LINGUIST List 14.155

Thu Jan 16 2003

Diss: Lang Acquisition: Warga "Zur pragmatischen..."

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. muriel.warga, Lang Acquisition: Warga "Zur pragmatischen Entwicklung..."

New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: University of Graz
Program: Romance Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2002

Author: Muriel Warga 

Dissertation Title: 
'J'ai un petit service � te demander...' Zur pragmatischen Entwicklung
des Sprechakts 'Aufforderung' bei �sterreichischen
Franz�sisch-Lernenden

Linguistic Field: Language Acquisition

Subject Language: 
German, Standard (code: 1960)
French (code: 1843)


Dissertation Director 1: Martin Hummel
Dissertation Director 2: Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf


Dissertation Abstract: 

This dissertation seeks to provide a thorough overview of the
relatively new field of interlanguage pragmatics, and to present a new
empirical study on foreign language learners' developing ability
to perform the speech act of request. A discourse completion task and
a closed role-play are used to compare the requests of native speakers
of French, native speakers of Austrian German, and three levels of
Austrian learners of French. The data are analyzed using an adapted
version of the Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP).

The study found that although some of the examined aspects move in the
direction of the French native speaker norm with increasing
proficiency, most of the patterns converge towards the norm of the
first language (German). This indicates that a higher level of
linguistic competence does not guarantee a better pragmatic
competence. The results of this study clearly suggest that foreign
language learners need (meta)pragmatic instruction for developing most
aspects of their pragmatic abilities, as, compared to a second
language environment, opportunities for learning pragmatics in foreign
language settings are much more restricted.