Tuck in Your Shirt, You Squid: Suggestions in ESL*

TLDR: The authors conducted a study to determine what, if any, differences exist between the way adult native speakers and non-native speakers make suggestions and what implications there may be for the ESL classroom teacher in helping students develop pragmatic competence.

Abstract: A discourse completion questionnaire consisting of 60 situations designed to elicit suggestions in English was administered to 28 native speakers of Chinese or Malay and 12 native speakers of American English. The purpose of the study was to determine what, if any, differences exist between the way adult native speakers and nonnative speakers make suggestions and what implications there may be, if any, for the ESL classroom teacher in helping students develop pragmatic competence. Situations reflected three degrees of embarrassment to addressees who were varied by familiarity and sex. Speakers provided suggestions to about 50% of the situations, natives slightly more frequently than did nonnatives; however, nonnatives were slightly more direct in their responses than were natives. All subjects provided suggestions more frequently in urgent situations and less frequently in embarrassing situations. Simple statements of fact were the most common and neutral type of suggestions made by all speakers. Although suggestions made by native and nonnative speakers were basically similar in directness and frequency, they differed in the number and type of politeness strategies used. Examples of successful strategies used by native speakers, which could be taught to ESL students using a functional approach, as well as some of the pragmatically less successful strategies used by nonnative speakers are discussed.