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dc.contributor.advisorVyatkina, Nina
dc.contributor.authorCunningham, Darren Joseph
dc.date.accessioned2014-07-05T16:17:03Z
dc.date.available2014-07-05T16:17:03Z
dc.date.issued2014-05-31
dc.date.submitted2014
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13406
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1808/14529
dc.description.abstractTelecollaboration is a pedagogical approach in which geographically distant parties work together for the purposes of culture and language learning. A growing body of literature documents the benefits of telecollaboration for the foreign language classroom, specifically in the area of interlanguage pragmatic development. While peer-peer telecollaborative studies are well represented in this strand of research, there has been a lack of attention to novice-expert telecollaboration, a gap this dissertation seeks to fill. The study investigated the requesting behavior of American learners of German for Professional Purposes (`novices') as they interacted via synchronous Web conferences with German-speaking professionals in Germany (`experts'). Requesting behavior was examined through four focal areas: directness, internal modification, external modification, and appropriateness. In addition to comparing the requesting behavior of novices and experts, the study also examined the effect of interaction with experts and data-driven focused instruction on the development of novices' requesting behavior. The research used a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative analytic approaches to evaluate transcribed and coded request sequences. The two groups showed a number of differences: novice speakers used more direct requests than experts, experts used more internal modification than novices, and experts were rated as more appropriate than novices. This result broadly corresponds to previous research findings. In contrast to earlier findings, the two groups showed similarities in their use of external modifiers, including both the frequency and range of use. Novice development was not evident from quantitative analysis, but qualitative analysis revealed individual differences among the learners profiled, including the emergence of an unexpected category of request modification: the modified external support move. Although certain learners were seen to exhibit pragmatic development, other learners showed the opposite trend, namely an overreliance on formulaic language use. In addition to supporting previous research findings about the nature of request production in second language learners, the study confirms the utility of explicit instruction in pragmatic development occurring within a telecollaborative context. It further contributes new understanding to the field of second language acquisition by identifying the limits of existing coding taxonomies for speech act research, and it suggests the need to develop better tools for quantitative research of interlanguage pragmatic development.
dc.format.extent307 pages
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of Kansas
dc.rightsThis item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
dc.subjectLinguistics
dc.subjectSociolinguistics
dc.subjectForeign language instruction
dc.subjectData-driven instruction
dc.subjectGerman
dc.subjectInterlanguage pragmatics
dc.subjectOnline intercultural exchange
dc.subjectSecond language acquisition
dc.subjectTelecollaboration
dc.titleThe Development of Pragmatic Competence through Telecollaboration: An Analysis of Requesting Behavior
dc.typeDissertation
dc.contributor.cmtememberVanchena, Lorie
dc.contributor.cmtememberKeel, William D
dc.contributor.cmtememberComer, William J
dc.contributor.cmtememberRossomondo, Amy
dc.thesis.degreeDisciplineGermanic Languages & Literatures
dc.thesis.degreeLevelPh.D.
dc.rights.accessrightsopenAccess


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