Length of stay abroad: Effects of time on the speech act of requesting

Abstract

By means of a discourse completion test (DCT) and a discourse elicitation test (DET) this study investigates the awareness and production of requests and request act modifiers of 104 nonnative speakers of English from 31 nationalities during different lengths of stay in the UK. The paper first of all provides a brief overview of studies that deal with pragmatic development and periods abroad and then, describes the data collection procedure and methodology employed. Results show that the early stages of a stay abroad are decisive in developing an awareness of pragmatic infelicities. With respect to production of requests, our results do not show statistically significant differences, suggesting that length of stay does not affect request act use. There is also evidence that learners in the study abroad context increase their pragmatic repertoire of internal and external modifiers at later stages of their stay in the UK.

Acculturation and acquisition of pragmatic routines in the study abroad context

“…It was at later stages when learners developed their productive skills, evident in the use of a wider repertoire of request act modifiers. Our findings are in line with Vilar-Beltrán (2014) in that recognition is more evident during the first semester of immersion. Drawing from this author's findings, we propose the tentative hypothesis that production of routines would develop at later stages, while recognition will develop earlier.…”

Making short‐term study abroad count—Effects on German language skills

“…In sum, in spite of the fact that much previous research has suggested that at least one semester abroad is necessary for students to make measurable progress in certain language areas and that longer stays are generally more beneficial for L2 learners (e.g., Dwyer, 2004;Ife et al, 2000;Vilar Beltrán, 2014), the present study shows that intensive summer programs that include at-home coursework coupled with a subsequent short-term SA program can effectively promote language development in all skill areas for most students, corroborating previous research (e.g., Allen & Herron, 2003;Savage & Hughes, 2014;Watson et al, 2013) on vocabulary and grammar (e.g., Freed, 1990;Grey et al, 2015;Menard-Warwick & Palmer, 2012) and on writing gains in SA (e.g., Cubillos, 2004). That said, it should also be pointed out that several students did not increase their language skills at all, and a few students had lower posttest than pretest scores.…”

Functional adequacy: The effect of Englsih Medium Instruction, English Proficiency and previous language learning experiences

“…However, some scholars have found that length of residence in the target country does not have a significant effect on learners' pragmatic competence (e.g., Alcón-Soler, 2015; Kondo, 1997;Rodriguez, 2001;Vilar-Beltrán, 2014). To the best of our knowledge, no study has analyzed the effect of previous experiences abroad on learners' pragmatic performance in EMI students.…”

“…Finally, another dimension influencing pragmatic development is related to claims that study abroad (SA) programs, language showers, and sojourns offer learners opportunities to develop pragmatic competence. The main focus has been the effect of length of stay on pragmatic development, with studies revealing inconclusive findings (e.g, Achiba, 2003;Kondo, 1991;Matsumara, 2001;Röver, 1996;Vilar-Beltrán, 2014). Bearing all the above in mind, the present study also explores the effect of learners' previous language experiences in terms of length of stays in English-speaking countries on pragmatic performance.…”

“…Another factor that might interact with length of stay is willingness to communicate (WTC), which is defined as "the intention to initiate communication, (e.g., Achiba, 2003;Matsumura, 2001Matsumura, , 2003Röver, 1996) whereas others conclude that length of stay is not an important factor influencing pragmatic ability (e.g., Kondo, 1991;Roever, 2001;Vilar-Beltrán, 2014). For this reason, Félix-Brasdefer (2004) suggests that these studies should be interpreted with care due to the variation regarding the pragmatic measure used and the time span proposed for pragmatic learning to take place.…”