Politeness norms: A pilot study on the accomplishment of apologies by learners of Italian

Abstract

ENIn the increasingly globalised world, intercultural and cross-cultural relations are becoming ever more frequent and significant.Within this diverse cultural space, miscommunications tend to arise and have the ability to significantly impact upon intercultural interactions. Thus, this paper explores the use of politeness strategies by learners of Italian during the performance of the speech act of apology. Specifically, the paper examines the presence of Italian and Australian English politeness norms in the realisation of these apologies, focussing on three principle areas of investigation: (i) the way in which the social variables of the scenario were evaluated by participants, (ii) the participants' use of formal terms of address, and (iii) the modification of explicit expressions of apology. It was found that although tendencies of both Italian politeness and Australian English politeness were demonstrated by participants, the latter was more prominent, thus suggesting L1 influence on L2 realisation and some difficulty in the negotiation of the intercultural space. Key words: APOLOGIES, LANGUAGE LEARNERS, ITALIAN L2, POLITENESSES En un mundo cada vez más globalizado, las relaciones interculturales e interculturales van cobrando relevancia y son cada vez más frecuentes. Dentro de este diverso espacio cultural, los problemas de comunicación van en aumento e impactan de forma significativa sobre las interacciones interculturales. Bajo este marco, el presente trabajo explora el uso de estrategias de cortesía por parte de aprendientes de italiano durante el acto de habla de la disculpa. Concretamente, se examina la presencia de normas de cortesía de la lengua italiana y del inglés australiano al efectuarse estas disculpas, centrándose la investigación en tres áreas principales: (i) la forma en que las variables sociales del escenario fueron evaluadas por los participantes, (ii) el empleo de fórmulas de tratamiento formales por parte de los participantes, y (iii) la modificación de expresiones explícitas de disculpa. Se descubrió que, aunque los participantes mostraron tendencias propias de la cortesía en italiano y de la cortesía en inglés australiano, esta última resultó más prominente, lo que sugiere una influencia de la L1 en la realización de la L2 y una cierta dificultad en la negociación del espacio intercultural. Palabras clave: DISCULPAS, APRENDIENTES DE LENGUA, ITALIANO COMO L2, CORTESÍAIT In un mondo sempre più globalizzato, le relazioni interculturali e multiculturali diventano vieppiù frequenti e importanti.All'interno di questo spazio culturale variegato, tendono a verificarsi cattive comunicazioni che influiscono significativamente sulle interazioni interculturali. In questo studio si analizza l'uso delle strategie di cortesia da parte degli apprendenti di italiano durante l'enunciazione dell'atto linguistico della scusa. Nello specifico, lo studio prende in esame la presenza di regole di cortesia nell'italiano e nell'inglese australiano nella realizzazione di tali scuse, concentrandosi s...

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“…Figure 1. English translation of a DCT prompt (Walker, 2017) The task was completed in class and linguistic aids such as dictionaries were not used, to ensure that the language use of the participants reflected their own linguistic ability. The time allocated for the task was approximately an hour.…”

“…As a pilot study of apologies in the context of Italian language learning in Australia, the research presented in this paper and in Walker (2017) is a steppingstone in understanding L2 apology performance in a new context. As such, there is scope for further research within this space, as further discussed in Section 8, and I am also continuing this research in my doctoral studies.…”

“…Although apologies were mentioned in Bettoni and Rubino's (2007) work on responses to complaints, they have not been extensively investigated from an Italian-Australian perspective, either in the context of comparing Australian English to Italian or in the context of examining the use of Italian language within Australia. My research seeks to fill this gap by studying apologies within the context of Italian language acquisition in Australia (the results are discussed both in the present article and in Walker, 2017). Exploring this perspective not only sheds light on the act of apology, in that a new group of apologisers are investigated, but also, given the context of Italian language learning, may offer insights and reflections upon language acquisition and pedagogy.…”