English and Malay Text Messages and What They Say about Texts and Cultures

Abstract

This study of the pragmatics of cross-cultural text messages throws light on the evolution of new hybrid forms of literacy and on the complex ways that culture is expressed and mediated in second language/ second culture contexts. An investigation was carried out into the pragmatics of apology in first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) short messaging service text messages of adult Malay speakers who are proficient users of English, living and studying in an English-speaking university environment; and into L1 English users' text apologies in the same context. Research questions included whether these proficient L2 English users would perform differently from L1 English users in this high-stakes speech act, and from their own L1 Malay use; and whether apologies in what has been called a hybrid medium would differ from those previously studied in writing, in speech and in other electronic media. Twenty-six native speakers of English and 26 native speakers of Malay responded via text messages to discourse completion tests (DCTs) in L1; the DCTs represented either high or low levels of offence calling for apologies. The Malay native speakers also responded to apology situations in L2 English. Data were coded using an adapted version of Cohen and Olshtain's (1981) coding scheme. Analysis of the messages sent by participants revealed clear signs of a hybrid type of text that is differently conceptualised by the two communities. It also showed that the Malay users' second language literacy was shaped in a complex way that sometimes accommodated the second language/second culture and sometimes retained first language/first culture values.

The Text-Message Discourse Completion Task: A Method for the Collection of Text-Messages

“…This operationalization of the method is, of course, not the only one that researchers could use. For example, if practicable, researchers could send text-message prompts and receive responses back via text-message, as in the study of Marzuki and Walter (2013).…”

“…Behnam, Hamed, and Asli (2012), in a study of digital condolences in English and Persian, used DCTs via email and asked respondents to send, in email responses, messages that they would send via text-message in certain given scenarios. Marzuki and Walter (2013) examined apologies in English and Malay text-messages. In their study, they sent the DCT prompts and received the replies via text-messages.…”

The Perception of Students of UiTM, Cawangan Pulau Pinang Towards the Use of Salutations in WhatsApp Conversations

“…To summarize, a majority of the students failed to use proper politeness approaches in their conversations with their lecturers that could minimize face-threatening acts between the students and their lecturers [4]. It was revealed in a study performed by Marzuki and Walter [11] that the Malay L1 users were discovered to have employed formal letter-type salutations and professional titles, frequently in their first language text messages and sometimes in their second language one. Matli [12] conducted a study on undergraduates' language use in a messaging service application, WhatsApp conversations with their fellow peers and lecturers by analyzing their textual interactions.…”