Proxemics and speech acts in intercultural settings: a case study in Turkey

Abstract

Proxemics and speech acts play an important role in nonverbal communication. Thus, this case study aimed to compare university students’ perceptions on proxemic behaviours in terms of three speech acts, namely apologising, thanking and congratulating. There were 60 participants in total. 30 were Turkish students from English Language Teaching (ELT) Department and 30 were foreign students learning Turkish at a state university’s Turkish Language Learning, Research and Application Centre. The data were collected via a semi-structured interview and analysed through summative content analysis. According to the results, various individual, socio-political and non-linguistic factors were found to have an important role in shaping the participants’ perceptions on proxemic behaviours in intercultural settings. Also, the participants referred to various words with different connotations to define these proxemic behaviours with regard to apologising, thanking and congratulating. Finally, the results revealed a framework which includes four factors (frequency, manner, wording, timing) affecting proxemic behaviours while performing these speech acts. The results highlight the need for including cultural components into higher education institutions to promote multicultural education among university students for their future interactions and guide English teachers about how to include proxemics and speech acts in their future teaching practices. © Macquarie University 2022.