LINGUIST List 23.296
Mon Jan 16 2012
Diss: Pragmatics: Ren: 'The Effect of Study Abroad on L2 Pragmatic ...'
Editor for this issue: Xiyan Wang
<xiyanlinguistlist.org>
Date: 13-Jan-2012
From: Wei Ren <renweixz
hotmail.com>
Subject: The Effect of Study Abroad on L2 Pragmatic Development: A longitudinal investigation
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Institution: University of Bristol
Program: Applied Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2012
Author: Wei Ren
Dissertation Title: The Effect of Study Abroad on L2 Pragmatic Development: A longitudinal investigation
Linguistic Field(s):
Pragmatics
Dissertation Director:
Helen Woodfield
Dissertation Abstract:
The present study investigates the effect of study abroad on Chineselearners' L2 pragmatic development longitudinally. Using the MultimediaElicitation Task (MET) and the Appropriate Judgment Task (AJT), the studycollected data from 20 Chinese graduate students studying abroad (SA) and20 Chinese graduate students studying at home (AH) at three differentpoints during one academic-year. The SA students also completed aretrospective verbal report (RVR) in each phase of the data collection.
Overall the study has evidenced the complexity in the effect of studyabroad on learners' L2 pragmatic development. The results revealed thatstudy abroad did not affect the overall frequency of learners' choice ofopt-outs, nor did it significantly influence their overall frequency ofrefusal modifications. However, study abroad did have an impact on therepertoire of pragmatic strategies among the SA students, although the samedevelopmental trend was also observed in the AH students' refusals.Furthermore, a significant decrease in the overall frequency of refusalstrategies was only observed in the SA students' data between Phase 2 andPhase 3.
This study documented that study abroad did not affect the SA students'overall ratings in the AJT. However, analyses of the SA students' RVRevidenced that their noticing of pragmatic infelicities developedsignificantly during their study abroad, indicating a positive influence ofstudy abroad in learners' L2 pragmatic perception development.
The analyses of the SA students' RVR revealed that the SA students paidincreasingly more attention to sociopragmatics when they read the MET,whereas fewer SA students reported employing L1 as the language of thoughtin fewer instances. The changes of the SA students' preference ofdirectness/indirectness indicated that they became more aware of the socialstatus during social interactions. Furthermore, the study also observed theSA students' pragmatic development across the three phases.
Page Updated: 16-Jan-2012