性别因素对中国高水平英语学习者请求策略的影响一项对英语学习者英汉请求策略的对比研究硕士学位论文.docx

1、性别因素对中国高水平英语学习者请求策略的影响一项对英语学习者英汉请求策略的对比研究硕士学位论文南 京 大 学研 究 生 毕 业 论 文（申请硕士学位）论 文 题 目 性别因素对中国高水平英语学习者请求策略的影响-一项对英语学习者英、汉请求策略的对比研究 专 业 名 称 英语语言文学 研 究 方 向 语用学 Gender Effects on Advanced Chinese EFL Learners Request Strategies -A Contrastive Study of Request Strategies in Chinese and EnglishbyMa XinjianUn

2、der the Supervision ofProfessor Chen XinrenSubmitted in Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Master of ArtsEnglish DepartmentSchool of Foreign StudiesNanjing UniversityMay 4, 2008 I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belie

3、f, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.Si

4、gnature: Name: Ma Xinjian Date: May 4, 2008 AcknowledgementsI would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who have offered me all kinds of help in completing this thesis. First, my deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor Professor Chen Xinren, who has been helping

5、me all the way through the design, development and revision of the thesis. He has offered me great help in choosing the present topic, provided constructive suggestions for analyzing the data and taken great pains reading my thesis draft by draft. Without his encouragement and advice, I could not ha

6、ve completed this thesis. My heart-felt thanks also go to Professor Ding Yanren, who equipped me with the basic knowledge in the field of SLA, Professor Wang Wenyu, who taught me how to develop a M.A thesis from the first step of finding an issue till writing up a whole thesis in the seminar, and Do

7、ctor Don Snow, whose expert instruction and insightful suggestions in the seminar of thesis writing have contributed a great deal to this thesis. I also owe great thanks to my former foreign teacher, Mr. Chris White. He bought me a very beneficial reference book in the USA. I am also grateful for th

8、e subjects who participated in the survey. They include my 25 classmates in the English department of Nanjing University, my friend Liu Jiaqin and her 12 classmates in Liaoning University, my former colleague Li Xiao and his 9 classmates in Ocean University of China, my friend Zhou Na and her 12 cla

9、ssmates in East China Normal University. Without their generous cooperation, I could not have collected the needed data.My thanks should also go to my classmates who provided me with valuable suggestions in choosing this research topic and how to analyze the complicated data during the one-year semi

10、nar.Last but not least, my gratitude should also go to my parents for their care and my husband Sun Chengfu for his everlasting spiritual and constant technological support in the process of the data analysis. Without their love, this thesis could not have taken its present shape. M. X. J.Table of C

11、ontentsAcknowledgements iiList of Figures vList of Tables viList of Abbreviations viiChapter One INTRODUCTION 11.1 Object of the Study 11.2 Need for the Study 11.3 Significance of the Study 31.4 Structure of the Thesis 4Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW 62.1 Related Studies on Linguistic Differences bet

12、ween Male and Female Speakers 62.2 The Speech Act of Requests 92.2.1 Requests as Face-threatening Speech Acts 92.2.2 Linguistic Realization of Requests 102.2.3 Categorizations of Request Strategies 122.2.4 Politeness vs. Indirectness of Requests 172.3 Key Terms in This Thesis 192.3.1 Politeness: Pos

13、itive Politeness vs. Negative Politeness 192.3.2 Pragmalinguistic Competence vs. Sociopragmatic Competence 192.4 Related Studies on Chinese EFL Learners Pragmatic Competence 212.5 Summary 22Chapter Three METHEDOLODY 253.1 Research Questions 253.2 Subjects 273.3 Data Collection 283.3.1 The Preliminar

14、y Study 283.3.2 The Instrument 303.4 Data Analysis 32Chapter Four RESULTS and DISCUSSION 334.1 Request Strategies Used by Male and Female Learners 334.1.1 Directness vs. Indirectness 344.1.2 Internal Modification Employed 384.1.3 External Modification Employed 444.2 Gender Effects on Male and Female

15、 EFL Learners Requests 484.2.1 Gender Effects on EFL Learners Request Strategies 484.2.2 Gender Effects on EFL Learners Use of Internal Modifications 524.2.3 Gender Effects on EFL Learners Use of External Modifications 534.3 Effects of Social Variables on EFL Learners Request Strategies 544.3.1 Effe

16、cts of the Imposition Size of Requests on EFL Learners Request Strategies 544.3.2 Effects of the Social Status on EFL Learners Request Strategies 574.4 Summary and Discussion 60Chapter Five CONCLUSION 625.1 Major Findings 625.2 Implications of the Study 635.3 Limitations of the Study 645.4 Areas for

17、 Further Study 65References 66Appendix I 69Appendix II 71List of FiguresFigure 1: Internal Modification in the Head Acts of Requests 11Figure 2: External Modification in Requests 12Figure 3: Politeness Strategies for Doing FTAs 13Figure 4: Directness Levels in the Head Acts of Requests 14Figure 5: R

18、equest Strategy Types (S. Blum-Kulka & E. Olshtain, 1989) 15Figure 6: Categories of Main Request Strategies Used by Speakers of PRC 17List of TablesTable 1: Request Strategies Classified by Trosborg (1995, p. 205) 16Table 2: Background Information of the Subjects 28Table 3: Contextualization of the

19、Request Situations for Male Subjects 30Table 4: The Contextualization of the Request Situations for Female Subjects 30Table 5: Directness Levels in EFL Learners Requests in Their L1 and L2 35Table 6: Means and Standard Deviation of Strategies Used by EFL Learners in Their L1 and L2 36Table 7: Syntac

20、tic Downgraders Used in Their L1 by EFL Learners 38Table 8: Lexical Downgraders Used in Their L1 by EFL Learners 39Table 9: Syntactic Devices Used in English Requests by EFL Learners 40Table 10: Lexical Devices Used in English Requests by EFL Learners 41Table 11: Internal Modifications Used by EFL L

21、earners in Their L1 and L2 43Table 12: Means and Standard Deviation of the Internal Modifications Used by EFL Learners in Their L1 and L2 43Table 13: Supportive Moves Used in Chinese Requests by EFL Learners 45Table 14: Supportive Moves Used in English Requests by EFL Learners 46Table 15: Means and

22、Standard Deviation of the External Modification Used in Their L1 and L2 by EFL Learners 47Table 16: Effects of the Gender of the Requestees on the Directness Levels of EFL Learners Request Strategies 49Table 17: Distributions of Internal Modifications Used by EFL Learners towards Their Female and Ma

23、le Requestees in Their L1 and L2 52Table 18: External Modifications Used by EFL Learners towards Their Female and Male Requestees in Their L1 and L2 53Table 19: Effects of the Imposition Size on EFL Learners Strategies in Their L1 and L2 55Table 20: Effects of the Social Status of the Requestee on E

24、FL Learners Strategies in Their L1 and L2 58List of AbbreviationsConv. Indirect.Conventionally IndirectDCT.Discourse Completion TaskEFL.English as a Foreign LanguageFTA.Face-threatening ActsILP.Interlanguage PragmaticsSLA.Second Language AcquisitionSup. Moves.Supportive MovesUnconv. Indirect.Unconve

25、ntionally Indirect ASTRACT Gender Effects on Advanced Chinese EFL learners Request Strategies -A Comparative Study of Request Strategies in Chinese and EnglishMa Xinjian This thesis reports a study on how the gender of the requester and requestee affects advanced Chinese EFL learners use of request

26、strategies in their L1 and L2. It investigates whether the gender differences male and female learners demonstrate when making requests in their L1 are also found when performing them in their L2 and examines the effects of other contextual variables on their use of request strategies in their L1 an

27、d L2 respectively. The subjects are 60 M.A candidates (30 males and 30 females) majoring in English Language and Literature from four universities: Nanjing University, Ocean University of China, East China Normal University, and Liaoning University. The data are collected mainly via a written DCT an

28、d retrospective interviews. Altogether 238 requests are collected from 30 male learners in Chinese and 238 requests in English; 239 requests are collected from 30 female learners in Chinese and 239 requests in English. These requests are analyzed in terms of directness level, internal modification a

29、nd external modification. The findings are summarized as follows:1On the whole, the female EFL learners are consistently more sensitive to the face-threatening acts, thus more polite and indirect when they perform the speech act of requesting in their L1 and L2. Especially in their L2, they demonstr

30、ate significant differences from male learners in terms of using conventionally indirect strategies, internal modifications and external modifications. They are more polite, both negatively and positively, than male learners.2Both male and female learners are sensitive to the gender of their request

31、ees and vary their request strategies accordingly. Compared with female learners, male learners are more sensitive to the gender of their requestees: they tend to be more polite and indirect in terms of directness levels when they make requests toward female requestees than towards male requestees. In their L1 and L2 performance, female learners are more polite and indirect towards their female request