Utilization of Request Mitigators by Omani Learners of English and Native Speakers: A Comparative Study

Abdul Rahman Zuhair Abdul Amir
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Abdul Rahman Zuhair Abdul Amir: Sohar University, Oman

International Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 2015, vol. 1, issue 4, 156-172

Abstract: This study examines Omani learners of English for proper use of syntactic, lexical/phrasal, and discoursal request mitigators when issuing their requests. To achieve the purpose of the study, a discourse completion test that contains nine scenarios was distributed to three groups: 50 level 1 students, 50 level 4 students, and 30 native speakers. Fisher‘s exact test was used to point out statistically whether there are any significant differences in the frequency and types of request mitigators used by the three groups. The results from the Fisher‘s exact test show that native speakers differ significantly from Omani learners of English because Omani learners of English restrict their use of mitigators to syntactic ones, especially modals, and rarely use lexical and discoursal ones, while native speakers use a wider range of all types. From the results of the study, a number of pedagogical recommendations were provided.

Keywords: Request Mitigators; Pragmatic Competence; Language Proficiency; Discourse Completion Test (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:apa:ijhass:2015:p:156-172

DOI: 10.20469/ijhss.20004-4

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