Uses of request act by learners of Turkish as a foreign language

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the uses of request speech acts in different contexts by those learning Turkish as a foreign language, in the light of the Speech Act Theory developed by Austin and Searle. This study has a qualitative research design in a descriptive model. In the study, data from two sample groups consisting of 75 first language Turkish speakers and 262 second language Turkish speakers were collected by appropriate sampling. The data of the study were collected by the Discourse Completion Test. In the analysis of the sub-problems of the study, Blum-Kulka's request strategies, which are included in Blum-Kulka and Olshtain's classification, were used. When the results of the study were examined, it was seen that the second language Turkish speakers used request speech act in situations they face for the first time or rarely, and that the first language Turkish speakers chose to use request speech acts rather based on their intuition, grammar knowledge or language transfer. Evaluating the results obtained in this research in general, the first language Turkish speakers who learned Turkish as the mother tongue used different strategies than those learning Turkish as a second language in the permission/approval and information request subcategories of request speech acts but tended towards the same strategies in general in action request subcategories. In addition, it was seen that the interpersonal relationship, age, social status, and linguistic ability affected the responses frequently in the first language Turkish speakers whereas they did not adequately affect the responses in the foreign students given that the relationship or status was not fully known. © 2019 Cyprus International University. All rights reserved.