چکیده:
Several studies have indicated that the range and linguistics expressions of external modifiers available in one language differ from those available in another language. The present study aims to investigate the cross-cultural differences and similarities with regards to the realization of request external modifications. To this end, 30 Iraqi and 30 Malay university students are selected as the participants of this study. Spencer-Oatey's (2008) rapport management theoretical framework is used to examine how face rapport is managed through the use of external modifications. The corpus consists of responses to a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) consisting of eight situations. The questionnaires, adopted from Rose (1994), were distributed among Iraqi students and Malaysian Malay students studying at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. The corpus was then analyzed based on Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper’s (1989) classification of external modifiers. The primary objective of this paper is to compare the effect of situational factors on the realization patterns of request modification between Iraqi and Malay university students .The findings indicated that grounders are the most common external modifier used by the subjects. Results also show more similarities than differences between the subjects under study in terms of the use of mitigation devices such as apologies, compliments and gratitude. However, both Iraqis and Malays differ in their perception of the situational factors. Finally, the study suggests some pedagogical implications for both ESL and EFL teachers.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"A cross-cultural study of request speech act: Iraqi and Malay students Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar* (Australian Technical Management College (ATMC), Australia) *Corresponding author email: hibaqusay@yahoo.
Accordingly, the present study aims at investigating the cross-cultural differences and similarities in the way Iraqi and Malay university students manage the face rapport through the use of external modifications.
Within the speech act of requesting, it has been mostly examined in relation to politeness and language proficiency by investigating whether the two language/cultural groups use combinations of internal/external modifiers in the same way and to the same extent.
The use of forms like ‘aasif/ aasfa’ (I am sorry) or ‘al afu’ (I beg your pardon) is common in Iraqi Arabic as well as in Bahasa Malayu " Maaf" as a way of redressing the face-threatening act of request especially when interacting with a speaker of high authority or when interacting with strangers.
Conclusion The present paper is a cross-cultural research between Iraqi and Malay university students by studying the requesting behaviour and the social, cultural norms of these groups.
Though the results of the present study show more similarities than differences between the subjects under study in terms of mitigation devices use such as apologies, compliments and thanking, further research may provide us with a more global view of the cultural tendencies in mitigating the act of making requests among Iraqis and Malaysians."