The speech act of request in the ESL classroom

The Malaysian education system is at a time where effective classroom communication is seen as a vital step in enhancing the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL). Rural secondary school students in Malaysia seem to be unaware of their level of politeness when communicating i...

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Main Authors: Phanithira Thuruvan, Melor Md Yunus
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/1/21952-65597-1-PB.pdf
id ukm-12866
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-128662019-05-07T14:27:45Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/ The speech act of request in the ESL classroom Phanithira Thuruvan, Melor Md Yunus, The Malaysian education system is at a time where effective classroom communication is seen as a vital step in enhancing the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL). Rural secondary school students in Malaysia seem to be unaware of their level of politeness when communicating in English. This study of the speech act of request which is related to the field of pragmatics and classroom culture, can be beneficial in understanding how students perceive polite interaction when speaking English. This ongoing study aims to identify the types of requeststrategies employed by the participants in making requests and explore the factors influencing their choice of strategies. The participants of the study are students and two language teachers of a rural secondary school in Kedah. Data collection was done by first recording naturally occurring data in the classroom. The data is then analysed based on Blum-Kulka and Olshstain’s (1984) CCSARP framework and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory. Subsequently, participants identified are administered the Discourse Completion Tests (DCT). Preliminary findings show that students seem to be less polite when speaking to peers and more polite when speaking to teachers. Teachers, on the other hand, speak less politely to students as they have more power. This study provides valuable insights to the study of classroom pragmatics in Malaysia and future research should be conducted in urban school settings to gain more comprehensive data in this area of study. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/1/21952-65597-1-PB.pdf Phanithira Thuruvan, and Melor Md Yunus, (2017) The speech act of request in the ESL classroom. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 23 (4). pp. 212-221. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1059
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description The Malaysian education system is at a time where effective classroom communication is seen as a vital step in enhancing the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL). Rural secondary school students in Malaysia seem to be unaware of their level of politeness when communicating in English. This study of the speech act of request which is related to the field of pragmatics and classroom culture, can be beneficial in understanding how students perceive polite interaction when speaking English. This ongoing study aims to identify the types of requeststrategies employed by the participants in making requests and explore the factors influencing their choice of strategies. The participants of the study are students and two language teachers of a rural secondary school in Kedah. Data collection was done by first recording naturally occurring data in the classroom. The data is then analysed based on Blum-Kulka and Olshstain’s (1984) CCSARP framework and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory. Subsequently, participants identified are administered the Discourse Completion Tests (DCT). Preliminary findings show that students seem to be less polite when speaking to peers and more polite when speaking to teachers. Teachers, on the other hand, speak less politely to students as they have more power. This study provides valuable insights to the study of classroom pragmatics in Malaysia and future research should be conducted in urban school settings to gain more comprehensive data in this area of study.
format Article
author Phanithira Thuruvan,
Melor Md Yunus,
spellingShingle Phanithira Thuruvan,
Melor Md Yunus,
The speech act of request in the ESL classroom
author_facet Phanithira Thuruvan,
Melor Md Yunus,
author_sort Phanithira Thuruvan,
title The speech act of request in the ESL classroom
title_short The speech act of request in the ESL classroom
title_full The speech act of request in the ESL classroom
title_fullStr The speech act of request in the ESL classroom
title_full_unstemmed The speech act of request in the ESL classroom
title_sort speech act of request in the esl classroom
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2017
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12866/1/21952-65597-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T20:03:34Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T20:03:34Z
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