Abstract
The study focuses on the frequency and distribution of supportive moves (SMs) produced by L2 Greek child learners to frame their requests as an index of young learners’ ability to take into account sociocultural parameters of the communicative situation (cost of the requested action, speaker–addressee relationship). It draws on a corpus of data elicited via a Cartoon Oral Production Task in order to explore the request performance among 51 learners of Greek at two intermediate levels vis à vis 37 L1 Greek children of the same age groups (8- and 11-year-olds). SMs, i.e. pre- or post-positioned modifiers to the core request, have been claimed to be an easily accessible strategy for adult L2 learners to mitigate the imposition of the request from the early stages of L2 proficiency, even if not always in a native-like fashion. Regarding child L2 requestive behavior, previous research into school-aged learners of English reveals restricted use of SMs at the more advanced level only. However, our data shows earlier signs of sociopragmatic awareness. Although the L2 participants of the study lag behind their L1 peers, they used SMs more frequently, more appropriately and in a more native-like fashion than reported in previous research. SMs are particularly preferred in high cost and low familiarity situations in both learners and native speakers, thus indicating a common developmental path on their way to producing sociopragmatically sensitive requests with increasing age and proficiency. Implications of findings for young learners’ interlanguage pragmatic development are further discussed.
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Notes
For linguistic realizations which exemplify different SM types, see “Appendix”.
L2 children’s countries of origin were Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, and Tanzania.
Following the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe 2001), the low intermediate group would be placed at level A2 towards B1, whereas the intermediate group corresponds to level B2.
The reader may be referred to Vassilaki and Selimis (2020).
Other patterns with marginal use include subjunctive interrogatives and want statements.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the help and assistance received from the following individuals: Tania Moloha, M.Ed., and Georgia Stylou, Ph.D. in Intercultural Education, collaborated on data collection; Professor Jasmin-Olga Sarafidou and Stathis Xafakos, Ph.D. candidate, contributed to statistical analyses; and Venetsiana Astara, Ph.D. candidate, helped with coding. We also thank the guest editors, who invited us to submit this work, and two anonymous reviewers for providing fruitful feedback on the manuscript. The research reported in this paper was sponsored by the Research Committee of the University of Thessaly (Grant No. 4962.01.33).
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Appendix: Taxonomy and Examples of SMs Found in the Data
Appendix: Taxonomy and Examples of SMs Found in the Data
Types of SMs | Examples (underlined) |
---|---|
Grounder | Scenario: “biscuit unfamiliar” Γεια, μπορείς να μου δώσεις ένα μπισκότο;Γιατί αυτά είναι τα αγαπημένα μου. (L2, girl, age 11.1) “Hi, can you give me a cookie? Because these are my favorite ones.” |
Considerator/imposition minimizer | Scenario: “biscuit familiar” Αν θέλεις, μου δίνεις ένα μπισκότο; (L2, boy, age 12.0) “If you want, do (= can) you give me a cookie?” |
Small talk | Scenario: “bicycle” Γεια σας. Πώς σε λένε; […] Σε παρακαλώ μου δανείσεις το ποδήλατο; (L2, boy, age 10.10) “Hello. What’s your name? […] Can you please lend me the bicycle?” |
Sweetener | Scenario: “dog” Α, τι ωραίο σκυλάκι!Μπορώ να το πάω μια βόλτα; (L1, girl, age 8.9) “Oh, what a cute puppy! Can I take it for a walk?” |
Apology | Scenario: “ball” Κυρία, σας παρακαλώ […] μας φέρνετε την μπάλα; Μας κύλησε έξω από τον φράχτη κατά λάθος καισυγγνώμη που σας ενοχλήσαμε… (L2, boy, age 11.2) “Madam, can you please […] bring us the ball? It rolled down off the fence by mistake, and we are sorry to bother you…” |
Promise of reward | Scenario: “juice” Γιαγιά, σε παρακαλώ, μπορείς να μου πάρεις ένα κουτί χυμό;Κι εγώ θα σου το ξεπληρώσω. (L2, boy, age 11.2) “Grandma, can you please buy me a can of juice? And I’ll pay off.” |
Disarmer | Scenario: “father tired” Ξέρω ότι είσαι πολύ κουρασμένοςαλλά, σε παρακαλώ, θα με πας στο σπίτι του φίλου μου; (L1, boy, age 11.9) “I know you’re very tired but, please, will you drive me to my friend’s house?” |
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Vassilaki, E., Selimis, S. Children’s Requestive Behavior in L2 Greek: Beyond the Core Request. Corpus Pragmatics 4, 359–380 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-020-00080-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-020-00080-2