Request Modifications Used by Chinese Learners and Native Speakers of Thai

Abstract

Most interlanguage pragmatic studies in Thailand focus on learning/teaching English as a second/foreign language, while interlanguage characteristics of learners of Thai as a second language are still under-investigated. With a view to bridge this gap, this study aims to investigate the interlanguage characteristics of 51 Chinese learners of Thai (CLT) in comparison with 66 native speakers of Thai (NST) through the use of request modifications. The Discourse Completion Test (DCT) comprising 12 scenarios with the three assigned social variables relative power (P), social distance (D), and rank of imposition (R) was used to elicit the request utterances. The results reveal 20 external and 14 internal modification types used to modify the requests. Overall, it seems that CLT and NST share several request modification types; however, each group of speakers rely on some specific modification types. The mutual modification types suggest that CLT acquire pragmatic competence until they can master most modification types of request. However, the modification types which only occur in the CLT’s data point out the interlanguage use of request modifications.