Correction making among thais and Americans : a study of cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics

Abstract

This study investigates correction making among Thais and Americans as a cross-cultural study and among Thai learners of English as an interlanguage study. The data were collected from 400 female university students by questionnaires. Ten percent of the respondents were also interviewed. The results revealed that correction making among Thais and Americans were influenced by three investigated factors: social status, age, and consequences of failing to correct, but to different degrees and in different manners. Except for politeness devices which were linguistic forms specifically used (final particles in Thai and past tense in English), Thais and Americans shared correction making strategies, but in some different degrees of preferences. Potential miscommunication could possible occur when Thais rejected by stating that the hearer had misunderstood or made a mistake. For Thai learners of English, the results revealed that there was a direct correlation between length and degree of exposure to the target language and appropriateness of use of correction making strategies. Thai learners who studied in the United States could make corrections in a more target-like manner than those who studied in Thailand. However, learners who studied in Thailand with high English language exposure, rather than the ones with low exposure, showed the most transfer of language, since the low exposure group possesses inadequate ability to make a pragmatic transfer.