ELT Journal Advance Access published online on May 7, 2009
ELT Journal, doi:10.1093/elt/ccp023
© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Bumping into someone: Japanese students’ perceptions and observations
Carmella Lieske has been teaching EFL in Japan since 1993. Carmella teaches not only at tertiary level at universities, junior colleges, and vocational colleges, but has taught in junior and senior high schools. In the community setting, she has taught students of all ages, ranging from preschool to adult. In addition to her love of teaching, she thoroughly enjoys her work as an ESOL materials writer. She continues to work on projects for international publishers, including testing packages, teacher resource books, and workbooks. Her research interests include pragmatics and materials development
Email: clieske{at}hotmail.com
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Abstract |
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This pilot study explores the apologies Japanese nursing college students thought they would use in their L1 (i.e. Japanese) and their L2 (i.e. English) when bumping into each other. The students completed a questionnaire, the results of which indicated that they believed they should always apologize for bumping into someone. The paper describes apologies students expected to use in both languages and their observations of real-world apologies in Japan and the US. After reviewing differences between their L1 and L2 apologies and their perceived and observed apologies, the paper discusses students’ sociopragmatic, pragmalinguistic, and linguistic discoveries. The findings have implications for instructors who are interested in investigating and teaching the speech act.