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Advanced learners’ responses to Chinese greetings in study abroad

  • Jieqiong Ying

    Jieqiong Ying is a lecturer in the School of Applied Foreign Languages, Zhejiang International Studies University, Zhejiang, China. Her research interests are in the second language pragmatics and foreign language education. Her recent publications include a book titled The pragmatic development of international students in China (China Social Science Publication, 2019), a paper in Journal of Language Teaching and Research, and a book review in Discourse Studies.

         und Wei Ren

    Wei Ren is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University, Beijing, China. His research interests include pragmatics and second language acquisition. His recent publications include articles in Applied Linguistics, Assessing Writing, Discourse Context & Media, ELT Journal, Intercultural Pragmatics, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Pragmatics, Pragmatics, and System.

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 1. April 2021
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching
Aus der Zeitschrift International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching Band 60 Heft 4

Abstract

This study explored the pragmatic strategies that advanced L2 learners of Chinese produced in greeting responses (GRs). Data were collected through roleplays and retrospective verbal reports (RVRs) from 11 advanced learners of Chinese who were studying in China. To obtain comparison data, 20 Chinese students were recruited to complete the same roleplays. The GRs were coded into openings, head acts and closings, and classified into ten strategies: phatic phrases, address terms, corresponding answers, reciprocal compliments, disagreeing, seeking confirmation, thanking, reciprocity questions, introducing another topic and reasons. The findings revealed that compared with Chinese native speakers (NSs), advanced learners produced non-target-like GRs, although their GRs were acceptable based on two NSs’ evaluation. The RVR data indicated that the learners’ non-target-like GRs might result from their idiosyncratic perceptions of Chinese greetings, pragmatic knowledge deficits, effects of instruction and learner agency. Implications for future research and teaching Chinese pragmatics are also discussed.

Keywords: Chinese; decision process; greeting responses; perception; pragmatic competence
Corresponding author: Wei Ren, School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, 100083, China, E-mail:

Funding source: Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 19YJC740108

Funding source: Office of Education Department of Zhejiang Province

Award Identifier / Grant number: jg20190351

About the authors

Jieqiong Ying

Jieqiong Ying is a lecturer in the School of Applied Foreign Languages, Zhejiang International Studies University, Zhejiang, China. Her research interests are in the second language pragmatics and foreign language education. Her recent publications include a book titled The pragmatic development of international students in China (China Social Science Publication, 2019), a paper in Journal of Language Teaching and Research, and a book review in Discourse Studies.

Wei Ren

Wei Ren is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University, Beijing, China. His research interests include pragmatics and second language acquisition. His recent publications include articles in Applied Linguistics, Assessing Writing, Discourse Context & Media, ELT Journal, Intercultural Pragmatics, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Pragmatics, Pragmatics, and System.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Hong Gang for his comments on an early edition of the paper. We are grateful for the reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are our own.

  1. Research Funding: This article is supported by Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No. 19YJC740108) and a project funded by Office of Education Department of Zhejiang Province (No. jg20190351).

Appendix: Role plays (English versions were not shown to the participants during role plays)

情景1： 下午4点左右，你去图书馆的路上碰到王老师（男士，45岁左右），他给你上过一学期的口语课，比较熟悉。你们会怎么寒暄?
Scenario 1: You meet Mr. Wang (male, around 45 years old) on your way to the library at around 4:00 in the afternoon. He had been your oral Chinese teacher for one semester, so you are familiar with each other. How will you greet each other? (higher power, familiar)
王老师 (Mr. Wang): xx (name), 去哪里啊? (Where are you going?)
情景2： 新学期开学了，你7：30就到教室了。一进教室你看到陈老师（女士，35岁左右）已经在了。教室里也有几位同学。你和陈老师都注意到对方了，你们会怎么寒暄？
Scenario 2: At the beginning of the new semester, you arrive at the classroom at 7:30. When you enter the classroom, you see Miss. Chen (female, around 35 years old) have been there already. Both of you notice each other. How will you greet each other? (higher power, unfamiliar)
陈老师 (Miss Chen):早饭吃了吗？(Have you eaten your breakfast?)
情景3： 你和你的朋友马圆（女士，大概24岁左右）约好在红辣椒餐馆一起吃中饭，你们有一段时间没见了。你走进餐馆，发现马圆已经在了，你们会怎么寒暄？
Scenario 3: You and your friend, Ma Yuan (female, around 24 years old) make appointment to have lunch together in Red Chili restaurant. You have not seen each other for a while. When you enter the restaurant, you find Ma Yuan have been there. How will you greet each other? (equal power, familiar)
马圆 (Ma Yuan): xx (name), 最近越来越美了/帅了! (You’ve become prettier/more handsome!)
情景4： 早上7：40，你去学校咖啡馆买咖啡，碰到一位同学，这个同学你很面熟但是不熟悉，你们会怎么寒暄？
Scenario 4: When you go to the school café to buy a cup of coffee in the morning, you meet a stranger student who you have met on the campus several times. How will you greet? (equal power, unfamiliar)
同学(Student): 早上好！来买咖啡啊？(Good morning! do you come to buy coffee?)

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2020-0150).

Received: 2020-09-28
Accepted: 2021-03-21
Published Online: 2021-04-01
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Contribution of English aural vocabulary size levels to L2 listening comprehension
  4. The effects of extensive reading on young Korean students’ construction development
  5. Connections between measured and assessed fluency in L2 peer interaction: a problem-solving perspective
  6. Transfer and unlearning of topic prominence by Chinese learners of English
  7. The influence of L1 script directionality and L2 proficiency on Hanzi learning among Arabic and English learners of L2 Chinese
  8. The effects of task types on L2 oral production and learner engagement
  9. Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: processing instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal
  10. Teaching South African Sign Language as a second language to university students: an integrated pedagogy
  11. Intra-language: the study of L2 morpheme productivity as within-item variance
  12. Advanced learners’ responses to Chinese greetings in study abroad
  13. Individual perceptions of group work environment, motivation, and achievement
  14. Fossilized mistakes in Spanish relative clauses learned by Chinese students
  15. Learning phrasal verbs in the EFL classroom: the effect of prior vocabulary knowledge and opacity
  16. L2 use of pragmatic markers in peer talk: Mandarin utterance-final particles
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2020-0150
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
Chinese; decision process; greeting responses; perception; pragmatic competence

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Contribution of English aural vocabulary size levels to L2 listening comprehension
  4. The effects of extensive reading on young Korean students’ construction development
  5. Connections between measured and assessed fluency in L2 peer interaction: a problem-solving perspective
  6. Transfer and unlearning of topic prominence by Chinese learners of English
  7. The influence of L1 script directionality and L2 proficiency on Hanzi learning among Arabic and English learners of L2 Chinese
  8. The effects of task types on L2 oral production and learner engagement
  9. Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: processing instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal
  10. Teaching South African Sign Language as a second language to university students: an integrated pedagogy
  11. Intra-language: the study of L2 morpheme productivity as within-item variance
  12. Advanced learners’ responses to Chinese greetings in study abroad
  13. Individual perceptions of group work environment, motivation, and achievement
  14. Fossilized mistakes in Spanish relative clauses learned by Chinese students
  15. Learning phrasal verbs in the EFL classroom: the effect of prior vocabulary knowledge and opacity
  16. L2 use of pragmatic markers in peer talk: Mandarin utterance-final particles
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