Cover not available
Part of
Second Language Acquisition of Turkish
Edited by Ayşe Gürel
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 59] 2016
► pp. 221–248

Explicit apologies in L2 Turkish

| Middle East Technical University

This study provides quantitative and qualitative analyses of explicit expressions of apology in second language (L2) Turkish. L2 data from native Arabic and Russian speakers are compared with remedial acts used by native Turkish speakers in the same situations. Findings reveal that even after spending a considerable amount of time in the target language community, L2 learners still deviate significantly from native speaker norms and face the risk of encountering communication breakdowns.

Keywords: apologies, Arabic, interlanguage pragmatics, L2 Turkish, Russian, study abroad context
Published online: 25 May 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.59.09hat
References
Alfattah, M
2010 Apology strategies of Yemeni EFL university students. MJAL 2(3): 223–249.Google Scholar
Al-Zumor, A.W.Q.G
2011 Apologies in Arabic and English: An inter-language and cross-cultural study. Journal of King Saud University–Languages and Translation 23: 19–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, K
1999 Exploring the interlanguage of interlanguage pragmatics: a research agenda for acquisitional pragmatics. Language Learning 49: 677–713. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barron, A
2003 Acquisition in Interlanguage Pragmatics: Learning How to Do Things with Words in a Study Abroad Context [Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 108]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Learning to say “you” in German: The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a study abroad context. In Language Learners in Study Abroad Contexts, M. A. DuFon & E. Churchill (eds), 59–88. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Bataller, R
2010 Making a request for a service in Spanish: Pragmatic development in the study abroad setting. Foreign Language Annals 43(1): 160–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bataineh, R.F. & Bataineh, R.F
2006 Apology strategies of Jordanian EFL university students. Journal of Pragmatics 38: 1901–1927. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 A cross-cultural comparison of apologies by native speakers of American English and Jordanian Arabic. Journal of Pragmatics 40: 792–821. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bergman, M.L. & Kasper, G
1993 Perception and performance in native and nonnative apology. In Interlanguage Pragmatics, G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (eds), 82–107. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, S
1992 The metapragmatics of politeness in Israeli society. In Politeness in Language: Studies in its History, Theory and Practice, R.J. Watts, S. Ide & K. Ehlich (eds), 255–281. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Boxer, D
1993 Complaints as positive strategies: What the learners need to know. TESOL Quarterly 27(2): 277–299. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cohen, A.D. & Olshtain, E
1981 Developing a measure of sociocultural competence: The case of apology. Language Learning 31(1): 113–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cohen, A.D. & Shively, R.L
2007 Acquisition of requests and apologies in Spanish and French: Impact of study abroad and strategy-building. The Modern Language Journal 91(2): 189–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Collentine, J
2004 The effects of learning contexts on morphosyntactic and lexical development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26: 227–248. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dalmau, M.S. & Gotor, H.C
2007 From ‘‘Sorry very much’’ to ‘‘I’m ever so sorry:’’ Acquisitional patterns in L2 apologies by Catalan learners of English. Intercultural Pragmatics 4(2): 287–315. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deutschmann, M
2006 Social variation in the use of apology formulae in the British National Corpus. In The Changing Face of Corpus Linguistics, A. Renouf & A. Kehoe (eds), 205–222. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Dewey, D.P
2004 A comparison of reading development by learners of Japanese in intensive domestic immersion and study abroad contexts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26: 301–327. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diaz-Campos, M
2004 Context of learning in the acquisition of Spanish second language phonology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26: 249–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eğit, Y
2002 Reflections on apologies in Turkish as a stereotype of politeness. Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 37–62.Google Scholar
El-Khalil, H.M.H
1998 Variation in Apology Strategies among Friends and Acquaintances in Jordanian Arabic. MA thesis, Yarmouk University.
Erçetin, G
1995 Pragmatic Transfer in the Realization of Apologies: The Case of Turkish EFL learners. MA thesis, Boğaziçi University.
Erden, A. & Özyıldırım, I
2000 Apologies in Turkish: A functional approach. Turkic Languages 4(1): 31–44.Google Scholar
2002 Apologies in Turkish: A formal approach. Metafor Yazı, 1–16. [URL]Google Scholar
Fernández Amaya, L
2008 Teaching culture: Is it possible to avoid pragmatic failure? Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 21: 11–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Formanovskaja, N.I
2002 Russkij Rečevoj Ėtiket. Normativnyj Socjokul’turnyj Kontekst. 
Moskva: Russkij Jazyk.Google Scholar
Freed, B.F
(ed.)1995 Second Language Acquisition in a Study Abroad Context [Studies in Bilingualism 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcia, C
1989 Apologizing in English: Politeness strategies used by native and nonnative speakers. Multilingua 8: 3–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E
1971 Relations in Public: Microstudies in the Public Order. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Hatipoğlu, Ç
2004 Do apologies in e-mails follow spoken or written norms? Some examples from British English. Studies About Languages 5: 21–29.Google Scholar
2006 Do Turkish males and females use different apologies for different types of offence? In Advances in Turkish Linguistics: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics , S. Yağcıoğlu & A.C. Değer (eds), 595–611. Izmir: Dokuz Eylül Yayınları.
2009a Culture, Gender and Politeness: Apologies in Turkish and British English. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co.Google Scholar
2009b Level of imposition and explicit electronic apologies. In Essays in Turkish Linguistics: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics , S. Ay, Ö. Aydın, İ. Ergenç, S. Gökmen, S. İşsever & D. Peçenek (eds), 277–286. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz.
2012 Apologies and gender in Turkish and British English. Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi 1: 55–79.Google Scholar
Hill, F
2003 Seismic shifts in Eurasia: The changing relationship between Turkey and Russia and its implications for the South Caucasus. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 3(3): 55–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoffman-Hicks, S.D
2000 The Longitudinal Development of French Foreign Language Pragmatic Competence: Evidence from Study Abroad Participants. PhD dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Holmes, J
1989 Sex differences and apologies: One aspect of communicative competence. Applied Linguistics 10(2): 194–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990 Apologies in New Zealand English. Language in Society 19: 155–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hussein, R.F. & Hammouri, M.T
1998 Strategies of apology in Jordanian Arabic and American English. Grazer Linguistische Studien 49: 37–51.Google Scholar
Hymes, D
1972 Models of the interaction of language and social life. In Directions in Sociolinguistics, J. Gamperz & D. Hymes (eds), 35–71. New York NY: Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Ishihara, N. & Cohen, A.D
2010 Teaching and Learning Pragmatics: Where Language and Culture Meet. London: Pearson.Google Scholar
Jebahi, K
2011 Tunisian university students’ choice of apology strategies in a discourse completion task. Journal of Pragmatics 43: 648–662. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kabasakal, H. & Bodur, M
2002 Arabic cluster: A bridge between East and West. Journal of World Business 37: 40–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kasper, G
2000 Data collection in pragmatics research. In Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures, H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.), 316–341. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Kasper, G. & Blum-Kulka, S
(eds) 1993 Interlanguage Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Kasper, G. & Rose, K
2002 Pragmatic development in a second language. Language Learning 52 (Supplement 1): 1–352.Google Scholar
Kinginger, C
2008 Language learning and study abroad: Case study of Americans in France. Modern Language Journal 92: 1–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kondo, S
1997 The development of pragmatic competence by Japanese learners of English: Longitudinal study on interlanguage apologies. Sophia Linguistica 41: 265–284.Google Scholar
Lafford, B. & Collentine, J
2006 The effects of study abroad and classroom contexts on the acquisition of Spanish as a second language: From research to application. In Spanish Second Language Acquisition: From Research Findings to Teaching Applications, B. Lafford & R. Salaberry (eds), 103–126. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Liddicoat, A.J
2000 Everyday speech as culture: Implications for language teaching. In Teaching Languages, Teaching Cultures, A.J. Liddicoat & C. Crozet (eds), 51–63. Melbourne: Applied Linguistics Association of Australia.Google Scholar
Maeshiba, N., Yashinaga, N., Kasper, G. & Ross, S
1995 Transfer and proficiency in interlanguage apologising. In Speech acts Across Cultures, S. Gass & J. New (eds), 155–187. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Márquez Reiter, R
2001 The case of apologies in English and Spanish. In Perspectivas Recientes sobre el Discurso, A. Moreno & V. Colwell (eds). AESLA: León.Google Scholar
Meier, A.J
2004 Conflict and the power of apologies. Philologie im Netz (PhiN) 30: 1–17 [URL]Google Scholar
Mızıkacı, F
1991 A Sociocultural Investigation of Speech Acts (Requests and Apologies) in Turkish and English. MA thesis, Bilkent University.
Murad, T.M
2012 Apology strategies in the target language (English) of Israeli-Arab EFL college students towards their lecturers of English who are also native speakers of Arabic. Studies in Literature and Language 4(3): 23–29.Google Scholar
Nureddeen, F.A
2008 Cross cultural pragmatics: Apology strategies in Sudanese Arabic. Journal of Pragmatics 40: 279–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ogiermann, E
2006 Cultural variability within Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory: English, Polish and Russian apologies. In Studies in Contrastive Linguistics: Proceedings of the 4th International Contrastive Linguistics Conference Santiago de Compostela, septiembre 2005, C. Mouron-Figueroa & T. Moralejo-Garate (eds), 707–718. Santiago de Compostela: Servicio de Publicaciones.Google Scholar
2008 On the culture-specificity of linguistic gender differences: The case of English and Russian apologies. Intercultural Pragmatics 5(3): 259–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 On Apologising in Negative and Positive Politeness Cultures [Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 191]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olshtain, E
1983 Sociocultural competence and language transfer: The case of apology. In Language Transfer in Language Learning, S. Gass & L. Selinker (eds), 232–249. Rowley MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Olshtain, E. & Cohen, A.D
1983 Apology: A speech act set. In Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition, N. Wolfson & E. Judd (eds), 18–35. Rowley MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
1989 Speech act behavior across languages. In Transfer in Production, H.W. Dechert & M. Raupach (eds), 53–67. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
1991 Teaching speech act behavior to nonnative speakers. In An Introduction to Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, M. Celce Murcia (ed.), 154–165. Cambridge MA: Newbury House/Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Özyıldırım, I
2010 The level of directness in Turkish apology forms in relation to the level of education. Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 27(1): 179–201.Google Scholar
Pelligrino, V.A
1998 Student perspectives on language learning in a study abroad context. Frontiers 4: 91–120.Google Scholar
Rathmayr, R
1996 Pragmatik der Entschuldigungen. Vergleichende Untersuchung am Beispiel der Russischen Sprache und Kultur. Köln: Böhlau.Google Scholar
Robinson, J.D
2004 The sequential organization of ‘explicit’ apologies in naturally occurring English. Research on Language and Social Interaction 37(3): 291–330. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, S
2001 The Perception of Requests in Spanish by Instructed Learners of Spanish in the Second- and Foreign-language Contexts: A Longitudinal Study of Acquisition Patterns. PhD dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Savina, E
2002 The influence of American English on Russian Apologies. MA thesis, California State University.
Schauer, G.A
2009 Intercultural Pragmatic Development. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Searle, J.R
1969 Speech Acts. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1976 A classification of illocutionary acts. Language and Society 5: 1–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shardakova, M
2005a Intercultural pragmatics in the speech of American L2 learners of Russian: Apologies offered by Americans in Russian. Intercultural Pragmatics 2(4): 423–451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005b Interlanguage Pragmatics in the Speech of American Second Language Learners of Russian: Apologies Offered by Americans in Russian. PhD dissertation. Bryn Mawr College.
Suszczynska, M
1999 Apologizing in English, Polish and Hungarian: Different languages, different strategies. Journal of Pragmatics 31(8): 1053–1065. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomas, J
1983 Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics 4(2): 91–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villas-Boas, I
2001 Teaching speech acts explicitly in the EFL classroom. CTJ-Journal 40: 8–20.Google Scholar
Von Canon, A
2006 Just saying ‘no’: Refusing Requests in Spanish as a First and Second Language. PhD dissertation, The University of Iowa.
Wouk, F
2006 The language of apologising in Lombok, Indonesia. Journal of Pragmatics 38(9): 1457–1486. DOI logoGoogle Scholar