Caught between Two Cultures: Pragmatic Transfer in English-using Pakistanis Apology Responses
Keywords:
pragmatics, cultural and social rules, apology responses, pragmatic transfer.
Abstract
In Pragmatics, scholars have given special attention to study the influence of leaners culture and social rules in understanding and using target language pragmatics. For this purpose, speech acts have been studied quite widely. This study investigates the speech act of responding to apology in Pakistani English, British English and Pakistani Urdu, and tries to highlight whether respondents transfer their cultural and social rules in the target language or not. The present study followed quantitative approach for data collection and analysis. A discourse completion test (DCT), consists of 12 apology response scenarios is used for data collection. The findings illustrate that English-using Pakistanis pragmatic choices are clearly influenced by their perceptions of various sociocultural and contextual variables. The English-using Pakistanis and Pakistani Urdu speakers are found using two main strategies (Acceptance, and Acknowledgment). In contrast, British English speakers tend to use Acceptance and Evasion strategies more often. Further, the findings have indicated that English-using Pakistanis and Pakistani Urdu speakers have used more Rejection strategies than their British English counterparts, though such communicative features are not salient in their ARs, and Pakistanis are surprisingly found quite clear and direct. The findings of the study may be helpful to English teachers who should be made aware that L2 learners’ pragmatic transfer is influenced by learners’ culture and social rules, and, as a result, should not be treated simply as a pragmatic ‘error’ or ‘failure’ to be corrected and criticized.
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References
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Agyekum, K. (2006). Apology: a repair mechanism in Akan social interaction. South African Journal of African Languages, 26(2), 53-68.
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Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Some Universals in Language Usage Politeness. Cambridge University Press.
Bu, J. (2010). A study of pragmatic transfer in compliment response strategies by Chinese learners of English. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(2), 121-129.
Chang, Y. F., & Ren, W. (2020). Sociopragmatic competence in American and Chinese children’s realization of apology and refusal. Journal of Pragmatics, 164, 27-39.
Chen, R., & Yang, D. (2010). Responding to compliments in Chinese: Has it changed? Journal of pragmatics, 42(7), 1951-1963.
Cohen, A. D. (2020). Considerations in assessing pragmatic appropriateness in spokenlanguage. Language Teaching, 53(2), 183-202.
Darine, C. & B. Hall. (1998). Culture Shock! Singapore: Times Books International.
Gorsuch, R. L., & Hao, J. Y. (1993). Forgiveness: An exploratory factor analysis and its relationships to religious variables. Review of religious research, 34 (4), 333-347.
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Holmes, J. (1995). Men, women and politeness. London: Longman.
Holmes, J., & Brown, D. F. (1987). Teachers and students learning about compliments. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 523-546.
Jabeen, I., & Akhtar, R. N. (2013). Implementing sociocultural approach in teaching English as a second language in Pakistan: Challenges and remedies. Journal of Education and Practice, 4(9).
Kádár, D. Z., & House, J. (2020). Ritual frames: A contrastive pragmatic approach. Pragmatics, 30(1), 142-168.
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Leech, G. (2007). Politeness: is there an East-West divide? Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture, 3(2), 167-206.
Leonard, D. J., Mackie, D. M., & Smith, E. R. (2011). Emotional responses to intergroup apology mediate intergroup forgiveness and retribution. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(6), 1198-1206.
Majeed, A., & Janjua, F. (2013). Comparative structures of the apology strategies in English, Urdu and Punjabi: A pragmatic study. ZENITH International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 3(11), 257-264.
Malmir, A., & Derakhshan, A. (2020). The Socio-Pragmatic, Lexico-Grammatical, and Cognitive Strategies in L2 Pragmatic Comprehension: The Case of Iranian Male vs. Female EFL Learners. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 8 (1), 1-23.
Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A. (1983). Apology: A speech act set. Sociolinguistics and language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. 18-35.
Owen, M. (1983). Apologies and remedial interchanges: A study of language use in social interaction. Mouton de Gruyter.
Paltridge, B. (2004). Academic writing. Language teaching, 37(2), 87-105.
Pargament, K. I., McCullough, M. E., & Thoresen, C. E. (2000). The frontier of forgiveness. Forgiveness. Theory, research and practice, 299-319.
Poloma, M. M., & Gallup, G. H. (1991). Unless you forgive others. Prayer and forgiveness.Varieties of prayer, 85-106.
Rahman, T. (1998). Cultural Invasion and Linguistic Politeness Among English-using Pakistanis. Sustainable Development Policy Institute.
Robinson, J. D. (2004). The sequential organization of" explicit" apologies in naturally occurring English. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 37(3), 291-330.
Saleem, T., Azam, S., & Saleem, A. (2014). The use of apology strategies in English by Pakistani EFL university students in Pakistan. Journal of Education and Practice, 5(34), 142-148.
Sawir, E. (2014). Embarking upon a New Academic Culture: Implications for Identity and Educational Practice. In Academic Migration, Discipline Knowledge and Pedagogical Practice (pp. 131-142). Springer, Singapore.
Shamim, F. (2008). Trends, issues and challenges in English language education in Pakistan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(3), 235-249.
Sharqawi, M. A., & Anthony, E. M. (2019). Speech acts and their underlying strategies by EFL learners and Non-Learners: A systematic literatura review. Amazonia Investiga, 8(20), 486-502. https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/178
Sperlich, D., Leem, J., & Ahn, E. J. (2020). Explicit and implicit dimensions of sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic competence. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 1.
Sultana, N., & Khan, Q. (2014). Cultural effect of gender on apology strategies of Pakistani undergraduate students. NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry, 12(2), 24.
Takimoto, M. (2020). Investigating the effects of cognitive linguistic approach in developing EFL learners’ pragmatic proficiency. System, 89, 102213.
Thijittang, S. (2010). A Study of pragmatic strategies of English of Thai university students: Apology speech acts (Doctoral dissertation), University of Tasmania.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied linguistics, 4(2), 91-112.
Witvliet, C. V., Wade, N. G., Worthington Jr, E. L., Root Luna, L., Van Tongeren, D. R., Berry, J. W., & Tsang, J. A. (2020). Apology and restitution: offender ccountability responses influence victim empathy and forgiveness. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 48(2), 88-104.
Wouk, F. (2006). Strategies of apologizing in Lombok Indonesia. Journal of politeness Research, 2(2), 277-311.
Zaferanieh, E., Tavakoli, M., & Eslami Rasekh, A. (2020). Second language pragmatics development through different instructional techniques: Focus on speech act of criticizing. ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics 8(1), 837-864.
Agyekum, K. (2006). Apology: a repair mechanism in Akan social interaction. South African Journal of African Languages, 26(2), 53-68.
Al Masaeed, K., Taguchi, N., & Tamimi, M. (2020). Proficiency effects on L2 Arabic refusals: Appropriateness, linguistic strategies andmultidialectal practices. Applied Pragmatics, 2(1), 26-53.
Allami, H., & Naeimi, A. (2011). A cross-linguistic study of refusals: An analysis of pragmatic competence development in Iranian EFL learners. Journal of Pragmatics, 43 (1), 385-406.
Al-Sobh, M. A. (2013). An analysis of apology as a politeness strategy expressed by Jordanian university students. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3(2), 150-154.
Auer, P. (2020). The pragmatics of code-switching: A sequential approach. In The bilingualism reader (pp. 123-138). Routledge.
Azam, S., & Saleem, T. (2018). Congratulations across Cultures: Punjabi and British Speakers. Erevna Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2(1), 47-64.
Azam, S., & Saleem, T. (2018). Teaching Pragmatic Competence in Pakistani Context: A Case of Pakistani EFL Learners Compliment Responses. Erevna Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2(2), 27-49.
Aziz, F., Saleem, T., Saleem, A., & Batool, R. (2020). From pragmatic competence to intercultural competence: Pakistani ESL teachers perspectives of teaching interculturality in ESL classroom. Amazonia Investiga, 9(33), 37-45. https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/1486
Bachman, G. F., & Guerrero, L. K. (2006). Forgiveness, apology, and communicative responses to hurtful events. Communication Reports, 19(1), 45-56.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Some Universals in Language Usage Politeness. Cambridge University Press.
Bu, J. (2010). A study of pragmatic transfer in compliment response strategies by Chinese learners of English. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(2), 121-129.
Chang, Y. F., & Ren, W. (2020). Sociopragmatic competence in American and Chinese children’s realization of apology and refusal. Journal of Pragmatics, 164, 27-39.
Chen, R., & Yang, D. (2010). Responding to compliments in Chinese: Has it changed? Journal of pragmatics, 42(7), 1951-1963.
Cohen, A. D. (2020). Considerations in assessing pragmatic appropriateness in spokenlanguage. Language Teaching, 53(2), 183-202.
Darine, C. & B. Hall. (1998). Culture Shock! Singapore: Times Books International.
Gorsuch, R. L., & Hao, J. Y. (1993). Forgiveness: An exploratory factor analysis and its relationships to religious variables. Review of religious research, 34 (4), 333-347.
Haider, I. (2019). Re-envisioning assessment of interlanguage pragmatic competence through computer-mediated communicative tasks. (Doctoral dissertation) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1), 8.
Holmes, J. (1995). Men, women and politeness. London: Longman.
Holmes, J., & Brown, D. F. (1987). Teachers and students learning about compliments. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 523-546.
Jabeen, I., & Akhtar, R. N. (2013). Implementing sociocultural approach in teaching English as a second language in Pakistan: Challenges and remedies. Journal of Education and Practice, 4(9).
Kádár, D. Z., & House, J. (2020). Ritual frames: A contrastive pragmatic approach. Pragmatics, 30(1), 142-168.
Kasper, G. (1992). Pragmatic transfer. Interlanguage studies bulletin (Utrecht), 8(3), 203- 231.
Khorshidi, S., Mobini, F., & Nasiri, M. (2016). Iranian English Teaching Applicants' request and apology speech acts: Special focus on language proficiency. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 7(3), 534-541.
Klopf, D. W., & McCroskey, J. C. (2006). Intercultural communication encounters. Allyn & Bacon.
Kousar, S. (2015). Politeness Orientation in Social Hierarchies in Urdu. International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 3(2), 85.
Leech, G. (2007). Politeness: is there an East-West divide? Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture, 3(2), 167-206.
Leonard, D. J., Mackie, D. M., & Smith, E. R. (2011). Emotional responses to intergroup apology mediate intergroup forgiveness and retribution. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(6), 1198-1206.
Majeed, A., & Janjua, F. (2013). Comparative structures of the apology strategies in English, Urdu and Punjabi: A pragmatic study. ZENITH International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 3(11), 257-264.
Malmir, A., & Derakhshan, A. (2020). The Socio-Pragmatic, Lexico-Grammatical, and Cognitive Strategies in L2 Pragmatic Comprehension: The Case of Iranian Male vs. Female EFL Learners. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 8 (1), 1-23.
Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A. (1983). Apology: A speech act set. Sociolinguistics and language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. 18-35.
Owen, M. (1983). Apologies and remedial interchanges: A study of language use in social interaction. Mouton de Gruyter.
Paltridge, B. (2004). Academic writing. Language teaching, 37(2), 87-105.
Pargament, K. I., McCullough, M. E., & Thoresen, C. E. (2000). The frontier of forgiveness. Forgiveness. Theory, research and practice, 299-319.
Poloma, M. M., & Gallup, G. H. (1991). Unless you forgive others. Prayer and forgiveness.Varieties of prayer, 85-106.
Rahman, T. (1998). Cultural Invasion and Linguistic Politeness Among English-using Pakistanis. Sustainable Development Policy Institute.
Robinson, J. D. (2004). The sequential organization of" explicit" apologies in naturally occurring English. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 37(3), 291-330.
Saleem, T., Azam, S., & Saleem, A. (2014). The use of apology strategies in English by Pakistani EFL university students in Pakistan. Journal of Education and Practice, 5(34), 142-148.
Sawir, E. (2014). Embarking upon a New Academic Culture: Implications for Identity and Educational Practice. In Academic Migration, Discipline Knowledge and Pedagogical Practice (pp. 131-142). Springer, Singapore.
Shamim, F. (2008). Trends, issues and challenges in English language education in Pakistan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(3), 235-249.
Sharqawi, M. A., & Anthony, E. M. (2019). Speech acts and their underlying strategies by EFL learners and Non-Learners: A systematic literatura review. Amazonia Investiga, 8(20), 486-502. https://amazoniainvestiga.info/index.php/amazonia/article/view/178
Sperlich, D., Leem, J., & Ahn, E. J. (2020). Explicit and implicit dimensions of sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic competence. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 1.
Sultana, N., & Khan, Q. (2014). Cultural effect of gender on apology strategies of Pakistani undergraduate students. NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry, 12(2), 24.
Takimoto, M. (2020). Investigating the effects of cognitive linguistic approach in developing EFL learners’ pragmatic proficiency. System, 89, 102213.
Thijittang, S. (2010). A Study of pragmatic strategies of English of Thai university students: Apology speech acts (Doctoral dissertation), University of Tasmania.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied linguistics, 4(2), 91-112.
Witvliet, C. V., Wade, N. G., Worthington Jr, E. L., Root Luna, L., Van Tongeren, D. R., Berry, J. W., & Tsang, J. A. (2020). Apology and restitution: offender ccountability responses influence victim empathy and forgiveness. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 48(2), 88-104.
Wouk, F. (2006). Strategies of apologizing in Lombok Indonesia. Journal of politeness Research, 2(2), 277-311.
Zaferanieh, E., Tavakoli, M., & Eslami Rasekh, A. (2020). Second language pragmatics development through different instructional techniques: Focus on speech act of criticizing. ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics 8(1), 837-864.
Published
2020-12-17
How to Cite
Saleem, T., Batool, R., Saleem, A., & Azam, S. (2020). Caught between Two Cultures: Pragmatic Transfer in English-using Pakistanis Apology Responses. Amazonia Investiga, 9(35), 5-19. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2020.35.11.1
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