A Cross-cultural Study of the Perception of Apology —Effect of Contextual Factors, Exposure to the Target Language, Interlocutor Ethnicity and Task Language

• Main Authors: Yi-chun Hou, 侯怡君
• Other Authors: Yuh-huey Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/72779247232711546884

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 94 === ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of contextual factors, participants’ exposure to the target language, interlocutors’ ethnicity and task language on Chinese and English speakers’ perception of the speech act of apology. The data were collected from sixty English L1 speakers, 60 Chinese L1 speakers and 60 Chinese EFL speakers. They consisted of responses on and of apology to a Scaled-response Questionnaire (SRQ). The SRQ data showed both similarities and significant differences between the two L1 groups under different contextual factors. First, the two groups differed in terms of all the four context-internal factors; i.e. severity of the offense, likelihood to apologize, difficulty of the apology and the acceptability of the apology. As for the SRQ answers concerning the five context-external factors, social distance, social status, speaker gender, interlocutor gender and imposition, there were both similarities and differences between the two L1 groups. For example, both groups considered it less severe to offend strangers and were more likely to apologize to acquaintances and people of equal status. Furthermore, both groups found it more severe to offend and more difficult to apologize to male than to female interlocutors. On the other hand, cross-cultural differences were found in the perception of the severity on low imposition situations and on people of equal status and acquaintances. There were also various cross-cultural differences in the likelihood to apologize and difficulty of the apology perception ratings. Ethnicity did not yield significant results among Chinese L1s. However, low-exposure group rated severity and likelihood to apologize higher than high-exposure group did. Severity of the offense was significantly higher and the difficulty of the apology was significantly lower when the participants were using Chinese L1. When compared with the high exposure group, low exposure group’s perception ratings were higher in the severity of the offense, likelihood to apologize and acceptability of the apology. The results may infer that ethnicity and task language play important roles in learners’ perceptions. Future researches could focus on the relationship between learners’ perception and production to broaden and deepen the understanding of learner language.