Contrastive Analysis of Speech Acts: What Do We Do with the Research Findings?

Thanks so much for the lovely meal. may work as an adequate acknowledgement of a fine meal just consumed at a colleague's home in another country. The utterance constitutes one of the semantic formulas or strategies for expressing gratitude. Expressions of gratitude, along with other illocutionary acts (i.e., speech with a social function) have been referred to as speech acts. The choice of the speech act of expressing gratitude may be totally appropriate for the above after-eating-a-dinner context. On the other hand, it may be the wrong speech act or at least the wrong semantic formula to use within that speech act set. Instead of expressing gratitude, perhaps a profuse round of apologies is in order. After all, the hosts had to invite the colleague, prepare the meal, serve it, make sure it was properly consumed, and then as if adding insult to injury, will have to wash the dishes after the colleague has departed. Thus, perhaps the speech act of apology is considered by natives of the language and culture to be more fitting for such a situation, as it might be in some contexts in Japan. To make matters more confusing, it is possible that the social function of the apology is not only that of apologizing but also of thanking the hosts, albeit indirectly. This article will briefly describe the dimensions of speech acts, call attention to the empirical studies that have been conducted to further our understanding of how speech acts function among natives and nonnatives, address the need for speech act instruction, look at research on the teaching of speech acts, consider what needs to be taught, and finally, discuss possible teaching techniques for speech act lessons. 1. Describing speech acts There appear to be two kinds of abilities associated with successful production of speech acts such as that of apologizing - what have termed sociocultural and sociolinguistic abilities. Sociocultural ability refers to the respondents' skill at selecting speech act strategies which are appropriate given (1) the culture involved, (2) the age and sex of the speakers, (3) their social class and occupations, and (4) their roles and status in the interaction. For example, in some cultures (such as in the U.S.) it may be appropriate for speakers who have missed a meeting with their boss through their own negligence to use a repair strategy by suggesting to the boss when to reschedule the meeting. In other cultures (such as Israel), however, such a repair strategy might be considered out of place in that it would most likely be the boss who determines what happens next. Thus, sociocultural knowledge is called for in determining whether a speech act set is appropriate to use and if so which members of the set are s elected for use. Sociolinguistic ability, in the context of speech act analysis, refers to the respondents' skill at selecting appropriate linguistic forms in order to express the particular strategy used to realize the speech act (e.g., expression of regret in an apology, registration of a grievance in a complaint, specification of the objective of a request, or the refusal of an invitation). Sociolinguistic ability constitutes the speakers' control over the actual language forms used to realize the speech act (e.g., vs. excuse me really sorry vs. very sorry), as well as their control over register or formality of the utterance from most intimate to most formal language. For example, when students are asked to dinner by their professor and they cannot make it, while it may well be socioculturally appropriate to decline the invitation, the reply No way! would probably constitute an inappropriate choice of forms for realizing the speech act set of refusal. The problem is that sociolinguistically, this phrase wo uld be interpreted as rude and insulting, unless the students had an especially close relationship with their professor and the utterance were made in jest. A more appropriate response might be the following: I would love to but have a prior engagement can't get out of. …