Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics: Online-First Articles“Do you have a pen?” “Yes.”
A cross-cultural and interlanguage analysis of pre-request sequences in Spanish and Chinese
This study investigates how the cross-cultural variation between Spanish and Chinese interactional styles
influences the interlanguage pre-request sequences in Spanish produced by Chinese-speaking learners. Ninety-four university
students, including 40 Chinese learners of Spanish at intermediate and advanced levels, 24 native Spanish speakers and 30 native
Chinese speakers, performed 10-item open role-plays that elicited requests. Results revealed that learners exhibited negative
transfer concerning cross-cultural differences, but did not always make positive transfer in aspects of cross-cultural
similarities. Notably, learners and native Chinese speakers differed from native Spanish speakers in their production of the
pre-requests asking about the recipients’ availability and their responses to the pre-requests inquiring about the existence of
certain belongings. Furthermore, in comparison with native speakers, learners more frequently used the pre-requests asking for a
favor. The findings of this research highlight cultural diversity in speakers’ pre-request sequences and pragmatic transfer at the
interactional level. Additionally, the study brings attention to the issue of verbosity in intermediate and advanced learners’
sequential organization.
Keywords: pre-request, sequential organization, L2 Spanish, Chinese, pragmatic transfer
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Pre-request sequences in CA
- 2.2Pre-requests in interlanguage pragmatics
- 2.3Brown and Levinson’s politeness model
- 3.Methods
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Instrument
- 3.3Framework and procedure
- 4.Results
- 4.1Availability
- 4.2Existence
- 4.3Favor
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- Note
-
References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
Published online: 6 January 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.23004.wan
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.23004.wan
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