Requesting at work: exploring the intercultural style hypothesis of German-English bilinguals
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Hyoun-A Joo
Abstract
The goal of the present study is to explore bilinguals’ intercultural style of requesting in a workplace setting and thereby contribute to the understanding of bilingual pragmatic competence. The relatively unexplored intercultural style hypothesis suggests that bilinguals show a unique pragmatic pattern related to but distinct from the contact languages. German-English bilinguals in the U.S., Germans in Germany, and Americans in the U.S. completed an oral discourse completion task. The bilinguals were tested in German and English. The scenarios were situated at the workplace and controlled for social distance and power. Results revealed bi-directional influence from both languages and that bilinguals differentiated their request strategies depending on language, accentuating cross-linguistic differences and thereby asserting their intercultural identity. This suggests that the pragmatic competence of the German-English bilinguals consists in the awareness, realization, and preservation of perceived cross-linguistic contrasts. However, perception ratings revealed that bilinguals’ German requests were perceived as significantly less polite and less effective than their English requests, suggesting that pragmatic norms of German requests are undergoing language change.
Zusammenfassung
Das Ziel der Studie ist es den interkulturellen Stil des Bittens am Arbeitsplatz von bilingualen Sprechern zu erkunden und dabei zum Verständnis der bilingualen pragmatischen Kompetenz beizutragen. Die verhältnismäßig unerforschte Hypothese des interkulturellen Stils (intercultural style) geht davon aus, dass Bilinguale eine pragmatische Form des Bittens entwickeln, die den entsprechenden Kontaktsprachen einerseits ähnelt, sich jedoch andererseits von ihnen unterscheidet und einzigartige Merkmale aufzeigt. Bilinguale, die Deutsch und Englisch sprechen und in den USA sesshaft sind, Deutsch-Muttersprachler in Deutschland und Englisch-Muttersprachler in den USA haben einen mündlichen Diskursergänzungstest (Discourse Completion Test) ausgeführt. Die Bilingualen wurden auf Deutsch und Englisch getestet. Die Szenarien des Tests stellten Situationen am Arbeitsplatz dar und wurden nach den Parametern soziale Distanz und Machtdistanz kontrolliert. Die Ergebnisse des Tests zeigen einen bi-direktionalen Einfluss beider Kontaktsprachen auf die Bitten der bilingualen Sprecher. Sie differenzierten ihre Strategien des Bittens je nach Sprache, betonten dabei die sprachlichen Unterschiede zwischen Deutsch und Englisch und machten so ihre interkulturelle Identität geltend. Dieses sprachliche Verhalten deutet darauf hin, dass sich die pragmatische Kompetenz der bilingualen Sprecher aus dem Bewusstsein, der Realisierung und der Bewahrung von wahrgenommenen linguistischen Unterschieden zusammensetzt. Die erhobenen Perzeptionsdaten jedoch zeigten, dass die deutschsprachigen Bitten der Bilingualen als weniger höflich und effektiv als ihre englischsprachigen Bitten bewertet wurden. Ein möglicher Grund dafür könnte ein Sprachwandel in der Pragmatik des Bittens im Deutschen sein.
Funding source: Georgia Institute of Technology’s Ivan Allen College Special Opportunity for Faculty Development Activities
Funding source: Georgia Institute of Technology’s Office of the Vice Provost COVID Faculty Relief Fund
Award Identifier / Grant number: n/a
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Ute Fischer for her support in the study design and Christopher Ballenger and Jason Sodikin for their help with coding the responses. I appreciate the time and helpful feedback of the anonymous reviewers who helped to improve the article. Last but not least, I am indebted to the participants in the study without whom the research would not have been possible.
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Research ethics: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study, or their legal guardians or wards.
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Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Conflict of interest: The author states no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: This study received funding from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Office of the Vice Provost COVID Faculty Relief Fund and the Ivan Allen College’s Special Opportunity for Faculty Development Activities.
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Data availability: Not applicable.
Appendix 1: Complete request scenarios in English
| 1 | [D–] [Pe] | Project report: You are working on a project report with Hans Olson, with whom you have worked for three years. The report is due to your superior in one hour. As you open the document to look over it one more time, you notice the part he was supposed to fill out is missing. You have to meet this deadline and need your colleague to finish his section within the next hour. What would you say to him? |
| 2 | [D–] [Ps] | Flyer: You are the head of public relations at your company. You have an upcoming event and need flyers to be printed. When you check on the order you realize that Tim Brown, an employee with whom you’ve worked for 3 years, had sent the wrong file to the printing shop. If this mistake isn’t corrected as soon as possible, 1,000 flyers could be printed with the wrong information. You need him to call the printing shop and cancel the order immediately. What would you say? |
| 3 | [D–] [Ph] | Meeting: You work at the HR department of a company. Important customers of the company are visiting for the day and are scheduled to meet with the General Manager, Peter Klein, in 5 minutes. You see him sitting in the cafeteria, drinking coffee with his colleagues. In the five years working with him you’ve never saw him missing a meeting. You worry that he may have forgotten the meeting. You call him. What would you say? |
| 4 | [D+] [Pe] | PowerPoint: You are about to give a presentation on the financial standing of your company at a meeting with investors. With only 5 minutes until your presentation, you notice that the IT worker, James Treck, has opened an old version of your PowerPoint. You haven’t personally interacted with him aside from this morning when you sent him the revised version of your presentation. You want to make sure that the correct version of your PowerPoint will be used. What would you say to him? |
| 5 | [D+] [Ps] | Chemicals: You are the manager of a warehouse in which you look after the distribution of important raw materials. You see that a distributor who you first met today, Patrick Relis, has left a container of chemicals in the hot sun. The chemicals must be stored in cool conditions, and you would like for the delivery to be moved to the walk-in fridge for chemicals, Fridge A, asap. What would you say to him? |
| 6 | [D+] [Ph] | Hard hat: The CEO of your company, Dr. Chris Plack, is visiting today and you are in charge of his itinerary. This is the first time you meet him. You scheduled him to tour parts of the work site and the tour is led by other colleagues of yours. Shortly after the tour begins, you notice that Dr. Chris Plack isn’t wearing a hard hat, something that is mandatory on your site. What would you say to him? |
Appendix 2: Complete coding scheme of observed strategies (all examples from bilingual participants)
| 1. Strategy of the head act |
| a. Impositives (most direct) |
| – Imperative: … call the printing shop … [8Q9] |
| – Locution derivable: You need to cancel that print job… [tO5] |
| b. Conventionally indirect |
| – Preparatory: Can you get that done…? [aCR] |
| – Suggestion: … let’s get together immediately in order to fix this … [8Q9] |
| c. Hint (most indirect): Are you ready for the meeting? [tO5] |
| 2. Head act internal modification: downgrading |
| – Subjunctive mood & requestive marker: Could you please finish…? [tO5] |
| – Downtoner & past tense: I just wanted to remind you … [YDA] |
| – Interrogative: Do you have the updated version? [Okw] |
| – Subjectivizer & conditional clause: I would really appreciate if … [Wc6] |
| – Consultative device: Do you think you can … [78l] |
| 3. Head act internal modification: upgrading |
| – Time intensifier: … make sure that is cancelled immediately … [wx3] |
| 4. Head act external supportive moves: mitigating |
| – Alerter: Hey Tim, this is … [0IS] |
| – Gratitude: Thanks a lot. [aCR] |
| – Help-offer: Let me know if there is something you still need. [nSi] |
| – Preparator: … this message is urgent … [xw3] – Grounder: Could you please finish your section? I need to submit the report within the next hour. [tO5] – Repair: … I’m sorry for looking at your laptop … [6T1] – Imposition minimizer: … is that possible? [0IS] |
| 5. Head act external supportive moves: enforcing |
| – Mention of error: You did miss to fill out the part in the middle. [YDA] |
| – Request repetition: … could you please take care of that right away (head act) … and it would be really important to get this done right away … [dSw] |
| – Enforcing phrase: … are you responsible here for the warehouse? [UW5] |
| – Instruction: … could you please take care of that right away (head act) and then come back and see me … [dSw] |
| – Moralizing: … they shouldn’t have been in the sun and you should have known that …[bEI] |
Appendix 3: Odds ratios of production of Downgraders between Languages by Power and Distance (significant effects only)
| Exp(b) | Std. err. | z | P > |z| | [95 % CI] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (GER vs. BILING-G) Pe#D+ | 3.18 | 1.49 | 2.47 | 0.014 | 1.27 | 7.98 |
| (GER vs. BILING-G) Pe#D− | 2.96 | 1.28 | 2.51 | 0.012 | 1.27 | 6.92 |
| (GER vs. BIILING-E) Pe#D− | 2.52 | 1.15 | 2.03 | 0.043 | 1.03 | 6.15 |
| (BILING-G vs. BIILING-E) Ph#D− | 0.14 | 0.09 | −2.99 | 0.003 | 0.04 | 0.51 |
| (ENG vs. BIILING-E) Ph#D− | 0.30 | 0.16 | −2.25 | 0.025 | 0.11 | 0.86 |
| (GER vs. BIILING-E) Ph#D− | 0.33 | 0.17 | −2.10 | 0.036 | 0.12 | 0.93 |
| (ENG vs. BIILING-E) Ps#D− | 0.26 | 0.17 | −2.12 | 0.034 | 0.07 | 0.91 |
| (ENG vs. BILING-G) Ps#D− | 0.25 | 0.13 | −2.70 | 0.007 | 0.09 | 0.69 |
| (GER vs. BILING-G) Ps#D− | 1.91 | 0.58 | 2.13 | 0.033 | 1.05 | 3.48 |
Appendix 4: Odds ratios of production of Upgraders between Language by Power (significant effects only)
| Exp(b) | Std. err. | z | P > |z| | [95 % CI] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ENG vs. BLING-G) Pe | 0.34 | 0.18 | −2.04 | 0.041 | 0.12 | 0.96 |
| (BILING-E vs. BIILING-G) Pe | 0.25 | 0.14 | −2.44 | 0.015 | 0.08 | 0.76 |
| (GER vs. BILING-G) Ph | 0.38 | 0.14 | −2.66 | 0.008 | 0.19 | 0.77 |
| (ENG vs. BLING-G) Ph | 0.21 | 0.10 | −3.15 | 0.002 | 0.08 | 0.55 |
| (BILING-E vs. BIILING-G) Ph | 0.06 | 0.06 | −3.00 | 0.003 | 0.01 | 0.38 |
Appendix 5: Odds ratios of production of Mitigating Moves between Language by Power and Distance (significant effects only)
| Exp(b) | Std. err. | z | P > |z| | [95 % CI] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (BILING-E vs. BIILING-G) Ph#D− | 0.35 | 0.17 | −2.18 | 0.029 | 0.13 | 0.90 |
| (ENG vs. BILING-G) Ph#D− | 0.43 | 0.13 | −1.73 | 0.006 | 0.23 | 0.79 |
| (ENG vs. BILING-E) Ps#D+ | 0.46 | 0.18 | −1.95 | 0.051 | 0.21 | 1.00 |
Appendix 6: Odds ratios of production of Enforcing Moves between Language by Distance (significant effects only)
| Exp(b) | Std. err. | z | P > |z| | [95 % CI] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ENG vs. BLING-E) D+ | 0.31 | 0.12 | −3.10 | 0.002 | 0.15 | 0.65 |
| (GER vs. BLING-E) D+ | 0.21 | 0.07 | −4.52 | 0.000 | 0.11 | 0.42 |
| (BILING-G vs. BIILING-E) D+ | 0.19 | 0.10 | −3.27 | 0.001 | 0.07 | 0.52 |
| (GER vs. BILING-G) D– | 0.37 | 0.13 | −2.82 | 0.005 | 0.18 | 0.74 |
| (BILING-G vs. BIILING-E) D– | 2.82 | 1.07 | 2.72 | 0.006 | 1.34 | 5.95 |
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- “The team members were very tolerant”: social interactional ideologies and power in an intercultural context
- Joulu Kotona (Christmas at home): translocal multilingual practices in a Facebook music livestream during COVID-19
- Language management in semi-peripheral game production: how foreign workers in Czech video game studios experience the use of English, Czech, and other Slavic languages
- Requesting at work: exploring the intercultural style hypothesis of German-English bilinguals
- Bilingual autobiographical memory: unveiling the significance of memories encoded in multiple languages
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- “The team members were very tolerant”: social interactional ideologies and power in an intercultural context
- Joulu Kotona (Christmas at home): translocal multilingual practices in a Facebook music livestream during COVID-19
- Language management in semi-peripheral game production: how foreign workers in Czech video game studios experience the use of English, Czech, and other Slavic languages
- Requesting at work: exploring the intercultural style hypothesis of German-English bilinguals
- Bilingual autobiographical memory: unveiling the significance of memories encoded in multiple languages
