The Effect of the Observations that Dutch L2 Speakers of English Make about the Level of English Proficiency of the Interlocutor on the Explicitness of the Speaker’s Speech Production.
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2016-07-01
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en
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The aim of this study was to research whether Dutch L2 speakers of English modify their speech in terms of explicitness according to what they know (i.e. their observations) about the level of proficiency of English of the interlocutor. It was expected that these speakers would be more explicit when they knew that the level of proficiency of English of the interlocutor was low. On the other hand, when they knew that the level of proficiency of English of the interlocutor was high, it was predicted that the speakers would be less explicit. A multiplechoice discourse completion questionnaire was used in order to test this hypothesis. 37 students of English, all studying at Radboud University, completed the questionnaire. The results showed that, although there was a significant difference between the total scores of the high proficiency scenarios and the low proficiency scenarios, participants did not adjust their speech to the level of proficiency of the interlocutor in terms of explicitness. Rather, it seemed that the length of sentences played an important role in this convergence. This study did, however, find confirmation for the hypothesis that speakers cooperate with their interlocutors, as was stated by the Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 2001; 2007) and Grice’s Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975; Traxler, 2012).
Keywords: level of proficiency, explicitness, convergence, L1 Dutch, L2 English, Communication Accommodation Theory, Grice’s Cooperative Principle
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