Mitigating Difficult Requests in the Workplace: What Learners and Teachers Need to Know

Abstract

ⅢImmigrants to English-speaking countries, even those with advanced communicative skills in English, can experience misunderstanding in their workplace communication (Yates, 2005). Although such miscommunication is not restricted to those from other language backgrounds, users of English as a second or subsequent language who move to English-speaking countries as adults face particular challenges in correctly interpreting and conveying meaning. As Trosborg (2003, pp. 252-253) notes, for those from other language backgrounds, the workplace context may present challenges related not only to working in another language and culture, but also in a business culture which may well be different from the one with which they are familiar. Part of the onus for successful communication must, of course, rest with native English speakers (NESs), and increasing their awareness of cross-cultural communication is certainly crucial. However, the often lower status newcomers to a situation cannot always depend on interacting with sympathetic interlocutors but should and can be empowered to understand the intricacies of the communicative contexts in which they are now being called on to operate.There are few descriptions that are rich enough to furnish the specifics of how adults get other people to do things in workplace situations, and many teachers feel that they do not have enough information about how NESs undertake everyday speech acts to be able to teach their learners (Yates & Wigglesworth, 2005). In particular, mitigation skills-the use of linguistic and other means to soften the impact of an utteranceappear difficult to learn from exposure alone (Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford, 1996), but they have considerable impact on how a speaker is perceived by interlocutors (Holmes, 1984). Mitigation skills vary considerably not only across languages but also across different Englishspeaking cultures, so it is crucial to understand more about how such skills are managed in NES interactions in order to help teachers address these skills more specifically in the classroom. This article reports on a BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 791 THE AUTHORSGillian Wigglesworth is Head of the School of Languages at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on language acquisition, both first and second, and language testing and assessment, and she is widely published in these areas. She has worked for many years with ESL teachers through her involvement with the Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre.Lynda Yates is a senior lecturer in TESOL and applied linguistics at La Trobe University and a senior researcher with the Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre. She has taught in a wide range of settings in the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Armenia, and Australia, and conducts research in areas related to adult language learning and teaching and the professional development of teachers.

Workplace requests: A critical literature review

“…Some studies classify conventionally indirect strategies with a high level of directness as direct (LI, 2000) (WIGGLESWORTH; YATES, 2007) (YATES, 2010a). Similarly to Trosborg (1995), Wigglesworth and Yates (2007) consider these two levels of directness, apparently assertive, which the authors consider direct, and negotiable or advisory, which the authors consider indirect. Wigglesworth and Yates (2007) place statements of desire or need, a conventionally indirect strategy according to the CCSARP Coding Manual, into the most direct category, apparently assertive.…”

“…Similarly to Trosborg (1995), Wigglesworth and Yates (2007) consider these two levels of directness, apparently assertive, which the authors consider direct, and negotiable or advisory, which the authors consider indirect. Wigglesworth and Yates (2007) place statements of desire or need, a conventionally indirect strategy according to the CCSARP Coding Manual, into the most direct category, apparently assertive. The study involves requests made by native speakers of English (NES) in an Australian workplace context through a simulated role-play.…”

At the Intersection of Gender, Language, and Transnationalism

“…There is a distinct lack of programs and materials that offer language learning support to migrants doing reproductive work. An excellent material is a multimedia language teaching resource produced for aged -care workers in Australia (Springall 2007 ), which is based on intercultural pragmatics (see particularly Wigglesworth and Yates 2007 ;Yates 2008 ) and on ethnographic work conducted by the author, Jackie Springall, in the aged -care industry. During the fi eldwork, four language and communication issues emerged where targeted training was needed.…”

Assessing Pragmatic Competence of L2 Learners

“…There is a long tradition of research into cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics in which researchers address the issue of developing pragmatic competence in a foreign/ second language (BardoviHarlig, 1999;Barron, 2003;Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989;Ishihara & Cohen, 2010;Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1993;McConachy & Hata, 2013;Trosborg, 2010;Wigglesworth & Yates, 2007;etc. ).…”

“…Developing pragmatic competence in a second/foreign language has been addressed in many articles and publications on cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics (Bardovi-Harlig, 1999;Barron, 2003; BlumKulka, House, & Kasper, 1989;Ishihara & Cohen, 2010; Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1993;McConachy & Hata, 2013;Trosborg, 2010;Wigglesworth & Yates, 2007; etc.) …”