Requesting strategies of Czech secondary-school students
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | This presentation focuses on requesting strategies used by 195 Czech secondary-school students in the written part of the 2017 school-leaving exam in English containing an informal request for a bike addressed to a friend. The analysis based on an integrated analytical framework combining the CCSARP coding manual (Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989) and Typology of modifiers for the speech act of requesting (Soler, Jordá, & Martínez-Flor, 2005) revealed that the Head Acts were realized predominantly by conventionally indirect strategies (e.g. Query Preparatory), but the proportion of face-threatening direct strategies (e.g. Mood Derivables and Want Statements) was also relatively high. The apparent lack of mandatory internal modification devices used within the Head Acts, with the exception of ‘please', and the abundance of external modification devices may suggest that Czech secondary-school students are not fully aware of the key politeness strategies which are expected by native speakers. Conventional formulaic sequences which are commonly used as internal modification devices appear in the positions traditionally left for external modification, which native speakers consider optional. The strong tendency to rely on politeness strategies typical of Czech can be also seen in Thanking, which is perceived as face-flattering and nearly obligatory in formal written requests in Czech. In English, however, it can be viewed either as a closing device unable to mitigate the request or as a strong presupposition of the positive outcome, and thus inappropriate. The use of Expectations, strongly impositive claims, the initial position of ‘please', implying urgency, and the absence of Downtoners, relativizing the content of the request as such, seem to be the most problematic strategies and consequently also features deserving special attention in teaching. |
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