Investigation of the effects of the social power and social distance on the realization of apology between Jordanian and English cultures
Keywords:
Speech act of apology, Inter-language pragmatics, sociopragmatic competence, Discourse Completion Test (DCT), Scaled Response Questionnaire (SRQ).
Abstract
The current study investigated the influence of context-external variables; social power (High, Equal and Low) and social distance (Familiar and Unfamiliar) on the perception of Jordanian and English speech act of apology. Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and Scaled Response Questionnaire (SRQ) were used to elicit data from three groups: 40 Jordanian L2 speakers in Malaysia, 40 Jordanian non-English speakers in Malaysia and 40 English native speakers from British Council in Jordan. The three groups of respondents were asked to assess four context-internal variables i.e. the severity of the offence, the possibility of the offender apology, the difficulty of the apology by the offender and the likelihood of apology acceptance by the offended party. Results of the study were accomplished using one way ANOVA and Tukey HSD post hoc statistical tests. The findings revealed that Jordanians have high sensitivity toward hierarchical power and social distance more than English native speakers. Moreover, results revealed that there are negative sociopragmatic transfers from L1 to L2 by JL2Ss based on their four-context internal variables perception. Findings could be used to increase the cultural awareness toward some similarities and differences between both cultures
References
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Alfattah, M. (2010). Apology strategies of Yemeni EFL university students. University of Mysore, Mysore, India.
Al-Issa, A. (2003). Sociocultural transfer in L2 speech behaviors: Evidence and motivating factors. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27(5), 581-601.
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Bataineh, A. M. (2014). The Effect of Electronic Dictionaries and Hypermedia Annotations on English Major Students' Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning. International Journal of Linguistics, 6(4), pp. 102-115.
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Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies (Vol. 31): Ablex Pub.
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Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Holmes, J. (1990). New Zealand ways of speaking English: Multilingual Matters.
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Hussein, R. F., & Hammouri, M. T. (1998). Strategies of apology in Jordanian Arabic and American English. Grazer Linguistische Studien(49), 37-50.
Ifantidou, E. (2014). Pragmatic Competence and Relevance (Vol. 245): John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Jebahi, K. (2011). Tunisian university students’ choice of apology strategies in a discourse completion task. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 648-662.
Kashkouli, Z., & Eslamirasekh, A. (2013). The Effect of Context-External Factors on Context-
Internal Factors in Apology Perception: A Case in Iranian Context. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1590-1599.
Kasper, G. (1992). Pragmatic transfer. Second language research, 8(3), 203-231.
Leech, G. N., (1983). Principles of pragmatics (Vol. 1): Longman London.
Majeed, A., & Janjua, F. (2014). Apology strategies and gender: A Pragmatic study of apology speech acts in Urdu language.
Nureddeen, F. A. (2008). Cross cultural pragmatics: Apology strategies in Sudanese Arabic.
Journal of Pragmatics, 40(2), 279-306.
Olshtain, E. (1989). Apologies across languages. Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies, 155173.
Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A. (1983). Apology: A speech act set. Sociolinguistics and language acquisition, 18-35.
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2012). What is culture? A compilation of quotations. GlobalPAD Core Concepts.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 91-112.
Trosborg, A. (2010). Pragmatics across languages and cultures (Vol. 7): Walter de Gruyter.
Parsa, H., & Jan, J. B. M. (2012). Apology Strategies of Iranian ESL Students. Master's Dissertation, University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Ziran, H. (2004). Reverse thinking on foreign language teaching and learning [J]. Foreign Language World, 6, 000.
Alfattah, M. (2010). Apology strategies of Yemeni EFL university students. University of Mysore, Mysore, India.
Al-Issa, A. (2003). Sociocultural transfer in L2 speech behaviors: Evidence and motivating factors. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27(5), 581-601.
Al-Momani, H. S. (2009). Caught between two cultures: The realization of requests by Jordanian EFL learners. Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Al-Shboul, Y. (2014). Refusal Strategies in English among Jordanian EFL learners. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). National University of Malaysia, Malaysia.
Al-Zumor, A. W. Q. G. (2011). Apologies in Arabic and English: An inter-language and cross-cultural study. Journal of King Saud University-Languages and Translation, 23(1), 1928.
Aydin, M. (2013). Cross cultural Pragmatics: A study of Apology Speech Acts by Turkish speakers, American English Speakers and Advance Nonnative Speakers of English in Turkey. Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Banikalef, A., Abdullah, A. E., & Maros, M. (2013). Social Beliefs for the Realization of the Speech Acts of Apology among Jordanian EFL Graduate Students. English Linguistics Research, 2(2).
Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2010). Exploring the pragmatics of interlanguage pragmatics: Definition by design. Pragmatics across languages and cultures, 7, 219-259.
Bataineh, A. M. (2014). The Effect of Electronic Dictionaries and Hypermedia Annotations on English Major Students' Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning. International Journal of Linguistics, 6(4), pp. 102-115.
Bataineh, R. F., & Bataineh, R. F. (2008). Apology strategies of Jordanian EFL university students. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(11), 1901-1927.
Bergman, M. L., & Kasper, G. (1993). Perception and performance in native and nonnative apology. Interlanguage pragmatics, 4(1), 82-107.
Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies (Vol. 31): Ablex Pub.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction, ed. by E. Goody, 56-311: Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Holmes, J. (1990). New Zealand ways of speaking English: Multilingual Matters.
Hou, Y.-c. (2006). A Cross-cultural Study of the Perception of Apology—Effect of Contextual Factors, Exposure to the Target Language, Interlocutor Ethnicity and Task Language. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan.
Hussein, R. F., & Hammouri, M. T. (1998). Strategies of apology in Jordanian Arabic and American English. Grazer Linguistische Studien(49), 37-50.
Ifantidou, E. (2014). Pragmatic Competence and Relevance (Vol. 245): John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Jebahi, K. (2011). Tunisian university students’ choice of apology strategies in a discourse completion task. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 648-662.
Kashkouli, Z., & Eslamirasekh, A. (2013). The Effect of Context-External Factors on Context-
Internal Factors in Apology Perception: A Case in Iranian Context. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1590-1599.
Kasper, G. (1992). Pragmatic transfer. Second language research, 8(3), 203-231.
Leech, G. N., (1983). Principles of pragmatics (Vol. 1): Longman London.
Majeed, A., & Janjua, F. (2014). Apology strategies and gender: A Pragmatic study of apology speech acts in Urdu language.
Nureddeen, F. A. (2008). Cross cultural pragmatics: Apology strategies in Sudanese Arabic.
Journal of Pragmatics, 40(2), 279-306.
Olshtain, E. (1989). Apologies across languages. Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies, 155173.
Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A. (1983). Apology: A speech act set. Sociolinguistics and language acquisition, 18-35.
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2012). What is culture? A compilation of quotations. GlobalPAD Core Concepts.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 91-112.
Trosborg, A. (2010). Pragmatics across languages and cultures (Vol. 7): Walter de Gruyter.
Parsa, H., & Jan, J. B. M. (2012). Apology Strategies of Iranian ESL Students. Master's Dissertation, University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Ziran, H. (2004). Reverse thinking on foreign language teaching and learning [J]. Foreign Language World, 6, 000.
Published
2015-12-10
How to Cite
Al-Khaza’leh, B., & Zainal Ariff, T. N. (2015). Investigation of the effects of the social power and social distance on the realization of apology between Jordanian and English cultures. Dinamika Ilmu, 15(2), 167-183. https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v15i2.251
Section
Articles
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