ENGL 3530 Semantics & Pragmatics Section 2 (Group 1)

ENGL 3530 Semantics & Pragmatics
Section 2 

The speech of request:
Comparison between the native

and non-native speaker

Group 1

Anis Sofea binti Saharudin 1711586
Siti Najihah binti Iskandar 1711874
Nurul Alisa binti Muhammad Nidzam 1713494
Athirah Fatini Binti Yunus 1714122
Syakirah binti Mohd Safri 1716552

Noraidah Abu Samah 1718158

Instructor: Dr. Zahariah binti Pilus

Problem Methodology
Statement
Data Collection
Politeness and appropriateness in mastering the ESL
create difficulties in terms of the speech act Youtube Educational Movies TV Programmes
Online News Website
Research Article
Questions
Instruments
Does the social distance of
the addressee influence the The data of selected articulations in acts of request were gathered from these
choice of the request
strategies employed by the sources:
native speaker when Youtube: Conversation about Making Request/ Indonesian, Mama and
making a request? Ameera get me ready for raya by Athisha Khan and Grocery Challenge -
Mommy VS Kids by Vivy Yusof
How do requests form by Online News Article: The Economist news (news headline)
non-native speakers of Educational Websites: thought.co.coma and learningenglish.voanews.com
English and native speakers (Lesson 19: Movie Night)
compared in terms of Movies: Frozen and Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
politeness? TV Programmes: Full House, Glee and Jimmy Kimmel Live TV Show

Procedure

Six individuals of researchers are divided into 2 groups, in order to find the utterances that
were spoken by the native and non-native speakers. The utterances are gathered from any
sources in the media and the Internet. Next, both groups are assigned to search for 12 speech
acts of request by the native and non-native speakers respectively, which makes 24 speeches
of both findings in total. The selected sources of data are mentioned in the data collection of
instruments.

Analysis The degree of politeness Findings
The usage of modal verbs
Table 1.1 : Indirect and Direct Request Strategies

ssNNppaaeettaaiivkvkeeeerr "Honestly. Get dressed and don't go back to sleep. Come on, ron! Your
mother says breakfast ready.

(harry potter and The goblet of fire)

Degree of politeness: low (direct request)
Verbs "Get" and "don't"= Immediate actions that should be taken and

avoid respectively.

ssNNNNppaoaoeettnanaiivk-vk-eeeerr “Would you marry me?”
(Would you marry me by Big Marvel | YouTube)

Degree of politeness: High
Modal verb "would" suggests an idea of initiating a proposal to

someone.
Leave the addressee for an option.

Table 1.2 : Degree of Politeness of Modal Auxiliaries Discussion

The results show that the native speakers are more polite when making
a request than the non-native speaker as they employed the indirect
request strategies. In contrast, the non-native speakers mostly employed
direct request strategies in making a request. Moreover, the native
speakers also formulated their request using the past form of the modal
verbs compared to the non-native. The past form of modals conveys a
higher degree of politeness compared to the non-past form as Graffiths
(2006).

In terms of the variable of social distance, the results prove that the
smaller the social distance between the speaker and the addressee, the
less polite the request will be. That is to say, the degree of familiarity
between them will affect the politeness strategy in making requests. No
differences can be seen between the requests made by the native
speakers and non-native speakers as the degree of politeness in making
requests is determined by the range of familiarity between the
interlocutors: strangers and friends, parents and children and etc. It is
essential to choose the appropriate speech act of request to ensure the
result of the communication will not negatively affect the speaker's face,
as suggested by Brown and Levinson's politeness theory.

References:
1.Zainal, N. F. (2018). Strategies in Request Speech Act: A Case Study of Malay ESL Learners in IIUM.
2.Thuruvan, P. & MD Yunus, M. (2017). The Speech Act of Request in the ESL Classroom. The Southeast Asian
Journal of English Language Studies. 23(4), 212 – 221. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2017-2304-16