A Pragmatic Study of Persuasion Speech Act in Chinese and Pedagogical Advice

• Main Authors: Tsai, Chia-En, 蔡佳恩
• Other Authors: Hsieh, Chia-Ling
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/myk362

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 華語文教學系 === 105 === Language is an important tool used for human communication. Listeners could change their first thought or be prompted to behave differently if speakers manipulate the language properly. There is no lack of persuasive elements in everyday messages of the human being. Persuasion is one of the social skills to achieve individuals’ goals and its verbal use is affected by social power, social distance or communication context. Moreover, the strength of persuasion is influenced by different strategies and turn-design. This paper explores how Chinese native speakers use persuasive strategies and how these strategies are influenced by social variables based on the Conservation Analysis. This research used role-playing and DCT to collect natural oral dialogue data and used questionnaires to collect participants’ opinion towards the use of persuasive strategies in dialogues. The participants consisted of 40 Chinese native speakers in Taiwan and, in pairs, completed 7 dialogues based on different variables. After completing the role-playing of each dialogue, participants are asked to fill in questionnaires. 140 valid dialogues data are included in the study. According to the study results, Chinese native speakers tend to use the “inducement” strategy, providing beneficial conditions for the counterpart to alternate his or her original stance to achieve their persuasive goal. With regard to the turn-design, Chinese native speakers would rather execute one act to pop out the persuasion intention. As for influences such as social variables, when facing people whose social power is stronger than theirs, Chinese native speakers usually use the “public opinion” strategy, giving counterparts invisible pressure by a backup of the third party to reinforce their persuasive intention. On the other hand, when facing unfamiliar counterparts, Chinese native speakers tend to use the “suggestion” strategy in the form of tag questions and”A not A” questions. This strategy can weaken the confrontation of expressing ideas directly, seemingly asking for the counterpart’s opinion but actually showing his or her own stance. Based on the results above, the research concludes by offering teaching suggestions in accordance with viewpoints of the communication ability and task-based teaching. The teaching plans are designed to serve as a reference for teachers to enhance Chinese learners’ ability to communicate.