چکیده:
This study aimed to investigate EFL learners’ request strategies to faculty to see whether politeness is interpreted differently or similarly across gender and different levels of language proficiency in text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). Data included initial semistructured interviews with 4 EFL instructors and 10 college EFL learners. Based on the interviews, an online task was developed that included request situations that were most likely to occur in real life in SCMC settings. Having administered the Quick Placement Test (QPT), the online task was completed by 99 lower-intermediate and 118 upper-intermediate EFL learners in 4 universities in Iran. Participants’ request strategies were coded and analysed to explore the possible differences. Chi-square findings suggested that gender had no relations with the choice of request strategies by the participants to faculty in SCMC; however, level of proficiency made a difference. This research provides guidelines for course designers to generate appropriate pedagogic guidelines for EFL learners in their hierarchical relationships with their teachers.
خلاصه ماشینی:
com Abstract This study aimed to investigate EFL learners’ request strategies to faculty to see whether politeness is interpreted differently or similarly across gender and different levels of language proficiency in text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC).
The text-based mode of SCMC allows L2 researchers to analyze the manner in which EFL learners utilize the resources of linguistic diversity available to them in communication with other people (Lin, Huang, & Liou, 2013).
g. , Allami & Naeimi, 2011; Nguyen, 2008; Taguchi, 2006; Xu, Case, & Wang, 2009), the Quick Placement Test (QPT; Oxford University Press & Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, 2004) was utilized to determine the EFL learners’ level of language proficiency in this study.
Therefore, concerning the incremental development of text-based SCMC use in language learning and teaching, this study was an attempt to examine lower-intermediate and upper-intermediate EFL learners’ request strategies to faculty in text-based SCMC.
Therefore, considering the importance of contextual and social dimensions of language learning (Norton, 2000; Tarone, 2000), it is necessary to investigate EFL learners’ patterns of request strategies in text-based SCMC to see if such learners are able to effectively communicate with their teachers outside the classroom in text-based SCMC settings.
The results indicated that the female and male EFL learners opted to use negative polite strategies in text-based SCMC, though the male participants employed direct strategies more than their female counterparts.
However, the chi-square findings indicated that the level of proficiency of the participants was a determining factor in the EFL production of request strategies in text-based SCMC settings.
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