The Pragmatics of Requesting in the Canadian Workplace: A Comparative Investigation of Requests Presented in Workplace ESL Textbooks and Oral Discourse Completion Task Responses

Ross, Alexandra

doi:10.22215/etd/2018-13238

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 60 publications

(183 reference statements)

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“…The unbalanced focus on transaction language might not be as useful as providing a balance of transactional language and social aspects of language, as the ability to socialize with co-workers determines the success an employee has in a job more than the employee's ability to complete tasks (Holmes, 2005). Furthermore, many of these materials have been deemed unsuitable, as they do not reflect actual language used in the workplace (Chan, 2017;Ross, 2018), or they do not place attention on important social aspects of communication between employees (Holmes, 2005;Newton & Kusmierczyk, 2011).…”

Section: Background and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies in Forming the Speech Act of Refusals of Non-Native English Speakers and Native English Speakers in Entry-Level Customer Service Positions in Canada

Lapierre¹

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Being able to refuse -decline requests, offers, invitations or suggestions -is necessary in the workplace. Native English speakers (NES) and non-native English speakers (NNES) often use different strategies to form the speech act of refusals (Riddiford & Holmes, 2015). This study investigates the refusal strategies of NESs (n=5)and NNESs (n=5) in Canadian customer service. Six role-plays were conducted to determine the refusal strategies of both groups. Stimulated recall interviews (SRI) provided insights into the participants' use of these strategies. Role play analysis show both groups use reason/explanation the most. NES formed successful refusals more often than NNES. During the SRIs NES were concerned about workplace expectations, and the difficulty of refusing while NNES voiced justifications for refusing. SRIs also uncovered that NNES and NES may use the same strategy for different reasons. Pedagogical implications for language learners working in customer service are given.This thesis is the result of many individuals. I would like to acknowledge my supervisors, Dr. Eva Kartchava and Dr. Michael Rodgers, for all of their insight, support, and encouragement. Thank you so much for your guidance throughout my time in this program. I would also like to acknowledge my fellow research assistants, Fatima, Gillian, and Alexis, who I learned so much from. I am lucky to have had the chance to work with each of you, and it was a pleasure to see the realization of your own projects, and of the projects we worked on together. At Carleton, I also want to thank Codie, Tarah, Alicia, and Ashleigh from SALaDS, the graduate student society, who (during a pandemic) have done a commendable job at organizing online events and reaching out to grad students in Applied Linguistics to keep in touch, provide feedback, and create a sense of community during such an isolating year. I would also like to thank Hiba, Mazen, Alexis, Alex, and Karyn from OCISO, for their help, support, and enthusiasm for this project. I feel truly blessed to have worked with all of you.Finally, I would like thank all my friends and family.

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Section: Background and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies in Forming the Speech Act of Refusals of Non-Native English Speakers and Native English Speakers in Entry-Level Customer Service Positions in Canada

Lapierre¹

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Workplace requests: A critical literature review

Lapierre

2020

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Workplace literacies is an area that has attracted a growing number of researchers. Being workplace literate, or being able to use appropriate language and types of communication in a new workplace, is a difficult task for many new employees, especially those whose first language is different from the one used at work (MURPHY, 2010). Requests as a type of workplace communication can pose additional challenges because of their facethreatening nature (BROWN; LEVINSON, 1987). This review synthesizes literature on such types of workplace communication as oral requests and request e-mails. Key theoretical underpinnings of research on requests in the workplace, conventions and features of e-mail, request strategies based on levels of directness, and supportive moves that mitigate requests are discussed. Differences between oral requests and request e-mails in the workplace are found, and pedagogical implications are provided.

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The Challenges of Conducting Research in Diverse Classrooms: Reflections on a Pragmatics Teaching Experiment

Ranta

Zavialova

2022

Languages

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For researchers, the typical way of determining whether a pedagogical innovation works is by conducting an experiment. In migrant settings, however, experiments are more challenging to carry out due to the diversity of the learner population. Unfortunately, how to deal with these challenges is not addressed in a practical way in research methods textbooks, which typically provide a normative view of the research process. This paper aims to draw attention to the realities of classroom research carried out in the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) setting. These classes consist of adult immigrants and refugees from a wide range of cultural, linguistic and educational backgrounds. We illustrate how this diversity along with other characteristics of LINC programs impact the decision-making of the researcher with respect to a pedagogical experiment focused on pragmatics. The study compared a formula-enhanced approach to teaching speech acts to the more mainstream approach aimed at raising learners’ meta-pragmatic awareness about speech act behaviour. The pre-post-delayed-post-test gains appear to favour the Formula group, but the interpretability of these results is compromised by the fact that the composition of the two classes was very different. Discussion of the limitations of this case study feeds into a broader consideration of the implications for classroom research of linguistic and cultural diversity typical of L2 educational contexts like LINC.

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The Pragmatics of Requesting in the Canadian Workplace: A Comparative Investigation of Requests Presented in Workplace ESL Textbooks and Oral Discourse Completion Task Responses

Cited by 3 publications

References 60 publications

Strategies in Forming the Speech Act of Refusals of Non-Native English Speakers and Native English Speakers in Entry-Level Customer Service Positions in Canada

Strategies in Forming the Speech Act of Refusals of Non-Native English Speakers and Native English Speakers in Entry-Level Customer Service Positions in Canada

Workplace requests: A critical literature review

The Challenges of Conducting Research in Diverse Classrooms: Reflections on a Pragmatics Teaching Experiment

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