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Language& Communication, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 295-299, 1984. Printed in Great Britain. 0271-5309/84%3.00+ .oa Pergamon Press Ltd. MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE ON POLITE COMMUNICATION IN A SECOND LANGUAGE TONY OBILADE Introduction Current studies on the pragmatics of communication during the process of second language acquisition have suggested through various kinds of empirical research that advanced learners of English as a second language (ESL) are quite sensitive toward the various politeness distinctions observed by native speakers of English. For example, studies have shown that ESL learners are aware of the different degrees of politeness implicit in the use of the following sentences as requests: (a) Get me some beer! (b) Could you get me some beer? Carrel1 and Konneker (1981) compared the politeness judgements of 72 ESL students with those of native speakers on a set of English request sentences such as the ones presented above. They found that not only were ESL students aware of these distinctions, but they also tried to be oversensitive in their politeness distinctions. Similarly, Tanaka and Kawade (1982) studied a group of Japanese ‘advanced’ ESL students and found a significantly high correlation between their politeness judgements and those of the native speakers of English who served as subjects. It is not the case that only foreign students studying in American institutions exhibit this kind of politeness judgement. Obilade’s (in press) study of a group of Nigerians not only supported earlier findings but also recorded a significant relationship between the structure of a request sentence and its politeness value as determined by Nigerian speakers of English (r=0.41; p <0.05). These studies seem to suggest that this kind of pragmatic knowledge is preserved in the non-native speaker’s speech during the post-competence period, even where the language has become nativized and an internal norm has replaced the native speaker’s norm (as in the case of Nigeria). Such studies are very important to second language teaching because they present evidence suggesting that ESL learners do acquire some form of pragmatic knowledge of the language independently of classroom instruction. Since the acquisition of such pragmatic information is normally not provided for in the ESL curriculum, the source of this sensitivity toward structures is of vital importance to the development of the theory of language acquisition. This potentially universal feature of communication could influence the structure of the ESL curriculum and encourage the development of teaching strategies designed to ensure that the acquisition of appropriate kinds of pragmatic infor- mation is enhanced while pragmatic information which is incongruous with acceptable communicative behaviour in English is discouraged. Correspondence relating to this paper should be addressed to Dr. Tony Obilade, Department of Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. 295

Mother tongue influence on polite communication in a second language

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Page 1: Mother tongue influence on polite communication in a second language

Language& Communication, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 295-299, 1984. Printed in Great Britain.

0271-5309/84%3.00+ .oa Pergamon Press Ltd.

MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE ON POLITE COMMUNICATION IN A SECOND LANGUAGE

TONY OBILADE

Introduction Current studies on the pragmatics of communication during the process of second

language acquisition have suggested through various kinds of empirical research that advanced learners of English as a second language (ESL) are quite sensitive toward the various politeness distinctions observed by native speakers of English. For example, studies have shown that ESL learners are aware of the different degrees of politeness

implicit in the use of the following sentences as requests:

(a) Get me some beer! (b) Could you get me some beer?

Carrel1 and Konneker (1981) compared the politeness judgements of 72 ESL students with those of native speakers on a set of English request sentences such as the ones presented above. They found that not only were ESL students aware of these distinctions, but they also tried to be oversensitive in their politeness distinctions. Similarly, Tanaka and Kawade (1982) studied a group of Japanese ‘advanced’ ESL students and found a significantly high correlation between their politeness judgements and those of the native speakers of English who served as subjects. It is not the case that only foreign students studying in American institutions exhibit this kind of politeness judgement. Obilade’s (in press) study of a group of Nigerians not only supported earlier findings but also recorded a significant relationship between the structure of a request sentence and its politeness value as determined by Nigerian speakers of English (r=0.41; p <0.05).

These studies seem to suggest that this kind of pragmatic knowledge is preserved in the non-native speaker’s speech during the post-competence period, even where the language has become nativized and an internal norm has replaced the native speaker’s norm (as in the case of Nigeria). Such studies are very important to second language teaching because they present evidence suggesting that ESL learners do acquire some form of pragmatic knowledge of the language independently of classroom instruction. Since the acquisition of such pragmatic information is normally not provided for in the ESL curriculum, the source of this sensitivity toward structures is of vital importance to the development of the theory of language acquisition. This potentially universal feature of communication could influence the structure of the ESL curriculum and encourage the development of teaching strategies designed to ensure that the acquisition of appropriate kinds of pragmatic infor- mation is enhanced while pragmatic information which is incongruous with acceptable communicative behaviour in English is discouraged.

Correspondence relating to this paper should be addressed to Dr. Tony Obilade, Department of Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

295

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296 TONY OBILADE

It should also be mentioned that all current studies on the communicative behaviour of ESL learners appear to support Lakoff’s (1976, 1977) theory of politeness. Lakoff suggests that in English, politeness increases with diminished imposition. When the struc- ture of the request appears to give an option of refusal, the hearer feels he is not being imposed upon and the request is considered relatively polite. The fact that previous studies have found that ‘indirectly effected’ requests were judged most polite by all groups of subjects seems to indicate a widespread support for Lakoff’s position. Obilade’s (in press) study has provided more direct empirical support for Lakoff’s position since ‘yes/no’ question type requests (for example, ‘could you shut the window?‘) were judged more polite than imperative type requests (for example, ‘shut the window!‘). Thus, the study found a significant correlation between request structure (imposition vs optionality) and politeness judgement Q-=0.41; p > 0.05). Because of the implications of these fin- dings for the theory of second language acquisition and the problems of universals in communication, it is necessary to encourage further investigations of the phenomenon of polite communication in a target language.

In spite of the consistency so far witnessed in these studies, several issues are yet to be satisfactorily resolved. Some of these issues include the following:

(1) In providing a list of eight or more types of request sentences on which the judgements of native speakers and foreigners are compared, we assume that foreign learners of English are familiar with all these structures and are therefore able to make intelligent judgements concerning their politeness value. This is not always the case as ESL learners have different levels of proficiency.

(2) At least one of the previous studies (Tanaka and Kawade, 1982) has confirmed that there is some incongruity between politeness judgements of subjects and the use of these structures in real situations. It is just possible that the ESL learner does not distinguish meaning from use. In short, the notion of politeness may be inseparable from specific situations, in which case politeness judgement data obtained from a context-free pro- cedure may not be reliable.

(3) Since the kind of pragmatic knowledge being investigated is not formally provided in a classroom setting, and since the elicitation instrument is context-free, other variables may have influenced the ESL learner’s politeness judgement. Specifically, a consideration of the mother tongue translation of the English structures as well as the politeness norms of the mother tongue could influence the subject’s judgement.

The present study This study addressed itself to one of the issues raised above, namely, an investigation of

a possible relationship between an ESL learner’s first language and his politeness judge- ment of structures in the target language. In a previous study (Obilade, in press), follow- up interviews suggested that most of the Yoruba subjects considered the form of request that is preceded by ‘please’ more polite than any other form. On the other hand, the form ‘I’d appreciate . . .’ which was judged most polite in previous studies was regarded as

being sarcastic when translated into Yoruba. For some subjects, ‘give me some water!’ could never be impolite because (as one subject put it) ‘one never refuses a request for water’. It was obvious that cultural and linguistic features could play a part in a learner’s perception of the politeness rating of the structures of the target language.

This study was conducted to test empirically if the subject’s mother tongue could

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MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE ON POLITE COMMUNICATION IN A SECOND LANGUAGE 297

significantly affect his judgement on politeness. Yoruba was selected partly because of the data obtained in a previous study and partly because, compared to the other languages used in this study, Yoruba fitted the description of an overly polite language. Yoruba has two second person singular pronouns (one indicating respect and the other familiarity). Similarly, it is quite common for Yoruba speakers of English to use structures such as ‘they are here’ instead of ‘he is here’ in order to preserve the distinctions observed in Yoruba, in which language it is inappropriate to refer to a person of superior status (either by age or social standing) in the singular.

Research questions The study sought to answer the following questions.

(1) Is there a higher level of agreement among Yoruba speakers than a multi-ethnic group of other Nigerians in their politeness judgements of English request sentences?

(2) Are Yoruba speakers of English more sensitive towards politeness distinctions in certain English request sentences than a multi-ethnic group of other Nigerians?

(3) Is there a significantly high correlation between Yoruba speakers of English and a multi-ethnic group of other Nigerians in their politeness judgement?

Methods and procedures

One linguistically homogeneous group and one multi-ethnic group were used in this study. Ten native speakers of Yoruba and ten native speakers of some of the other Nigerian languages (Efik, Hausa, Igbo and Edo) were selected to study the questions listed above. The subjects were students of the University of Ibadan who were considered fluent in English. Each subject was presented with ten randomly arranged cards con- taining ten English request sentences and was asked to rearrange the cards in order of politeness, with the most polite at the top.

Results and discussion The most polite sentence received a score of 1 while the least polite was scored 10. The

scores for each sentence were added separately for each group. The average rank order was computed and the rank order was determined. The results are presented in Table 1. As it was necessary to ascertain if the subjects within each group were consistent in their politeness judgements, the coefficient of concordance, W, was calculated for the data. The chi-square test of significance was also computed. The results are presented in Table 2. As shown in Table 2, there is a high degree of correlation in the politeness judgements

Table 1. Rank ordering by two groups of Nigerians

Requests Average rank order Rank

Yoruba (N= 10) Other languages (N= IO) Yoruba Others

Please . Could you . .? I’d appreciate . Would you .? Can you . . .? I need I’d like you to I want you to . X(water)! Get me .

1.4 2.2 3.4 4.1 4.8 6.0 6.4 7.8 9.3 9.6

2.2 1 1 2.5 2 2 2.9 3 3 4.1 4 4 6.0 5 6 5.6 6 5 6.5 7 7 6.6 8 8 9.4 9 10 9.2 10 9

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298 TONY OBILADE

Table 2. Agreement of politeness judgements within each group

Yoruba subjects Other subjects (N= 10) (N= 10)

W 0.87 0.73 df. 9 9 x2 test of significance of W 78.3* @.I+

*P < 0.001

among the subjects within each group. Subjects within both groups are sensitive toward

the varying degrees of politeness conveyed by request sentences in English. Yoruba sub- jects have a higher Wvalue and as this indicates the degree of agreement among subjects, question 1 is answered in the affirmative.

To answer question 2, the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks test was used to determine the direction and relative magnitude of the differences between the average rank order for each of the sentences within the two groups. The T was calculated and tested for significance. Also, the number of discrete levels of politeness for each group was determined by a comparison of the differences between adjacent pairs within each group. The results are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Differences between rank orderings

Requests Yoruba Others d Rank of d Rank with less (N= 10) (N= 10) frequent sign

Please. . Could you .? I’d appreciate Would you. .? Can you. .? I need . I’d like you to. . 1 want you to . X (water)! Getme...

1.4 2.2 0.8 -9 2.2 2.5 -0.3 -5 3.4 2.9 0.5 8 8 4.1 4.1 0 4.8 6.0 ml.2 -3.5 6.0 5.6 0.4 6.5 6.5 Q 6.5 -0.1 -1.5 7.8 6.6 1.2 3.5 3.5 9.3 9.4 0.1 ml.5 9.6 9.2 0.4 6.5 6.5

T= 24.5

Table 3 indicates a T score of 24.5 which is not significant. This shows that there is no significant difference between the rankings of the two groups. This further confirms the high degree of agreement shown in Table 1. However, if we consider a minimum score of 1.0 as being necessary for a transition from one level of politeness to another, it will be seen that Yoruba has five distinct levels of politeness while the multi-ethnic group has four. Thus, Yoruba subjects appear to be more sensitive toward politeness distinctions in English request sentences. Question 2 is therefore answered in the affirmative. This con- firms Carrel and Konneker’s (1981) observation about the oversensitivity of non-native speakers toward politeness distinctions in English. Another inspection of Table 3 indicates that there is agreement among the two groups as to what is least polite. The fact that the question-type requests rank highest (with the exception of the overtly marked ‘please . . .’ and ‘I’d appreciate . . .’ structures) lends support to Lakoff’s politeness theory which states that politeness increases with less imposition.

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MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE ON POLITE COMMUNICATION IN A SECOND LANGUAGE 299

Table 4. Correlation between Yoruba subjects and other subjects in their politeness judgements

N IO

‘s 0.98 t 13.8 df 0.8

P < 0.001

To answer question 3, the Spearman rank correlation (r,) was computed and a t-test was performed to ascertain its significance. The results are presented in Table 4. Table 4 indicates a positive significant correlation between both groups in their politeness judgements. Question 3 is therefore answered in the affirmative. Since there is a near- perfect correlation (which is highly significant) between these groups, it does not appear that the mother tongue of the subjects has any noticeable impact on their politeness judgements. Similarly, the analysis seems to suggest that if the mother tongue had any im- pact, it was restricted to the subject’s consistency in ranking and their recognition of dif- ferent levels of politeness. It appears that an overly polite language might be more sen- sitive toward structures in the target language in the sense that it could recognize more levels than native speakers would (as pointed out in Carrel and Konneker’s [1981] study); however, this study suggests that the mother tongue would not significantly affect the sub- ject’s judgements of the relative politeness of structures in the target language.

Conclusion Although the phenomenon of cultural and linguistic interference in second language

learning would lead us to expect the learner’s mother tongue to affect his perception of politeness in the target language, this study has not found any evidence in support of this idea. Rather, this study found that a homogeneous linguistic group did not behave signifi- cantly differently from a heterogeneous group in their politeness judgements of target language structures.

There is an urgent need for more research on potentially universal language features (or communication features) which make the Japanese, the Taiwanese and the Nigerian come up with near-identical judgements of the relative politeness value of English request sentences. This is not such a strange phenomenon. Linguistic science has not found a satisfactory answer to the question of how children of diverse backgrounds manage to come up with virtually the same grammatical system in their mother tongue, even without formal training.

Research in the area of the pragmatics of communication in a second language would be useful in the explication of the process of language acquisition in general.

REFERENCES CARREL, P. and KONNEKER, B. 1981 Politeness: Comparing native and nonnative judgements. Language Learning 31, 17-30.

LAKOFF, R. 1976 Language and Society. In Wardhaugh, R. and Brown, H. (Eds), A Survey of Applied Linguistics, pp. 207-8. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.

LAKOFF, R. 1977 What you can do with words: Politeness, pragmatics and performatives. In Rogers, A., Wall, B. and Murphy, J. (Eds), Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presuppositions and Implicutures, pp. 79-105. Center for Applied Linguistics, Arlington, VA.

OBILADE, T. (in press) Communicating politeness in Nigerian English.

TANAKA, S. and KAWADE, S. 1982 Politeness strategies and second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 5, pp. 1833.