This essay is an attempt to explain one of the fundamental discourse analysis theories in the field of politeness: Brown and Levinson's face-saving theory. They divide the face into positive and negative then they formulate five politeness strategies the speaker can use when the person faces any of the face threatening acts. The aim of this paper is to investigate how this theory can be adapted and applied to interview using requests. In addition, the essay will identify the strategies of request and politeness phenomena in producing a request speech act. It will record a 10-minute interviews with an Australian native speaker of English and an Indonesian nonnative speaker about topics of interest to the participants. The study will show how the social distance, the power that the speaker wield on the hearer and the imposition of the request on the hearer impact forming the request sentence.
In spite of Krashen's (1985) claims that the only way to acquire a second language is through non-stressful comprehensible input, Swain (1995Swain ( , 1998Swain ( , 2005 and others propose that the production of language (speaking or writing), under certain circumstances, is a significant part of the second-language acquisition process. Swain also states that there are three functions of output, and one of these is the noticing or triggering function, in which through producing output, learners become aware of their linguistic knowledge. This study examines the role and effectiveness of output -in particular, the noticing function of language output -in developing the writing skills of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student from Saudi Arabia. The notice function enables the student to identify lexis and grammar problems in his writing. Data collection for the study was conducted in three stages: In Stage 1 the participant, who studies English at Latrobe Language Centre in Level 4A, wrote three paragraphs in response to illustrated questions. In Stage 2, the participant compared his original writing to model paragraph feedback tools. In Stage 3, the student rewrote his original paragraphs based on what he noticed in Stages 1 and 2. This methodology demonstrated the aspects of language that a second-language learner noticed while forming a paragraph on his own. It also illustrated what the participant noticed when he compared his writing to a model and what changes he made to his writing, as a result. It pushed the learner to create a modified output, leading to development of his writing skills in second-language acquisition.
In the way to develop the educational system in Saudi Arabia, the emphasis was only on the materials with no more attention for the role of the learner and the teacher in the learning process or even the external factors around them. However, there are many theories and approaches that may help the Saudi students in different levels to understand the real aims of learning. Constructivism is one of the most influential theories in learning but not the only one. Constructivist approach has different versions that might be applied successfully in Saudi context. This article will introduce two versions of constructivism which are cognitive and social constructivism. This approach can make a real change in learners and teachers in the circle of learning process in Saudi Arabia. Constructivism will be presented as an effective theory of knowledge can improve the educational system of Saudi Arabia.
English is taught as a foreign language in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Although the government tries gradually to integrate teaching English in all grades: secondary, intermediate and elementary, learning English is still limited and need more developing. This essay is a brief review about bilingualism in Saudi education. This essay will be divided into three sections. The first section will describe the Saudi bilingual context through three dimensions: language competence, late bilingualism, and individual bilingualism. The following section will define bilingualism with regard to the Saudi context. The last section will discuss the appropriate educational program for Saudi bilinguals and the implications of this educational program incorporating Arabic and English.Macnamara (1967) suggests that a bilingual is a person who can possess a minimal competence in only one of the four languages skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading, or writing in a language other than his or her mother tongue. This is consistent with the Saudi situation. Saudi bilinguals have a good competence in two skillsspeaking and readingbut they still struggle in listening and writing in their second language, English. Moreover, Beatens-Beardsmore (1982) defines bilingualism as a necessary or optional means of effective communication between two or more "worlds" using two language systems. Similarly, Titone (1989) says:Bilinguality implies a degree of communicative competence sufficient for effective communication in more than one language; effectiveness requires the ability to correctly understand the meaning of messages and/or the parallel ability to produce intelligible messages in more than one code.
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