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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 38:2 (2025) ► pp.510–543

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“Do you have a pen?” “Yes.”

A cross-cultural and interlanguage analysis of pre-request sequences in Spanish and Chinese

ORCiD logo with link | Nanjing University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

This article was made Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license through payment of an APC by or on behalf of the author.

Published online: 6 January 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.23004.wan
Abstract
This study investigates how the cross-cultural variation between Spanish and Chinese interactional styles influences the interlanguage pre-request sequences in Spanish produced by Chinese-speaking learners. Ninety-four university students, including 40 Chinese learners of Spanish at intermediate and advanced levels, 24 native Spanish speakers and 30 native Chinese speakers, performed 10-item open role-plays that elicited requests. Results revealed that learners exhibited negative transfer concerning cross-cultural differences, but did not always make positive transfer in aspects of cross-cultural similarities. Notably, learners and native Chinese speakers differed from native Spanish speakers in their production of the pre-requests asking about the recipients’ availability and their responses to the pre-requests inquiring about the existence of certain belongings. Furthermore, in comparison with native speakers, learners more frequently used the pre-requests asking for a favor. The findings of this research highlight cultural diversity in speakers’ pre-request sequences and pragmatic transfer at the interactional level. Additionally, the study brings attention to the issue of verbosity in intermediate and advanced learners’ sequential organization.
Resumen
“¿Tienes un boli?” “Sí”: Un análisis transcultural e interlingüístico de las secuencias de prepeticiones en español y chino
Este estudio investiga cómo la variación transcultural entre los estilos interaccionales en español y chino influye en las secuencias de las prepeticiones interlingüísticas en español producidas por los estudiantes chinos. Noventa y cuatro estudiantes universitarios, incluidos 40 estudiantes chinos de español de nivel intermedio y avanzado, 24 hablantes nativos de español y 30 hablantes nativos de chino, realizaron juegos de rol abiertos de 10 ítems que suscitaban peticiones. Los resultados revelaron que los estudiantes mostraban una transferencia negativa en relación con las diferencias interculturales, pero no siempre realizaban una transferencia positiva en aspectos de similitud intercultural. En particular, los alumnos y los hablantes nativos de chino se diferenciaron de los hablantes nativos de español en la producción de las prepeticiones en las que se preguntaba por la disponibilidad de los destinatarios y en sus respuestas a las prepeticiones en las que se preguntaba por la existencia de determinadas pertenencias. Además, en comparación con los hablantes nativos, los alumnos utilizaron con más frecuencia las prepeticiones en las que se pedía un favor. Los resultados de esta investigación ponen de relieve la diversidad cultural en las secuencias de prepeticiones y la transferencia pragmática a nivel interaccional. Además, el estudio llama la atención sobre la cuestión de la verbosidad en la organización secuencial de los aprendices intermedios y avanzados.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Pre-request sequences in CA
    • 2.2Pre-requests in interlanguage pragmatics
    • 2.3Brown and Levinson’s politeness model
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instrument
    • 3.3Framework and procedure
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Availability
    • 4.2Existence
    • 4.3Favor
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
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