A Contrastive Study of the Realization of Speech Acts by Algerian ELLs in Algerian Arabic and English

Abstract

The relationship between language and culture is attested to be strong and reciprocal. The fact that made it impossible to separate language, its structures, and its use from culture. A case in point is the differences in the realization of speech acts across cultures. Accordingly, this study investigates Algerian English language learners’ realizations of the speech acts of compliment and compliment response in Algerian Arabic as their native language and English as the foreign language. To be specific, this study aims, first, to look into the students’ attitudes in realizing compliments and responding to them. Second, it analyzes the semantic and syntactic patterns used in giving compliments and the strategies employed for responding to them in the students first and foreign languages. Third, it enquires into the differences and similarities between the students’ use of compliments semantic and syntactic structures and compliment response strategies while performing the speech acts in Algerian Arabic and English. To this end, a qualitative quantitative, and comparative analysis of students’ performance of the speech acts of compliments and compliment responses was conducted. Namely, two tests were administered to second year Master students at the Department of Letters and English Language. The tests consisted of a set of situations stimulating students’ productions of compliments and compliment responses; each targeting one of the students’ languages. Moreover, the tests were anticipated by a brief questionnaire, as a secondary tool, to explore the students’ attitudes towards using compliments and compliment responses. Whereupon results of the study displayed that factors such as age, gender, and social distance influence their choices of structures in giving compliments and of strategies in responding to them in both languages. Additionally, results showed the existence of differences in topics and structures of compliments employed, as well as the strategies of compliment responses opted for between their performance in Algerian Arabic and English.