[[alternative]]A Cross-Cultural Study of Perceptions of Appropriate Complaints

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Compounds: Combinations of the Components?--- EFL Learners’ Difficulties in Comprehension of Compound Nouns

[[abstract]]This study investigates Chinese EFL (English as foreign language) learners’ comprehension difficulty in compound nouns. Two groups of subjects participate in this study: fifty English-majored juniors classified as the intermediate group and thirty non-English- majored sophomores classified as the beginner group. The compound nouns included in this study are abstracted from Charteris-Black’s study (1998) based on three linguistic features that might lead to learners’ difficulties in comprehension: syntactic opacity, idiomatic opacity, and lexical novelty. This study includes two multiple-choice-question tests requiring the subjects to match the definition in the option items and the compound nouns: the first test is word-list test, which contains single compound nouns while the second test is a word-in-the-context test, in which each of the compound nouns is presented in a single-sentence context excerpted from authentic material. The results show that both groups perform better in the first test than in the second test although the difference is not significant. Among the compound nouns with the three linguistic features that are being investigated, both groups perform better with idiomatic opaque ones than the other two types. It is concluded that exposure may play the main role in reducing the learners’ comprehension difficulty with compound nouns, and that Chinese EFL learners might not be good at guessing or inferencing from the information inherent in the single-sentence context

Interlanguage Complaints —A Study of Chinese Learners' English Complaints

[[abstract]]本研究以書面語篇補全測驗，探討台灣英語學習者所使用的抱怨策略，並將其與英語母語使用者所使用之策略比較，目的是探討英語學習者與英語母語使用者的抱怨策略有何相似或不同處，期能對華語國家的英語語用教學提供一些見解。本研究所使用的測驗中，包含了十個情境，並檢視三項情境變數與受試者使用抱怨策略的關係，而此三項變數，為社會地位、社會距離以及對話者的性別。二十五位來自南台灣的大學生以及二十五位在美國東北的大學就讀的學生參與本研究，且兩組受試者所使用的抱怨策略被分成五類：(1)暗示，(2)表達不滿，(3)明確抱怨，(4)控訴及警告，(5)威脅與咒罵，而這五類抱怨策略的嚴厲程度自(1)至(5)遞增。收得的語料以卡方進行統計分析。除了抱怨策略之外，受試者於抱怨行為中辭彙的使用，包括加強詞及減緩詞，也都以卡方進行統計處理並更進一步做深入的分析。結果顯示兩組受試者的策略選擇有顯著的差異性，且三項情境變數也都對其策略使用有影響。本論文對造成兩組受試者使用不同嚴厲度的抱怨行為之可能原因以及在教學上的可能建議也都加以探討。[[abstract]]This study investigated the complaint strategies used by English learners in Taiwan, compared to those employed by native English speakers via a written discourse completion task. It aimed to find out how learners’ complaint behaviors were similar to or different from the native speakers’ to provide insights into English pragmatic teaching in Chinese-speaking countries. The written discourse completion task consisted of ten scenarios, which examined the relationship between three contextual variables and the subjects’ use of complaint strategies. The three variables were status, social distance, and the addressee’s gender. Twenty-five learners from Southern Taiwan and twenty-five native speakers from the North-eastern U.S. participated in this study. The strategies produced by the two groups were classified into five categories: (1) hint, (2) expression of annoyance or disapproval, (3) request for repair or forbearance, (4) explicit complaint, and (5) accusation and threat. The severity level of the strategies increased from (1) to (5). The data were processed quantitatively by Chi-square analyses. In addition, the lexical repertoire, including upgraders and downgraders, was analyzed. The results showed that the learners and native English speakers differed significantly both in complaint strategies and their use of lexical repertoire. The three contextual variables were also associated with significant differences in the subjects’ use of complaint strategies. Reasons for the differences and pedagogical implications were also discussed

合宜抱怨策略的感知度之對比研究

[[abstract]]不同文化背景的人對於合宜的抱怨可能會有不同的定義與看法，因此本研究探討美國英文母語使用者及台灣中文母語使用者對於包含不同地位及社會距離（熟識度）對話者之不同情境的合宜抱怨行為感知度之異同。五十位美國及五十位台灣大學生參與本研究，資料收集工具為包含二十個情境的選擇題組，其中八個題組探討社會地位的影響，另外十二題則研究社會地位變數在合宜抱怨行為中的角色。每個情境都包含了六個選項，各代表不同的抱怨策略：暗示、不滿、請求、明確抱怨、控訴／威脅、以及沉默。受試者須在這些情境中的六個選項中，選出他們認為最合宜之抱怨行為，並以卡方將收得之語料進行統計分析。結果顯示兩組受試者對於這六個選項皆有選用，但在策略選擇的嚴厲度有所不同。整體而言，中文母語使用者的抱怨嚴厲度比英文母語使用者高，社會地位及社會距離兩個變數皆影響了兩組受試者的抱怨策略之選擇，且兩組受試者在這兩項變數影響下大致上呈現相似的抱怨嚴厲度。最後，本研究對造成這些結果的可能原因加以探討。 People from different cultural backgrounds might have different concepts of appropriate complaints. This study examines American and Chinese college students' perceptions of appropriate complaints in situations involving addressees of different status and social distance types. One hundred subjects, including fifty Chinese and fifty Americans, participated in this study. The instrument was a multiple-choice task, which included twenty scenarios, with eight investigating the effects of status and twelve exploring the influences of social distance on the subjects' complaints. Each scenario consisted of six options, which represented different complaint strategies: hints, disapproval, requests for repair, explicit complaints, accusations/threat, and opting out. The collected data were processed quantitatively by Chi-square analyses. The results suggest that both of the two groups selected all of the six strategies, but they significantly differed in their severity tendency of strategy choices. Overall, the Chinese speakers tended to be severer than the Americans. Further, social status ..