Metapragmatics Instructions in Leveraging English Proficiency on Apology
Abstract
This study endeavors to investigate the effects of metapragmatic instructions: role play and elicited conversation negotiated feedback (RP+NF, EC+NF) embedded in Task-Supported Language Instruction (TSLI) on the students’ apology strategy. We used a laboratory-based research design encompassing 75 fifth-semester students of economics major taking English business for international communication in higher educational level. Those students were randomly assigned into one control group and two experimental groups. We utilized a mixed-design repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) to gauge the students’ apology proficiency explicated in a two-test design i.e., apology judgment test (AJT) and apology oral test (AOT) in a three test sessions (pre-, post-, and delayed test). The finding reveals that there is a significant difference between among groups in which both experimental groups outperform the control group in post and delayed tests. Also, a significant increase is explicated in both experimental groups from pre to post test, but not in the control group. While RP+NF provides the most robust of all and stimulates a long term effects with big effect sizes on both test designs, EC+NF fails to provide a long term effect in AOT.
Keywords: Apology Strategy, Corrective Feedback, Elicited Conversation, Metapragmatic Instructions, Role Play
References
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Al-Rawafi, A., Sudana, D., Lukmana, I., & Syihabuddin. (2021). Students’ apologizing in Arabic and English: An interlanguage pragmatic case study at an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(3), 589-602.
Ancarno, C. (2015). When are public apologies ‘successful’? Focus on British and French apology press uptakes. Journal of Pragmatics, 84, 139—153
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bataineh, R.F., & Bataineh, R.F. (2006). Apology strategies of Jordanian EFL university students. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1901-1927.
Bataller, R. (2013). Role-plays vs. natural data: asking for a drink at a cafeteria in peninsular Spanish. Ãkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 18(2), 111–126.
Blum-Kulka, S. & Olshtain, E. (1984) Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics, 5(3), 196-213
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Ellis, R., Skehan, P., Li, S., Shintani, N., and Lambert, C. (2020). Task-based language teaching: Theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Engel, B. (2001). The Power of Apology. New York: Wiley
Ewald, J. D. (2012). ‘Can you tell me how to get there?’: Naturally occurring versus role-play data in direction giving. Pragmatics, 22(1), 79–102.
Fadilah, E., Widiati, U., & Anugerahwati, M. (2021). Negotiated Feedback, Situated Recast and Task-Supported Language Instruction on the Development of Grammatical Features. The Journal of ASIA TEFL, 18(4), 1071-1087.
Fadilah, E., Widiati, U., Latief, M. (2019). Reading Dynamic Patterns of Silence as a Communication Strategy and Impediment in the EFL Classroom Interaction. International Journal of Instruction, 12(4), 183-200.
Fadilah, E. (2018a). Rethinking the maintenance of CLT in Indonesia: A response to: Ariatna’s (Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016) “The Need for Maintaining CLT in Indonesiaâ€. TESOL Journal, 9 (1), 224-236.doi: 10.1002/tesj.341
Fadilah, E. (2018b). Oral corrective feedback on students’ grammatical accuracy and willingness to communicate in EFL classroom: the effects of focused and unfocused prompts. The Asian EFL Journal, 20 (4), 57-85.
Goffman, E. (1971). Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. Basic Books, New York.
Hatfield, H. & Hahn, J.W. (2011). What Korean apologies require of politeness theory. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 1303-1317
Izadi, A. (2015). Persian honorifics and im/politeness as social practice. Journal of Pragmatics, 85, 85--91.
Jones, J.F., & Adreviza. (2017). Comparing apologies in Australian English and Bahasa Indonesia: Cultural and gender
perspectives. Journal of Politeness Research, 13 (1), 89-119.
Kasper, G. (2008). Data collection in pragmatics research. In H. Spencer-Oatey (Ed.), Culturally speaking (2nd ed., pp. 279–303). London & New York: Continuum.
Kellerman, B. (2006). When should a leader apologize and when not? Harvard Business Review, 84(4), 72-81
Kim, Y., & Taguchi, N. (2016). Learner-learner interaction during collaborative pragmatic tasks: The role of cognitive and pragmatic task demands. Foreign Language Annals, 49, 42–57
Lantolf, J., Thorne, S.,L., & Poehner, M.,E. (2015). Sociocultural theory and second language development. In B. van
Patten & J. Williams (Eds..), Theories in second language acquisition (pp. 207-226). New York: Routledge.
Larson-Hall, J. (2010). A Guide to Doing Statistics in Second Language Research Using SPSS. Routledge.
Leech, G. (2014). The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford University Press.
Molinsky, A. (November 25, 2016). The 4 Types of Ineffective Apologies. Harvard Business Review retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/11/the-4-types-of-ineffective-apologies
Murphy, J. (2019). I'm sorry you are such an arsehole: (non-)canonical apologies and their implications for (im) politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 142, 223-232
Olshtain, E. & Cohen, A. (1983). Apology: a speech act set. In: Wolfson, Nessa, Judd, Elliot (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition (pp. 1-35). Newbury House, Rowley, MA.
Page, R. (2014). Saying sorry: corporate apologies posted on Twitter. Journal of Pragmatics, 62, 30-45.
Plonsky, L. & Kim, J. (2016). Task-based learner production: A substantive and methodological review. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 73-97.
Roever, C. & Al-Gahtani, S. (2015). The development of ESL proficiency and pragmatic performance, ELT Journal, 69(4), 395–404
Roever, C. (2007). DIF in the assessment of second language pragmatics. Language Assessment Quarterly, 4(2), 165–189.
Salgado, E.F., (2011). The pragmatics of requests and apologies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Sarfo-Kantankah, K.S,. (2021). I withdraw and apologize but…: Ghanaian parliamentary apologies, the issue of sincerity and acceptance. Journal of Pragmatics, 180, 1-14
Searle, J.R., (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Schweitzer, M., Brooks, A.W. & Galinsky, A.D. (2013). The Organizational Apology: A step-by-step guide. Harvard Business Review, 93 (9), 44-52
Taguchi, N & Kim, Y. (2019). Task-based approaches to teaching and assessing pragmatics: An overview in Taguchi, N & Kim, Y (Eds). Task-Based Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Pragmatics (pp.2-24). Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Taguchi, N., & Roever, C. (2017). Second Language Pragmatics. , Oxford.: Oxford University Press
Taguchi, N. (2015). Instructed pragmatics at a glance: Where instructional studies were, are, and should be going. Language Teaching, 48, 1–50.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 91-112.
Trosborg, A. (1987). Apology strategies in native/non-native English. Journal of Pragmatics, 11, 147–167.
Vygotsky, L., S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wouk, F. (2006). The language of apologizing in Lombok, Indonesia. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1457-1486
Youn, S. J. (2015). Validity argument for assessing L2 pragmatics in interaction using mixed methods. Language Testing, 32(2), 199–225.
Al-Rawafi, A., Sudana, D., Lukmana, I., & Syihabuddin. (2021). Students’ apologizing in Arabic and English: An interlanguage pragmatic case study at an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(3), 589-602.
Ancarno, C. (2015). When are public apologies ‘successful’? Focus on British and French apology press uptakes. Journal of Pragmatics, 84, 139—153
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bataineh, R.F., & Bataineh, R.F. (2006). Apology strategies of Jordanian EFL university students. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1901-1927.
Bataller, R. (2013). Role-plays vs. natural data: asking for a drink at a cafeteria in peninsular Spanish. Ãkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 18(2), 111–126.
Blum-Kulka, S. & Olshtain, E. (1984) Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics, 5(3), 196-213
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Ellis, R., Skehan, P., Li, S., Shintani, N., and Lambert, C. (2020). Task-based language teaching: Theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Engel, B. (2001). The Power of Apology. New York: Wiley
Ewald, J. D. (2012). ‘Can you tell me how to get there?’: Naturally occurring versus role-play data in direction giving. Pragmatics, 22(1), 79–102.
Fadilah, E., Widiati, U., & Anugerahwati, M. (2021). Negotiated Feedback, Situated Recast and Task-Supported Language Instruction on the Development of Grammatical Features. The Journal of ASIA TEFL, 18(4), 1071-1087.
Fadilah, E., Widiati, U., Latief, M. (2019). Reading Dynamic Patterns of Silence as a Communication Strategy and Impediment in the EFL Classroom Interaction. International Journal of Instruction, 12(4), 183-200.
Fadilah, E. (2018a). Rethinking the maintenance of CLT in Indonesia: A response to: Ariatna’s (Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016) “The Need for Maintaining CLT in Indonesiaâ€. TESOL Journal, 9 (1), 224-236.doi: 10.1002/tesj.341
Fadilah, E. (2018b). Oral corrective feedback on students’ grammatical accuracy and willingness to communicate in EFL classroom: the effects of focused and unfocused prompts. The Asian EFL Journal, 20 (4), 57-85.
Goffman, E. (1971). Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. Basic Books, New York.
Hatfield, H. & Hahn, J.W. (2011). What Korean apologies require of politeness theory. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 1303-1317
Izadi, A. (2015). Persian honorifics and im/politeness as social practice. Journal of Pragmatics, 85, 85--91.
Jones, J.F., & Adreviza. (2017). Comparing apologies in Australian English and Bahasa Indonesia: Cultural and gender
perspectives. Journal of Politeness Research, 13 (1), 89-119.
Kasper, G. (2008). Data collection in pragmatics research. In H. Spencer-Oatey (Ed.), Culturally speaking (2nd ed., pp. 279–303). London & New York: Continuum.
Kellerman, B. (2006). When should a leader apologize and when not? Harvard Business Review, 84(4), 72-81
Kim, Y., & Taguchi, N. (2016). Learner-learner interaction during collaborative pragmatic tasks: The role of cognitive and pragmatic task demands. Foreign Language Annals, 49, 42–57
Lantolf, J., Thorne, S.,L., & Poehner, M.,E. (2015). Sociocultural theory and second language development. In B. van
Patten & J. Williams (Eds..), Theories in second language acquisition (pp. 207-226). New York: Routledge.
Larson-Hall, J. (2010). A Guide to Doing Statistics in Second Language Research Using SPSS. Routledge.
Leech, G. (2014). The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford University Press.
Molinsky, A. (November 25, 2016). The 4 Types of Ineffective Apologies. Harvard Business Review retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/11/the-4-types-of-ineffective-apologies
Murphy, J. (2019). I'm sorry you are such an arsehole: (non-)canonical apologies and their implications for (im) politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 142, 223-232
Olshtain, E. & Cohen, A. (1983). Apology: a speech act set. In: Wolfson, Nessa, Judd, Elliot (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition (pp. 1-35). Newbury House, Rowley, MA.
Page, R. (2014). Saying sorry: corporate apologies posted on Twitter. Journal of Pragmatics, 62, 30-45.
Plonsky, L. & Kim, J. (2016). Task-based learner production: A substantive and methodological review. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 73-97.
Roever, C. & Al-Gahtani, S. (2015). The development of ESL proficiency and pragmatic performance, ELT Journal, 69(4), 395–404
Roever, C. (2007). DIF in the assessment of second language pragmatics. Language Assessment Quarterly, 4(2), 165–189.
Salgado, E.F., (2011). The pragmatics of requests and apologies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Sarfo-Kantankah, K.S,. (2021). I withdraw and apologize but…: Ghanaian parliamentary apologies, the issue of sincerity and acceptance. Journal of Pragmatics, 180, 1-14
Searle, J.R., (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Schweitzer, M., Brooks, A.W. & Galinsky, A.D. (2013). The Organizational Apology: A step-by-step guide. Harvard Business Review, 93 (9), 44-52
Taguchi, N & Kim, Y. (2019). Task-based approaches to teaching and assessing pragmatics: An overview in Taguchi, N & Kim, Y (Eds). Task-Based Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Pragmatics (pp.2-24). Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Taguchi, N., & Roever, C. (2017). Second Language Pragmatics. , Oxford.: Oxford University Press
Taguchi, N. (2015). Instructed pragmatics at a glance: Where instructional studies were, are, and should be going. Language Teaching, 48, 1–50.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 91-112.
Trosborg, A. (1987). Apology strategies in native/non-native English. Journal of Pragmatics, 11, 147–167.
Vygotsky, L., S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wouk, F. (2006). The language of apologizing in Lombok, Indonesia. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1457-1486
Youn, S. J. (2015). Validity argument for assessing L2 pragmatics in interaction using mixed methods. Language Testing, 32(2), 199–225.
Published
2022-12-30
Section
Articles
