Cross-Cultural Study on Requesting Made by EFL Learners and Native Speakers

Abstract

The present descriptive-quantitative study explored the request strategies that emerged in Iraqi Arabic and American English. In addition, it also inquired the way social factors such as power, distance and rate of imposition affected the choice of request strategies in both groups. The sample consisted of 30 Iraqi and American male and female students in a university in Baghdad, Iraq, selected based on convenience sampling from the undergraduate students. In addition, 10 young American speakers were asked to take part in the study. The participants were supposed to fill in the Oral Discourse Completion Test (ODCT). It consisted of twelve context-enriched written situations developed by Reiter (2000). In order to compare the frequency of the request strategies in Iraqi Arabic and American English speakers’ speech Chi square was run. The findings revealed that the most frequent request strategies of Iraqi Arabic participants were Mood Derivable, Explicit Performative, Strong Hint, Want Statement, Locution Derivable, Mild Hint, Query Preparatory, and Suggestory Formula, respectively. However, the most frequent request strategies that emerged in American English were Locution Derivable Query Preparatory, Mild Hint, Mood Derivable, Hedged Performative, Suggestory Formula, Explicit Performative, Strong Hint, and Want Statement, respectively. Additionally, the results indicated that there was a significant difference between Iraqi Arabic and American English with respect to social power and distance factor. In contrast, no difference was found between Iraqi Arabic and American English in rate of imposition.