Cross-cultural realization of the speech act of requests: case study of Algerian Ph.D. students

Benzdira, Halima (2023) Cross-cultural realization of the speech act of requests: case study of Algerian Ph.D. students. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The present study is concerned with probing how Algerian Ph.D. students formulate requests to their supervisors at a UK higher education institution; and how their supervisors respond to these. The data are derived from a case study focussing on a group of fifteen Algerian PhD students and six Supervisors at Manchester Metropolitan University (hereafter MMU). The thesis falls within third wave approach to politeness research, which advocates the integration of aspects from classical and discursive approaches (Bousfield, 2010; Leech, 2014; Haugh and Culpeper, 2018) into the analysis of politeness phenomenon. The current research, therefore, seeks to explores the speech event of requests as a fundamentally written interactional phenomenon. In other words, it considers this type of communication as a phenomenon that needs both interlocutors; those who produce requests and those who respond to these successively. More specifically, the study aims to examine how these participants (Algerian Ph.D. students) attempt, using strategically different politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson, 1987), to achieve their interactional goals in an asymmetrical powerrelations context. Further, and while looking at the supervisors’ response, the study also investigates how the receivers perceive those requests from the Algerian Ph.D. students. While studying the speech acts (Austin 1962) of requests and responses to these, the study also explores the socio-cultural factors influencing the use of politeness strategies use and responses to the requests. To meet the aims of the research project, a mixed method approach was used to elicit the performances and perceptions of the participants. On one hand, Interactionbased Discourse Completion Tasks (Hereafter, I-DCTs) were designed for the purpose of approaching a realistic performance of requests and responses to requests in email communication. On the other hand, followed-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants to investigate and understand how the socio-cultural factors map out and influence their use of politeness strategies. Moreover, the interviews also aim at discovering how the supervisors perceive the students’ email requests. While the methodological contribution in this research is an innovation in the study of politeness and pragmatics as an adaptation of Discourse Completion Tasks is implemented to take account of requests and responses to requests. The study is also a contribution to knowledge through the insights provided regarding the use of politeness strategies by an under researched Algerian population. The results of the current study, generating from a total of 21 I-DCTs (15 from students and 6 from supervisors) and a total of 21 semi-structured follow-up interviews with participants, show that the participants use mostly negative politeness strategies. The results also show that the Algerian Ph.D. students are perceived as polite by their supervisors. The study’s contribution, therefore, adds to the existing knowledge on the realization of the speech act of requests and politeness in an intercultural communication context.