The pragmatics of advice giving: Cross-cultural perspectives
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Andrea DeCapua
She has published in the areas of pragmatics, language learning, and socio-linguistics in journals including
Journal of Pragmatics, Issues in Applied Linguistics, Multilingua, System , andSemiotica . She is the co-author ofCrossing Cultures in the Language Classroom (University of Michigan Press 2004).She received her doctorate from Teachers College Columbia University in 1995. She has published, with Andrea DeCapua, the 1993 article “Strategies in the Discourse of Advice,” published in the
Journal of Pragmatics .
Abstract
This article presents the results of our investigation into the giving of advice by native and non-native speakers of American English. Specifically, we examine how advice giving is enacted in a series of advice letters, which were modeled on letters to popular advice columns found around the world in newspapers and magazines, and on the Internet.
Our data indicate that there are important pragmatic differences between how native speakers and non-native speakers in the United States offered advice, regardless of the non-native speakers' English proficiency. The non-native speakers produced comparatively brief and formulaic responses, requiring coding and analysis based upon form categories. The native speakers produced narrative responses that required coding and analysis based upon content categories. Research such as this underscores the need to provide language learners with an awareness that pragmatic behaviors differ across cultures.
About the authors
She has published in the areas of pragmatics, language learning, and socio-linguistics in journals including Journal of Pragmatics, Issues in Applied Linguistics, Multilingua, System, and Semiotica. She is the co-author of Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom (University of Michigan Press 2004).
She received her doctorate from Teachers College Columbia University in 1995. She has published, with Andrea DeCapua, the 1993 article “Strategies in the Discourse of Advice,” published in the Journal of Pragmatics.
© Walter de Gruyter
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- The pragmatics of advice giving: Cross-cultural perspectives
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- Insisting: a goal-oriented or a chatting interactional practice? One aspect of Syrian service encounters
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Articles in the same Issue
- The pragmatics of advice giving: Cross-cultural perspectives
- Multilinguals' language choice for mental calculation
- Insisting: a goal-oriented or a chatting interactional practice? One aspect of Syrian service encounters
- Theory and empirical findings: A response to Jackendoff
- Conceptual semantics and natural semantic metalanguage theory have different goals
- Book reviews
- Contributors to this issue
