team application as a learning tool. According to Yule's theory of directive speech act, video recordings were used to capture data for analysis. The study employed Miles and Huberman (1994) qualitative approach to data analysis. According to the findings of this study of teachers' use of directive speech acts in online learning contexts, only 7 of 62 directive utterances were classified as commands, nine as requests, two as suggestions, two as invites, and one as a warning. Besides, the request kind of directive is employed by English teachers in online classroom interactions at a significantly higher frequency than any other form of directive speech acts.

Pragmatic formulas have been recognized as linguistic building blocks necessary for successful speech act performance. Current approaches to speech act teaching overlook pragmatic formulas, promoting an incomplete view of pragmatics instruction. This paper reports on the results of a classroom-based study in which a formula-enhanced treatment focusing on both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic components of pragmatic ability was tested. Seven students from the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program participated in four lessons involving pre-, post- and delayed post-test measures. During the treatment, the students were exposed to target formulas from four interaction contexts. A qualitative utterance analysis was conducted to determine how pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities of the students evolved after the teaching intervention. Additionally, three expert judges evaluated students' pragmatic performance. The results indicate that improvements in both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities of the students were associated with the use of target-like formulas in their speech acts.

Though dynamic assessment (DA) has gained strong theoretical and empirical support over the last decades, second language (L2) practitioners have blamed it for its applicability in large classes. To ameliorate this limitation, peer-dynamic assessment (peer-DA), rooted in the conceptualization of zone of proximal development (ZPD), can be introduced and practiced as an alternative approach. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effects of peer-DA on cultivating Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners' interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) competence. Additionally, it was to disclose how peer-DA leads to improving the learners' ILP competence. To achieve these aims, a sample of 84 upper-intermediate EFL learners, including females was selected through a convenience sampling method at Iran Language Institute in Borujerd City, Iran. Then, a total of 37 EFL learners whose scores fell around the mean score were selected and randomly assigned to two groups, namely an experimental (n = 19) and a control (n = 18). Then, they went through a pre-test, interventions (lasting 16 one-hour sessions held two times a week), and a post-test. The experimental group's interactions were meticulously recorded. The collected data were analyzed through two independent samples t-tests, and the microgenetic development approach. Findings documented a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and control group concerning the gains of ILP competence on the post-test. Furthermore, the results of the microgenetic development analysis evidenced how the gradual, contingent prompts could lead to noticeable improvements in the learning of ILP features. These findings may have some pedagogical implications for different stakeholders.

Background: The impact of hearing impairment is typically studied in terms of its effects on speech perception, yet this fails to account for the interactive nature of communication. Recently, there has been a move towards studying the effects of age-related hearing impairment on interaction, often using referential communication tasks; however, little is known about how interaction in these tasks compares to everyday communication. Aims: To investigate utterances and requests for clarification used in one-to-one conversations between older adults with hearing impairment and younger adults without hearing impairment, and between two younger adults without hearing impairment. Methods & Procedures: A total of 42 participants were recruited to the study and split into 21 pairs, 10 with two younger adults without hearing impairment and 11 with one younger adult without hearing impairment and one older participant with age-related hearing impairment (hard of hearing). Results from three tasks--spontaneous conversation and two trials of a referential communication task--were compared. A total of 5 min of interaction in each of the three tasks was transcribed, and the frequency of requests for clarification, mean length of utterance and total utterances were calculated for individual participants and pairs. Outcomes & Results: When engaging in spontaneous conversation, participants made fewer requests for clarification than in the referential communication, regardless of hearing status/age (p = 0.012). Participants who were hard of hearing made significantly more requests for clarification than their partners without hearing impairment in only the second trial of the referential communication task (U = 25, p = 0.019). Mean length of utterance was longer in spontaneous conversation than in the referential communication task in the pairs without hearing impairment (p = 0.021), but not in the pairs including a person who was hard of hearing. However, participants who were hard of hearing used significantly longer utterances than their partners without hearing impairment in the spontaneous conversation (U = 8, p < 0.001) but not in the referential communication tasks. Conclusions & Implications: The findings suggest that patterns of interaction observed in referential communication tasks differ to those observed in spontaneous conversation. The results also suggest that fatigue may be an important consideration when planning studies of interaction that use multiple conditions of a communication task, particularly when participants are older or hard of hearing.

This study investigated how adults over the lifespan flexibly adapt their use of prosocial speech acts when conveying bad news to communicative partners. Experiment 1a (N = 100 Scottish adults aged 18-72 years) assessed whether participants' use of prosocial speech acts varied according to audience design considerations (i.e., whether or not the recipient of the news was directly affected). Experiment 1b (N = 100 Scottish adults aged 19-70 years) assessed whether participants adjusted for whether the bad news was more or less severe (an index of general knowledge). Younger adults displayed more flexible adaptation to the recipient manipulation, while no age differences were found for severity. These findings are consistent with prior work showing age-related decline in audience design but not in the use of general knowledge during language production. Experiment 2 further probed younger adults (N = 40, Scottish, aged 18-37 years) and older adults' (N = 40, Scottish, aged 70-89 years) prosocial linguistic behavior by investigating whether health (vs. nonhealth-related) matters would affect responses. While older adults used prosocial speech acts to a greater extent than younger adults, they did not distinguish between conditions. Our results suggest that prosocial linguistic behavior is likely influenced by a combination of differences in audience design and communicative styles at different ages. Collectively, these findings highlight the importance of situating prosocial speech acts within the pragmatics and aging literature, allowing us to uncover the factors modulating prosocial linguistic behavior at different developmental stages.

Despite suggestions being a common speech act used by writing center tutors, very limited research is available on the use of suggestions in online writing center practice. Drawing upon multiple sources of data including the chat transcript, screen recording of the session, and final revised version of the writer's text, this case study explores the types and frequency of the suggestion strategies employed by a tutor and the degree of writer uptake of tutor suggestions in a synchronous online writing center session. The findings indicate that the tutor's use of suggestions throughout the session only led to a partial revision of the writer's text. While factors contributing to the partial revision include overuse of indirect suggestion linguistic realization strategies (SLRSs) and addressing multiple errors at the same time, using multiple and more direct SLRSs appeared to contribute to successful uptake. The observations of the study suggest that tutors might consider addressing one error at a time, utilizing multiple suggestion strategies per error, and focusing on using more direct rather than indirect suggestion strategies in order to increase the degree of uptake and provide suggestions more effectively in online synchronous writing center sessions.

This sociopragmatics study aims to investigate the various types of directive speech acts and the markers of local wisdom in the communication of elementary students in Kolaka. The research design employed is qualitative descriptive, chosen for its ability to describe the types of directive speech acts and the manifestation of local wisdom within the context of elementary school students. The participants in this study consisted of elementary school students from Kolaka Regency. Data were collected through nonparticipant observation, and the analysis followed qualitative data procedures based on the interactive model developed by Miles and Huberman, which involved data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The findings revealed four types of directive speech acts commonly used by elementary school students: demanding, commanding, begging, and challenging. These directive speech acts were found to be influenced by the cultural context, specifically manifested through the use of clitics. The clitics -ko, -mi, - ka, -hae, and -na were identified as significant markers of the local wisdom in the communication of elementary students, observed in utterances such as lihatko, ayomi, pindahko, biarmi, siniko, and jemputna. These clitics not only serve as markers of cultural identity but also indicate different levels of politeness in communication. Further implications for language teaching practices are also discussed.

The Gorontalo language has coexisted with the Indonesian language for years, resulting in significant cohesion between two languages. Code-mixing is said to be a byproduct of such cohesion. The present study aimed to examine this linguistic phenomenon to what extent the Gorontalo language speakers code-mix between their native language (the Gorontalonese) with Arabic and Indonesian in their speech during organizing a marriage proposal or an engagement event. The study adopted a qualitative descriptive research design where the data was collected through observation, interviews, audio-video recording, and photo documentation. The result revealed that Indonesian, the Gorontalonese and Arabic are three languages mixed in the marriage proposal dialogue used in Gorontalo. The forms of all code-mixing involved the basic form, complex form, as well as phrases form. In this study, the causes of code-mixing are the language factors and the speakers, which ultimately result in language variation in all dimensions of communication terms. The study shed light on linguistic strategies and code-mixing patterns in a multilingual context.

A large body of research has been conducted on the requests employed by monolingual children, whilst knowledge about the requests uttered by bilingual children has remained scarce. To address this issue, this paper, for the first time in the literature, focuses on the request strategies and purposes employed by preschool children bilingual in Turkish and Zazaki in Turkey. By examining the requests of these children, this paper demonstrates how these learners differ from monolingual preschool children concerning their requestive language and the affordances of the local context. The investigation was based on the video-recorded spontaneous speech of 10 five-year-old preschool children (range = 5.0-5.6 years). The results were analyzed according to the request strategies and then according to the purposes of requests. The interactions were handled under two headings: child-child and child-teacher interactions. The outcomes indicated that imperative forms constituted the most frequent strategy both in child-child and teacher-child interactions and that the use of hints was revealed at a rudimentary level, and request for action was the most common purpose elicited in both interactions.

This study aims to investigate the types and functions of expressions of fear realized in the form of sentences. With a special context in horror movies, the researcher attempted to reveal the types and functions of fear expressions such as directive, commissive, expressive, assertive, and declarative. This research focuses on the subtitles of the Stranger Things season 1 series with 8 episodes, one of the best-selling serial films on the Netflix application. As research aids, the researcher used the Aegisub application and live transcript to ensure the accuracy of speech data. Findings suggest the dominance of the use of directive speech acts as a form of expression of fear. Then, commanding speech is the function of most utterances found as an expression of fear. This study concludes that expressions of fear realized in sentences do not only exist in expressive speech acts but also in other speech acts such as directive, assertive and commissive.

Bilingualism has been the subject of a lot of research in the last century. Bilingualism is having the competence to speak two languages. The reasons for bilingualism of individuals may differ. Some of them may have parents from different languages, some may be children of ethnic minority or immigrants. In daily life it is possible to encounter more bilinguals than monolinguals. Bilingualism is not a new phenomenon, and it takes place in the media and news in different ways under different titles related to it. In this study, the news about bilingualism in the newspapers of the USA, the UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands is analyzed in terms of content which is named as discourse analysis. The contents are categorized under five different titles which are neurological, social-cultural, psychological, educational, national categories. It has been found that majority of news related to bilingualism belong to educational category which shows that bilingualism draws attention and is given importance in educational contexts. Another categorization in this study is implemented for speech act categories. Each headline is categorized according to the speech acts which are representatives, directives, commissives, expressives and declaratives. In this study it was found that majority of headlines belong to representative category of speech acts.

Negative yes-no (polar) questions in Colloquial Arabic (CA) are formed by intonation without adding yes-no question particles, in which case, a statement is uttered with a rising intonation, whether this polar question is negative or affirmative. This case is more common in CA than written MSA. Sometimes, the same negative polar question is uttered with different intonations, giving different meanings. This article investigates the multiple meanings of negative polar questions in Hijazi Arabic (HA), the kinds of ambiguities resulting from using different rising intonations, and how negative polar questions are answered. A sample of negative polar questions in HA was collected. Each was uttered with different rising intonations by a sample of students enrolled in a Semantics and Pragmatics course at the College of Languages and Translation and recordings of those were made. The student informants were asked about the meaning conveyed by each intonation of the same negative polar question. Results showed that [Arabic characters omitted] Didn't you buy a dress last week?" is a negative polar question formed with a change in intonations. It is ambiguous and may render the following meanings: (i) a neutral question about whether she bought the dress or not, replying with the truth-value of the situation, or is replying to the polarity used in the question. The answer would be either "Yes" or "no", or an echo answer: "Yes I bought it" or "No I didn't buy it"; (ii) a confirmation question to which the reply is "yes" only; (iii) a confirmation question to which the reply is "no" only; (iv) disapproval: "Didn't you buy a dress last week? Why do you want to by another dress? (v) an exclamation: Wow! You have bought a new dress, although you bought one last week! What a surprise! The context makes it clear which meaning each intonation implies. Detailed results of the interpretation of a sample of ambiguous spoken negative polar questions are reported.

Superhero films have become a popular cinematic genre that has attracted the attention of scholars, many of whom focus on the films' dialogues. Through a pragmatic approach, this small-scale study investigates how directive speech acts are represented by the three Asian characters in the superhero movie "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." Based on previous research, the directive speech acts in the film were extracted and analyzed, and a directive classification taxonomy was created to categorize pragmatic structures and strategies of directive speech acts. Of 342 directive utterances, the characters tend to favor both [H] and (S) oriented structures with more preference toward Single[H] and (S)+[H] structures. Of the 5 directive strategies, "Nonsentential," "Direct," and "NonConventionally Indirect/Hint" are the preferred strategies over the "Conventionally Direct" and "Hybrid ones." Such preference could be mapped along the directness continuum from the most direct force strategy, Direct directive strategy, to the least direct force strategy, "Non-Conventionally Indirect/Hint." The findings may contribute to further exploration of pragmatic features, especially the linguistic constructions of the "Nonsentential" directive strategy and its function in films, and movie script writing.

Despite evidence on the interaction between cognitive individual differences (IDs) and task complexity, our knowledge of how affective IDs, such as foreign language enjoyment (FLE), interact with task complexity and other factors is limited. Since tasks and activities were found by Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014) to be most relevant to FLE, and since task complexity might interact with learners' perceptions of task difficulty, it is important to investigate how task complexity impacts FLE changes. Informed by the complex dynamic systems theory, this study employed a mixed-methods multiple case study design to study patterns and causes of high and low FLE arousals. The participants were four pairs of Taiwanese high-intermediate EFL university students who were engaged in simple or complex storytelling tasks with speech acts of refusals. The speakers' interactions were triangulated with an individual learner's rating of FLE on a per-second scale and stimulated recalls. Results revealed idiosyncratic patterns of FLE fluctuations of peer interlocutors and a high degree of overlap in sources of low and high FLE in both groups. Speakers reported high FLE as a result of interesting storylines inherent in task design and created by peers, the use of picture prompts, peer collaboration, and task performance. Performance problems, failure to retrieve appropriate vocabulary, task design, and lack of ideas led to low FLE arousals. The findings suggest that task complexity combined with other task-induced, social, and individual factors to affect the fluctuations of FLE. Implications for task design and oral communication instruction to promote FLE are discussed.

This research focuses on the use of parental support messages for children and what these messages mean. Messages of support are a form of positive communication to encourage children to become better individuals. This research used the qualitative method. In answering the formulation problem, speech act theory was used by Yule (2006) which was elaborated by Duncan (2009) regarding messages of support, and Wolfson & Judd (1983) about the meaning behind these support messages. The data in this study are expressive utterances that contain praise, approval, and encouragement originating from films about parenting. The data were collected using listening and note-taking techniques and then analyzed using Spradley (2016). From the research that has been done, it is concluded that each message of support conveyed has its own aims and objectives. The delivery of messages of support is influenced by the background of speakers and speech partners. Those indicate that parenting support messages play a role in parent-child communication. Its main role is to strengthen solidarity and maintain harmony between speakers. So, the language aspect must be considered by parents. This research used term "Parentinguistic" or abbreviation of Parenting Linguistic, to invite further research on the relationship between parenting and language.

In this article, the goal is to describe students' mathematical reasoning in the context of different settings of problem-solving tasks. The core of the tasks are real objects, which are presented to the students with the help of photos, a 3D model or in the environment itself. With reference to the experiential learning theory and relations to problem-solving and modelling, theoretical potentials for mathematical reasoning emerge. In a qualitative study with 19 secondary school students these are empirically tested. The evaluation of the video recordings of the students' solution processes are coded with the help of qualitative content analysis, among others with references to problem-solving and linguistic categories of conclusive speech acts. The results show that mathematical reasoning can be observed especially in the work with photos and that the work with real objects generally evokes reasoning activities in the area of planning and exploration of strategies.

During dialogue, people reach mutual comprehension through the production of feedback markers such as "yeah" or "okay." The purpose of the current study was to determine if mental load affects feedback production, as there is currently no consensus as to how mental load constrains the way in which dialogue partners reach mutual comprehension. In two experiments, pairs of participants interacted in order to complete a collaborative puzzle game. We manipulated the amount of mental load experienced by each participant by giving them a series of digits to memorize (or no digits) before the beginning of the game. In Experiment 1, the participants were given no information about their partner's mental load. In Experiment 2, each participant was told whether their partner had received digits to memorize. We found that although some results were identical in both experiments (directors produced more words, longer utterances, and fewer feedback markers than matchers), the effect of mental load was different in both experiments. Indeed, whereas in Experiment 1, mental load mainly affected the number of words and speech turns produced, in Experiment 2, participants who had to follow the instructions of their partner and were under low mental load produced more feedback markers when their partner was under high mental load. Taken together, these results help disentangle the contribution of experienced and perceived mental load on collaboration in dialogue. They also highlight the importance of being explicitly aware of each other's mental load in interpersonal coordination.

Research into instructed pragmatics mainly comparing implicit and explicit instruction has gained salience in language teaching research in the last two decades. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of cognitive and interpersonal task-based instruction on EFL Learners' production of two speech acts of apology and request. To this end, 125 intermediate EFL learners were conveniently sampled, and randomly assigned to four experimental groups (EG) and one control group (CG). The four experimental groups received task-based instruction on the two speech acts of apology and request (three 30-minute sessions on each), though instruction varied in terms of general tasks types (cognitive or interpersonal) and their specific variants (cognitive: predicting (EG1; N=25) and inducing (EG2; N=25); interpersonal: co-operating (EG3; N=25) and role-play (EG4; N=25)). The control group (N=25) did not receive any speech act-specific treatment. The participants' speech act production was measured through a 16-item written discourse completion test (WDCT) as both the pretest and the posttest. The findings showed the significant effect of both cognitive and interpersonal tasks, but also the greater effectiveness of the latter for speech act production. The study has implications for pragmatic task design and classroom practice. More specifically, it shows the potential of task-based instruction and interaction for EFL learners' pragmatic development.

This study aimed to investigate how the tasks of significance and identities are built in President Trump's speech in Saudi Arabia to find how President Trump employs language to perform these two building tasks. President Trump's speech in Saudi Arabia was analyzed qualitatively according to Gee's (2011) building tasks model. It has been found that President Trump enacts and builds the significance task by carefully selecting lexical items, cooperative patterns, lexical choice, and compliments. Furthermore, President Trump enacts particular identities and attributes specific identities to others in his speech, such as political, social, and cooperative identities. The analysis shows that President Trump shifts between the identities such as President of the U.S., a representative of the American People, a fighter and defender of American citizens and the world's safety and security, a businessman, a well-educated and knowledgeable person. This study recommends that future research investigate other political speeches delivered by President Trump based on any of the seven-building tasks of language that did not cover in this study.

The improvement of the quality of foreign language education is necessary to achieve subject-learning outcomes for the development of graduates' pertinent communication strategies in foreign language communication in various social situations. The research purpose is to develop the communicative strategies (CS) in foreign language (FL) communication in university students with the help of an elaborated communication strategy training technology based on the linguocultural reflection. As main methods of this study a quantitative approach with a survey design were used. The article presents the main provisions of the FL learning process, which determine the effective formation of pertinent communication strategies in students in the FL education at the university. In a 16-week English as a Foreign Language course 197 learners of the experimental groups received CS training within the framework of a training technology designed for the purpose of the present research. Data analysis of pre- and post-test procedures used the following mathematical coefficients: average indicator (AI), efficiency coefficient (CE), absolute growth (G) and growth rate (Y). The findings revealed that participants in experimental groups, where the training technology was used, significantly outperformed the reference group as to the level of development of communication strategies.

The present study investigates the frequently used speech acts related to positive and negative politeness techniques employed in requests and apologies by faculty members at King Abdulaziz University. Social interaction on University Campus reflects Hejazi culture located in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. The significance of the study arises from its focus on university-life interaction between faculty members as it provides an investigation of positive and negative politeness strategies. The paper tries to answer two questions: (1) Is there a relationship between the faculty's years of experience and the request strategies employed?; and (2) Is there a relationship between the faculty years of experience and the apology strategies used? To answer these questions, a Discourse Completion Test was developed and given to 30 faculty members. The findings of the study show that social power, which is derived from having more years of experience, affects the request and apology strategies used among Saudi female faculty members. Faculty members of an older generation tend to use syntactically more extended sentences in requests compared to their younger colleagues, to alleviate the sense of their social power and save others' sense of face. In contrast, the more youthful faculty members tended to use syntactically longer sentences in apologies compared to their older colleagues to show more respect. The study was conducted in Women Campus, and it is recommended to implement it on a larger scale with more participants to get more complete results.

Canada's growing population of international students brings ethnolinguistic diversity and socioeconomic benefits to their host communities. However, students often experience social exclusion and lack of belonging, reporting little communication with local community members for many cultural, ethnic, and religious reasons. The present study, conducted in Montreal, investigated the role of international students' second language speech in local community members' perception of the social roles that students can assume in a host society (e.g., friend, neighbour, colleague). Four English- and French-speaking international students' recordings were presented to 38 francophones, all non-student residents of Montreal, who evaluated the students' comprehensibility and accentedness and assessed how acceptable these students were in various social roles (e.g., friend, neighbour, colleague) in two languages (French vs. English) and in two situations (making a request vs. making a potentially controversial statement). The students' ratings were greater when they spoke French than English (regardless of speech content) and when they requested help than when they expressed a controversial statement (regardless of language). Social ratings were generally associated with comprehensibility, not accentedness, where more comprehensible speech was linked to greater perceived acceptability. Findings highlight the importance of sociolinguistic context and language in local residents' judgments of international students' social roles.

Although the ethnography of speaking is one of the approaches used to analyze discourse (Schiffrin, 1994; Cameron, 2012), its benefits and uses can be applied in the field of language assessment when designing a drug-dispensing, classroom-based test task. In this article, pharmacy specialists and students functioning as members of the pharmaceutical profession community shared their beliefs and practices on how to dispense a drug appropriately and successfully. The SPEAKING grid was subsequently used as a principle to formulate a manual for administrators, raters, and test-takers. This article discusses the elements of the SPEAKING grid as a sample framework and the subjectivity of this test task for assessing pharmacy students. The elements of the SPEAKING grid described in the manual aided not only raters when administering the task but also test-takers when preparing and practicing it. The article concludes with the idea that the SPEAKING grid can be adapted to fit classroom-based language assessment purposes even though some shared norms presented in the dispensing context may not occur as authentic as in real life.

The aim of this study is twofold: to analyze politeness strategies in the online conversations of Thai students, and to suggest how this analysis can be applicable to pedagogical practice. A corpus of a 21-month instant online conversation among students and teachers has been analyzed. Throughout the time of data collection, the teachers continually encouraged students to use English and French to promote the use of foreign languages that they were learning. The result of statistical analysis showed the relation between speech acts and politeness strategies used in the data. It could be claimed that the students' language proficiency governed their politeness strategies. As a result, the authors proposed a modification of Brown & Levinson's (1978) Weightiness formula for non-native speakers of English as: W[subscript x] = LP(S) × [D(S,H) + P(H,S) + R[subscript x]]. The results also showed that emoticons were used as redressive actions in politeness. Further, interlanguage pragmatics in the data were discussed based on linguistic competency and socio-cultural norms in the participants' L1. The results suggest that teachers and curriculum developers could better understand students' communication behaviors and language competency through computer-mediated communication. Finally, we offer suggestions to promote online communication in the context of active learning.

This paper examined the effects of online English-medium instruction (EMI) on high school students' performing English face threatening speech acts, by assessing indirect expressions and token agreement (agreement plus but). Participants completed an English placement test and English pretest and posttest through a Google survey. English proficiency, required for study participation was measured using the English placement test. An English pretest and posttest measured English pragmatic performance. The students were given approximately four weeks to complete eight online lectures. The experimental group completed eight online lectures which taught five face threatening speech acts, based on formal situations in the United States. The control group completed eight online lectures about worldwide cultures. The experimental group showed a significant improvement in the English posttest compared with the control group, based on improvements observed in the use of indirect expressions and token agreement. A difference between groups using indirect expressions was observed in an unfamiliar person scenario but not in a familiar person scenario.

This study aims to investigate the differences in the realization of request speech act between the IEL (Indonesian English Learners) and the AES (Australian English-Native Speakers), as well as explain the factors influencing these distinctions. The descriptive-qualitative method and discourse completion task (DCT) were used to obtain data in various contexts. The results showed that the realization of request speech act of the IEL and AES were different based on the following, (1) Form of Speech, as observed in the use of the main and supporting actions. This indicated that the IEL and AES used indirect and direct speech acts, respectively, and (2) Different Speech Strategies, as observed in the mode of sentences and request strategies. This proved that the IEL often used interrogative sentences, with the AES using declarative sentences when seeking permission from work superiors, and (3) Differences in the use of semantic formulas, where the IEL used attracters and honorifics more than the AES. This revealed that the linguistic and non-linguistic factors influenced the occurrences of these differences.

In seeking to investigate the use of "sorry" in interlanguage refusal by Thai EFL users in an intercultural communication context, the present study collected data from Thai flight attendants who served passengers on international flights for a Thai airline, so as to examine how "sorry" is adopted in refusals in the context of in-flight services. A discourse completion task (DCT) questionnaire was employed to solicit responses from ten male and ten female participants. Through Weerachairattana and Wannaruk's (2016) classification of refusals and the syntactical construction of "sorry" by Arizavi and Choubsaz (2018), the data gathered were coded and analyzed in terms of semantic formulas, strategies used, and pragmatic transfer. Findings revealed that "sorry" conveyed conventional implicatures as "a marker for refusals," "expressing an excuse or reason," and "introducing a reason or showing sympathy," attested by the constructions used in refusals. The term was also uttered with an "excuse, reason, or explanation" to express politeness and regret in refusals in which pragmatic transfer was produced by flight attendants due to L1 pragmatic norms. These different functions of "sorry" used in refusals were bound to surrounding and situational contexts. However, gender differences did not have much bearing on the use of "sorry" in refusals because organizational culture plays a more significant part in discourse in professional contexts. This study was conducted in the hope that it could contribute to interlanguage pragmatic study, particularly to expand our understanding of intercultural communication between English native speakers and EFL learners and users.

Learning with technology is increasingly understood to be a social process involving unique and telling discourses. An emerging research agenda has resulted, investigating the links between 'talk' and student technological practices but is yet to include home-education. Preliminary evidence exists of a relationship between particular types of 'talk' and success with particular online activities, namely online search. This may prove especially pertinent to home-educators who report that their most prolific online activities are those reliant upon search engines like Google. This paper presents select findings from a study into online search and the associated discursive practices among early primary students and their parent-educators in Australia. Data from observations, tests and interviews with five home-educating families were analysed recursively using a system guided by Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis. Specifically, this paper seeks to investigate: which discursive practices are privileged in these sites during online search; the extent to which these practices contribute to relations of power and the extent to which these practices are found alongside effective online search. Findings revealed a prevalence of inequitable discursive practices, those that either inhibited the equal conversational power of speakers or which naturalised inequitable power relations more generally. These discursive practices were found alongside ineffective online searches. Notwithstanding, participants continued to speak positively about search engines and their educational power. This rhetoric-reality gap is theorized in the paper as the work of dominant ideologies surrounding technology in education. Findings can assist the growing number of home-educators and their students to use online search more effectively. Insights regarding links between discursive practice and search practice may also help ensure that discourse helps to maximise the educational benefits associated with online search.

Apology may be defined as "a compensatory action for an offense committed by the speaker which has affected the hearer" (Marquez-Reiter, 2000, p. 44), and a compliment is another speech act "which explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker... which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer" (Holmes, 1986, p. 485). The focus of this paper is to find out which strategies are employed by Turkish pre-service EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers while apologizing and responding to compliments especially with equal-status interlocutors, and whether these strategies show differences between females and males. Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) was administered to 27 preservice EFL teachers. The WDCT included six apology and seven compliment response scenarios. The data were analyzed mainly by using the framework of Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984) for apologies, and the coding scheme by Ruhi (2006) for compliment responses. Main findings of the study suggest that the participants frequently used the strategy of regret while apologizing, and they preferred to use appreciation strategy while responding to compliments. In addition, chi-square test was applied to see any significant differences between the strategies of females and males in apologizing and responding to compliments. This gender-based comparison resulted in no statistical difference except for only one of the apology scenarios. The overall results imply that investigating pragmatic knowledge of students majoring in ELT through their speech act realizations is vital and may be the first step for organizing appropriate interventions aiming at improving and expanding their pragmatic knowledge.

This study investigates the pragmatic development of the refusal strategies to the four different eliciting types (1 request, 1 suggestion, 1 invitation, and 1 offer) by Chinese English major students with low-intermediate language proficiency. The data was collected through written discourse completion tasks, and coded based on the modified taxonomy by Beebe et al. (1990). Refusal strategies were analyzed in terms of frequency and contents of the semantic formulas. The results suggested on the whole a downward pattern was observed but statistically there was no significant development towards the learners' refusal strategies (directness, indirectness and adjuncts). The findings also revealed that the Chinese English major students relied heavily on the indirectness and adjuncts to realize their refusals. Learners' data displayed the tendency of being verbose and were also found with ungrammatical forms.

The interconnectivity of peoples worldwide is sufficient rationale for foreign language learners to develop the relevant competences for intercultural interactions in both local and global--"glocal" contexts. This study presents a conceptualisation of "glocal" competence for Jamaican foreign language teaching professionals from a content analysis of three relevant competence frameworks (PISA, and Byram's and Deardorff's ICC models). It further reports on Phases 1 and 2 of ClerKing, a Franco-Jamaican telecollaborative project between Applied Foreign Languages (AFL) students of English from Clermont Auvergne University (UCA), France, and Modern Languages student teachers of French/ Spanish from Shortwood Teachers' College (STC), Jamaica. Through qualitative content analysis, parameters of "glocal" competences were identified and examined against the different frameworks. Preliminary findings show that student teachers developed negotiation, adaptive, and collaborative skills in their professionalization process. However, local values impeded understanding of and appreciation for alternate worldviews on certain topics discussed. [The page range on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is p158-178.]

This research study seeks to examine the shift in politeness methods employed by Javanese woman characters in the English translation of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Indonesian novel Gadis Pantai. The original Indonesian version and its English translation were used to collect the data. As the politeness strategies of Javanese woman characters in the Indonesian novel 'Gadis Pantai' carry pragmatic meaning and cultural reflection in that they reveal how they communicate in particular circumstances of various relations of power, distance, and imposition, the shifts of politeness strategies in the English translation undermine their original intention and their intended cultural representation that constructs the character of the Javanese women in the novel. This study aims to elucidate the types of politeness strategy modifications observed in the translation and to explain the effect of these shifts on the novel's Javanese lady characters. In classifying and analyzing the data, the researcher utilized Brown & Levinson's taxonomy of politeness super-strategies and associated sub-strategies. Three individuals were validators for categorizing politeness tactics and their shift mapping in this study. The study indicated that out of 529 total translated utterances that contain politeness methods, 205 utterances undergo a shift. The shifts include the substitution of one super-strategy for another in the translation, substituting one sub-strategy for another of the same super-strategy, and substituting one sub-strategy for another of different super-strategies, and the omission of the politeness strategies in the translation. Negative politeness with the 'giving deference' sub-type becomes the most frequently shifting super-strategy and sub-strategy. This is because the concept of reverence that the Javanese woman characters use in the discourse is foreign to the target language's culture.

Performative refers to a type of action that is performed under the sentence having been uttered. Knowing a language entails understanding how to construct correct sentences and how to use those sentences to construct appropriate utterances. As a result, they frequently employ a variety of linguistic forms. An utterance is, however, only a performative utterance if the conditions necessary to make it an act prevail. Knowledge of a language does not simply imply an understanding of the rules that generate an infinite number of sentences; it also entails an understanding of the context and socio-cultural rules that govern the use of sentences to generate appropriate utterances. Most utterances are performative utterances that can be preceded by performative verbs. Furthermore, there are different types of utterances; explicit and implicit Performatives. Performative verbs have a particular significance; they determine the illocutionary force of an utterance. The present study aims at investigating Iraqi English Foreign Language learners' performance in analysing performative verbs. Compliment act has been chosen as the study favourite to represent learners' mastery in pragmatic proficiency as well as their communicative ability. To achieve these aims, the study finds that EFL learners face many difficulties in recognizing performative verbs to perform correct speech acts. They were also influenced by their own social norms.

Drawing on Conversation Analysis, this paper investigates how an English native speaker interviewer utilizes clarification requests as a form of recipient design during an interview to resolve problems of non-understanding. This data is contrasted with interviews between English language learners at a private university in Taiwan. The findings reveal that learners resolve these problems of misunderstanding through ignoring requests for clarification. It is argued that this represents a lost opportunity to further participation in L2 discourse and hence a forsaken opportunity for L2 language learning. This data illustrates that discourse markers and displays of epistemic status (Heritage, 2012) aid in achieving intersubjectivity and displaying alignment between speakers, furthering language use and participation. This paper investigates how understanding the way in which clarification requests are formulated in interviews between native speakers of English can be utilized to teach EFL learners how to negotiate clarification requests during spoken interaction. This paper adopts the position that pedagogy can be informed by findings generated through Conversation Analytic methods when comparing examples of authentic usage and L2 learner data and that particular discourse patterns should be taught to EFL students through CA-informed classroom tasks and teaching materials related to clarification requests.

Apart from speaking competence and vocabulary used, refusal strategies play an important role in a communication scenario. This paper investigates how Thai students realise the speech act of refusals to the initiating acts of suggestions, offers, requests, and invitations with regard to the status of the interlocutor. To achieve this objective, 157 Thai university students were asked to respond to 12 scenarios listed in an Oral Discourse Completion Test (ODCT) eliciting refusals of three requests, three invitations, three suggestions, and three offers in lower, equal, and higher status scenarios. All responses were systematically collected, transcribed, coded, and classified based on the refusal taxonomy developed by Beebe, Takahasik, and Uliss-Weltz (1990). The results revealed some discrepancies in the frequency, shift, and content of linguistic forms used in the refusals. In particular, most Thai students reported the use of indirectness, and a combination of direct and indirect strategies was used most frequently. Particularly, excuses, reasons, and explanations were the strategies frequently used in refusals with the different interactants, suggesting that refusals should not be treated as a speech act but as speech act sets that include one or more components. The study sheds light on the importance of socio-cultural factors that affect successful communication. It contributes to the knowledge of pragmatic behaviour in the L2 or intercultural pragmatics and also provides suggestions for integrating pragmatic instruction to foster the pragmatic competence of L2 learners.

There has been a growing interest in gender and language in recent decades. This study examines how women control their language facing specific, especially when angry. Minangkabau women are a subject in this research. The gap that underlies this study is that a Minangkabau woman, popular with polite language as a medium for language, is required to manage her anger in a speech in everyday life with its politeness. Conversation analysis is emphasized to explore forming a speech act in gender interactions in wedding cooking sessions and grocery shopping. These data are the words of Minangkabau women when interacting in the cooking process for weddings in several places in West Sumatra, Indonesia. A total of 17 Minangkabau women participated in the conversation. The concept of forming a speech ac related to how Minangkabau women speak the psychopragmatic approach used in analyzing the data. The results revealed four forms of Minangkabau women's angry language when interacting in the cooking area for marriage and grocery shopping. The implication is related to participants' relationships, closeness, and social status. This suggests that those three values are ingrained in Indonesian culture.

This article examined the Igbo native speakers' perception of request act as well as the linguistic politeness strategies used to achieve this communicative intention in their conversational English as bilinguals. The study participants were 2748 undergraduate Igbo native speakers purposively selected from different Federal and State Universities in the core Igbo-speaking states of South-east/South-south Nigeria. To elicit data, a 10-item discourse completion task (DCT) with guided options written in English and designed to evoke politeness strategies in request discourse projecting hypothetical situations was administered to the participants. The results showed that the study samples brought to fore their sociocultural expectations as Igbo by adopting principally the directness strategy in performing the request act. Also, findings revealed that the participants paid attention to certain sociolinguistic variables such as hierarchy, extent of familiarity, which contributed to the variance, observed in their choice of strategies in some contexts. Furthermore, the study noted a measure of linguistic transfer of a tinge of the native language to the target language (English language) as participants tried to fulfill the communicative goals of the request act in the target language. Notably, the findings demonstrated the possibility of communication breakdowns arising from grammatically correct but pragmatically inappropriate utterances from learners hence the need to further emphasize pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic consciousness - the dearth of which has been implicated in the study.

This study explored the reasons for the utilization of strategies in expressing gratitude among 71 college students and 29 employees of a non-sectarian private higher educational institution in the northern part of the Philippines using a mixed method of research. Descriptive-quantitative research design was used to identify the most commonly used strategy of gratitude expression by the respondents. Phenomenological study was also conducted to describe the reasons of strategies in expressing gratitude using structured interview and Discourse Completion Task (DCT) which included real-life scenarios. The gathered data were transcribed and coded through the classification of categories based on Cheng's model. The findings revealed that the respondents used varied strategies in being grateful for the favor, service or material things offered. Moreover, the respondents exhibited similarities in their reasons for using varied strategies. The key findings of the study provided implications that the proposed teaching modules were seen as relevant in enhancing the students' politeness in relation to expressing gratitude.

Aggression is a negative form of an anti-social behavior. It is produced because of a particular reason, desire, want, need, or due to the psychological state of the aggressor. It injures others physically or psychologically. Aggressive behaviors in human interactions cause discomfort and disharmony among interlocutors. The paper aims to identify how aggressive language manifests itself in the data under scrutiny in terms of the pragmatic paradigm. Two British literary works are the data; namely, "Look Back in Anger" by John Osborne (1956), and "The Birthday Party" by Harold Pinter (1957). This paper endeavors to answer the question of how aggressive language is represented in literature pragmatically? It is hoped to be significant to linguistic and psychological studies in that it clarifies how aggression is displayed in human communications linguistically. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted to verify the findings. It ends with some concluding remarks, the most important of which are: insulting, belittling, ridiculing and threatening are prevalent speech acts; simile, hyperbole, metaphor and repetition appear due to Grice's maxims breaching while the use of taboo words, calling names, or abusive words are the impoliteness strategies that are distinguished in the data.

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of 'rapport management' by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers' pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

Research into second language (L2) pragmatics has addressed a number of learner variables likely to implicate in speech act knowledge. Subscribing to the same line of research, the present study addressed the development and validation of a pragmatic learning strategy inventory (PRALSI), and the relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' pragmatic learning strategy (PLS) use and their speech act knowledge. A total of 245 Iranian English-major undergraduates, ranging in age from 19 to 31, participated in PRALSI's validation study. Of these, 117 further participated in the second phase of the study to unearth the relationship between PLS use and speech act knowledge, measured through a 24-item written discourse completion test (WDCT). Principal component analysis confirmed the 3-factor structure of PRALSI, comprising implicit, inductive explicit, and deductive explicit strategies. The inventory contains 41 strategies for the learning of three main aspects of pragmatic competence: speech acts, implicature, and conversational routines. Two one-way ANOVAs also showed strategy use, particularly the use of explicit strategies, to be positively correlated with speech act knowledge. The findings reveal the implications of the implicit/explicit learning dichotomy for pragmatic development and strategy use, and the potentially greater advantage explicit strategies offer for pragmatic knowledge.

Social media is one of the most influential media in all sectors and structures of socio-cultural life, government law politics, science and technology, and especially education. One of the direct impacts on education is strengthening vs. reducing student character education. The purpose of this research is to (a) explore forms of directive speech acts, (b) identify politeness strategies for directive speech acts; and (c) formulate the implications of the politeness strategies directive speech acts of the #sahkanRUUPKS comments on social media towards student' character building in the era of global computing-communication. This research is qualitative using hermeneutical psychopragmatic techniques. The object of this research was directive speech acts uttered in the #sahkanRUUPKS comments on social media 2019-2020. Data were conducted through documentation technique, notetaking technique, observation technique, and theoretical triangulation technique. Data were analyzed using politeness model of Brown-Levinson and Leech supported by analysis of politeness model of Indonesian socio-cultural harmony. The results of this research indicated that the form of public's directive speech acts in supervising government policy plan through social media appeared to be actualized into suggesting, criticizing, reminding, appealing, calling, and reminding. The realization of the category of directive speech acts of politeness indicated that the Indonesian people are participatory and accommodative towards a new plan of policy that brings benefits and good for all. The category of the politeness strategies of directive speech acts are begging and asking had a small frequency because to control the government policy plan which is essential to the value order of people's lives requires strict harmonious control. The Indonesian people had a trend to use positive politeness methods in providing input to the government. The public at the general level still showed social awareness and sensitivity towards government policy plans that are circulated through social media coverage. The forms and intentions developing on social media can be wrapped into teaching materials to strengthen character education and the values of politeness for children in the learning process at school. This can be carried out by criticizing the news circulating on social media through positive politeness strategies and wisdom maxim. The wisdom maxim instilled in children is a vital pillar in strengthening children's character education in the era of global communication.

Unprecedented advances have been seen in E-commerce with the spread of digital commerce and customer relations on commercial websites, such as Amazon. As a result, investigation of this type of communication has opened up new horizons for discourse analysts. This study aims to identify the complaint strategies used by customers and the reasons behind them. With this in mind, the researchers formed a corpus of the most helpful negative reviews posted on Amazon. Similar to previous studies on complaints in spoken communication, the present analysis investigated the different complaint strategies speakers used to formulate their complaints. Additionally, politeness strategies and face concerns were examined in these complaints. The results indicated that customers used eight different complaint strategies, the most frequent being showing their disappointment, anger and annoyance while making their complaints. The reasons for their complaints were delivery problems and unhelpful customer services behaviours.

Politeness strategies are of significant importance to maintain the face of the addressee. Senders of formal congratulatory letters seek to create a positive image in the minds of their addresses by performing particular illocutionary acts and face-saving acts (FSAs) in the form of written texts. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this topic received little attention from linguistic researchers, especially on the pragma-stylistic level. The importance of this study arises from the fact that congratulatory formal letters are an effective tool in the successful performance of foreign relations and thus deserve investigation. The current study investigates the pragma-stylistic aspects of illocutionary acts and FSA Politeness Strategies in some selected English and Arabic formal congratulatory letters written by English and Arabic officials. Findings reveal that assertive constitutes the highest frequency in English data, while expressive occurs more in Arabic. Besides, the FSA politeness strategy (Use appropriate forms of address) includes most of the total frequency in both English and Arabic data, which still it appeared more in English. Additionally, (Exaggerate interest, sympathy with H) comes next in Arabic, while (Be optimistic) appeared more in English. In addition, results show that exaggeration (Hyperbole) is the prevalent stylistic device used in Arabic. Arabic officials usually exaggerate the glorification of people in authoritative positions, while English high officials tend to be more moderate. The findings will be helpful in cross-cultural comparative studies and other related fields.

This study explored the relationship between metapragmatic knowledge and transfer of learning from one speech act to another. Using a digital application, 105 Chinese learners of English received implicit instruction on how to formulate a high-imposition request to someone in a higher social status and larger social distance. Immediately after the instruction, they reported what they thought they learned or noticed during the instruction, which served as an indication of their metapragmatic knowledge. After this, they completed immediate and delayed post-tests that assessed their knowledge of the instructed speech act (request-making) as well as their knowledge of the uninstructed speech act, advice-giving (transfer item). Results showed that the participants made significant gains in their productive knowledge of both speech acts after the instruction. The participants' metapragmatic knowledge significantly correlated with their test performance for both speech acts. These findings indicate that transfer of learning from one speech act to another can occur after instruction. The findings also support that metapragmatic knowledge established during instruction is related to the transfer.

This paper investigates the phenomenon of greeting in English, which can be surprisingly challenging for speakers of other languages, such as Chinese. By 'greeting' we mean the seemingly 'simple' act of choosing conventionalized expressions at the opening of an encounter. Following pilot interviews with Chinese learners of English who reported puzzlement concerning greeting in English, we pursue a two-fold approach to explore conventions of greeting in English and Chinese. First, we use corpora to investigate pragmatic differences and similarities between conventionalized uses of English and Chinese comparable Greet expressions, examining them separately and then conducting a contrastive analysis. This step helps us capture the contextual spread of Greet expressions in English and Chinese. Second, we elicit production data from speakers of English and Chinese to investigate their behaviour in the broader opening phase of an interaction across various contexts. The results of the study help us understand in a differentiated way the puzzlement that certain groups of learners of English feel when it comes to greeting.