Requests in films and in efl textbooks: a comparison

ELIA 4, 2003, 17-34 REQUESTS IN FILMS AND IN EFL TEXTBOOKS: A COMPARISON1 Ana Fernández Guerra y Alicia Martínez Flor Universitat Jaume I Research in the field of interlanguage pragmatics has shown that foreign language learners’ grammatical and pragmatic competences do not always match, this can perhaps be due to a lack of appropriate pragmatic presentation in current EFL textbooks. Hence, there seems to be a necessity of bringing authentic discourse into the classroom. One of the possibilities could be using films as input to develop classroom tasks. In this paper we analyse and compare the type, strategy and frequency of requests in both textbooks and films, in order to realise whether they provide an adequate treatment of this pragmatic issue. Results show an insufficient, unreal, decontextualised, and pragmatically inappropriate use of requesting strategies in the EFL textbooks analysed. We therefore propose using scenes from films as an authentic and motivating type of material which provides instances of real use of language and presents different requests in contextualised situations. Key words: pragmatic competence, requests, films, EFL textbooks. 1 This study is part of a research project funded by a grant from the Autonomous Government of the Valencian Community (GV-00-147-09) and a grant from Caixa Castelló-Bancaixa (P1.1A2000-14). Estudios de lingüística inglesa aplicada 18 A. Fdez Guerra y A. Mtnez Flor ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 1. Introduction The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to compare the occurrence and realisation of requests in three widely used EFL textbooks and three American films; and (2) to explore the possibilities of using films as a useful tool for developing pragmatic competence in the classroom. First, however, we will review the literature dealing with pragmatic competence and speech act realisation. Celce-Murcia et al. (1995: 9), for instance, refer to pragmatic competence as actional competence, and define it as “competence in conveying and understanding communicative intent by performing and interpreting speech acts and speech act sets”. Being one of the main components of communicative competence, pragmatic or actional competence is now one of the main centres of attention for many researchers and methodologists. This concern is clear if we take into account that an inappropriate use of language can lead to pragmatic failure. Actually, research in the field of interlanguage pragmatics has shown that foreign language learners’ grammatical and pragmatic competences often do not match, due, to some extent, to a lack of appropriate pragmatic presentation in current EFL textbooks. Foreign language students —unlike second language learners, who are in contact with the target language—, have only got the possibility, in most cases, to acquire the pragmatic-discourse aspects of the foreign language in an instructional context. Thus, the input learners are exposed to in the classroom by means of teacher talk and textbooks is a key factor in determining their communicative competence. 1.1. Pragmatic competence and EFL textbooks Several researchers have argued that there is a lack of natural conversational models representing the real use of language, as well as an artificial presentation of speech act strategies in the textbooks students have to use during their learning process (Bardovi-Harlig et al., 1991; Boxer and Pickering, 1995; Meier, 1997; Salazar and Usó, 2001; Alcón and Safont, Requests in films and in EFL textbooks… 19 ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 2001; etc.). Among the studies dealing with speech acts, Boxer and Pickering (1995) focused on the realisation of complaints in seven ELT 'functional' texts. They determined that the examples containing complaints were based on the authors’ intuitions, only presenting instances of direct complaints (instead of representing the actual speech behaviour in spontaneous interactions, in which indirect complaints seem to be much more frequent than direct complaints). They also reported a lack of underlying social strategies in the speech act presentation. Similarly, Meier (1997) criticised the presentation of speech acts in EFL materials along a directness/politeness scale, and concluded that textbooks exhibit an arbitrary selection which does not pay attention to contextual factors, and that this inappropriate presentation of speech acts may also cause learners’ failure and problems of misunderstanding in the target language. This inappropriate treatment of speech acts was also the focus of attention in the study carried out by Salazar and Usó (2001), who examined requests in several tourism coursebooks, and found that the speech act under analysis was embedded in exercises focusing on syntactic structures leaving aside the communicative intent of requesting. Alcón and Safont (2001) compared the occurrence of requests, suggestions and advice in EFL materials and in an oral corpus containing spontaneous conversations, and came to similar conclusions regarding the artificial and inappropriate description of speech acts in the textbooks, since only the linguistic forms had been taken into account. 1.2. Pragmatic competence and the use of films in the classroom Bearing in mind this artificiality in the presentation of pragmatic information in textbooks, there seems to be a necessity of bringing authentic discourse into the classroom, and one possible way may be through audiovisual media. Video input, in fact, has long been used as a language teaching resource; and a fairly large number of scholars (Arthur, 1999; Canning-Wilson, 2000; Grant and Starks, 2001; Rose, 2001; and Ryan, 1998, among others) have already praised the use of video sequences in the classroom. Ryan (1998), for instance, suggests the use of films in the classroom in order to develop learner motivation and activate their cognitive domains. Canning-Wilson 20 A. Fdez Guerra y A. Mtnez Flor ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 (2000), Henessey (1995), Hart (1992) and Wyburd (1995) also point out that the use of audiovisual materials provide a contextualised view of language and helps learners visualise words and meanings. Along these lines, Arthur (1999) reports that Video can give students realistic models to imitate for role-play; can increase awareness of other cultures by teaching appropriateness and suitability; can strengthen audio/visual linguistic perceptions simultaneously; can widen the classroom repertoire and range of activities; can help utilize the latest technology to facilitate language learning; can teach direct observation of the paralinguistic features found in association with the target language; can be used to help when training students in ESP related scenarios and language; can offer a visual reinforcement of the target language and can lower anxiety when practicing the skill of listening. Moving on to specific discourse-pragmatic aspects that might affect learners' pragmatic competence, Rose (1997, 2001) has carried out several studies supporting the use of films, arguing that “in foreign language contexts, exposure to film is generally the closest that language learners will ever get to witnessing or participating in native speaker interaction” (Rose, 1997: 283). In the same way, Grant and Stark (2001: 49) claim that television conversations provide a wide variety of functional conversational English, imitate natural speech and follow cultural and linguistic behaviour of both the language and the participants. 2. The study Based on the previous data and the relevant literature mentioned above, this study focuses on a specific aspect of pragmatic competence: conveying and understanding communicative intent by performing and interpreting the speech act of requesting; and formulates the following research questions: 1. Is there an appropriate presentation of requests in EFL textbooks? 2. Can fragments of films be an effective means of presenting and raising learners' awareness on this issue? Requests in films and in EFL textbooks… 21 ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 In order to answer these questions, we decided to use three proficiency-level textbooks and three American films. Among all the textbooks available, we chose Proficiency GOLD (Newbrook and Wilson, 2000), Proficiency Masterclass (Gude and Duckworth, 1997), and The Nelson Proficiency Course (Morris and Stanton, 1993), not only because of their wide use in some Spanish universities, but also because no study up to date has focused on ELT materials addressing an exam, such as the Cambridge Proficiency. The three films analysed, suitable for general audiences, were As good as it gets (1997), While you were sleeping (1995), and War games (1983). The data obtained were analysed followed Trosborg’s (1995: 205) typology concerning request realisation strategies and classified into five main types: (1) Indirect requests (giving hints), such as using statements or giving excuses. (2) Conventionally indirect requests based on the hearer, such as those based on the hearer's ability to perform the act (Can/could you...?), the hearer's willingness (Would you...?), asking for permission (May/might I...?); or using suggestory formulae (How about...?, Let's ...). (3) Conventionally indirect requests based on the speaker's wishes, desires or needs (I wish...; I would like...; I want you to...; I need to ...). (4) Direct requests, such as showing obligation (You must...; You have to...), using performative verbs (like I ask you to...), imperatives (as in Do something, don't do it), or elliptical phrases (for example, a woman asking her son to take out the garbage by saying The garbage!). (5) Other types or strategies. Textbooks were analysed completely, taking into account not only texts and tasks, but also the instructions given to do the exercises, i.e. all instances where a request is realised; first of all, because students are 22 A. Fdez Guerra y A. Mtnez Flor ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 exposed to all these linguistic forms when dealing with the contents of their textbook; and secondly, because there turned out to be almost no examples of requesting in the main reading texts and tasks2. 3. Results and Discussion Table 1 shows the different realisations that appear in all three textbooks. Needless to say, one of the quantities is really shocking: 85,70% of the requests were performed using imperatives and, as can be observed, the three textbooks contribute to this extremely high percentage. Type Strategy Proficiency Gold P roficiency Masterclass The Nelson P roficiency Indirect Hints 0 0 3 3 0,08% Ability 56 70 64 190 5,52% Willingness 23 33 8 64 1,85% Permission 1 1 5 7 0,20% Conventionally indirect (hearer-based) Suggestory Formulae 0 1 3 4 0,11% Wishes 0 3 15 18 0,52% Desires 0 0 5 5 0,14% Conventionally indirect (speaker-based) Needs 0 3 1 4 0,11% Obligation 22 10 75 107 3,10% 2 In fact, and although instructions preceding exercises and reading texts can even be consider a 'genre' on its own (in which learners are usually requested to do something), this grouping turned to be quite revealing: for example, out of 1,404 occurrences of requests found in Proficiency Gold (Longman, 2000), a total of 1,398 requests were in the Instruction sections, whereas only 6 instances appeared in the tasks and texts (see Results and Discussion below). Requests in films and in EFL textbooks… 23 ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 Performative verbs 2 0 2 4 0,11% Imperative 1,283 810 856 2,949 85,70% Negative imperative 7 5 42 54 1,56% Direct Elliptical phrase 0 0 4 4 0,11% Other types or strategies 10 0 18 28 0,81% TOTAL 1,404 936 1,101 3,441 100% Table 1. Requests in textbooks. This requesting behaviour clearly limits students’ exposure to the range of possible request strategies used in real-life and, thus, prevents them from developing their pragmatic competence as regards this particular speech act. We should, however, mention that (1) most of these occurrences belong to the instructions given to students to carry out the exercises, and that (2) these textbooks do not provide exemplification of natural dialogues or any communicative activities prompting this use. In fact, there is a really small amount of requests in the reading texts and in the activities: 6 occurrences in Proficiency Gold, 14 in Proficiency Masterclass, and 199 requests in The Nelson Proficiency. Here is just a small sample of this abusive use of imperatives we have just mentioned: (1) Read the following sentences and match them to the hints below. (Proficiency Gold, 172) Please send us a copy of our directory. (Masterclass, 122) Complete each sentence with one of the words or phrases given (Nelson Proficiency, 2) 24 A. Fdez Guerra y A. Mtnez Flor ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 Different strategies used to make requests appear only in isolated sentences without considering the context in which they might be realised. Example (2) shows some of these other uses: (2) Can you help me tackle this problem? (Proficiency Gold, 67) Would you mind not smoking in the library? (Masterclass, 149) ... you must shorten it. (Nelson, 14) We should also state that there is no explicit explanation of the realisation of requests, except for a short grammatical section in Proficiency Gold (Newbrook and Wilson, 2000: 67) dealing with modal verbs: (3) The modal verbs may and might used in requests are very polite and formal. With a certain intonation, they can sound sarcastic and unpleasant. Which of these sentences is polite and which sarcastic? 1. I wonder if I might ask you a big favour? 2. Perhaps I might suggest that you do this in your own time? 3. And what have you been doing, may I ask? Astonishing as it may seem, none of the three textbooks provides any communicative exercises for the students to practise the use of these modal verbs expressing the speech act of requesting; what's more, neither texts nor exercises provide exemplification of real-world speech (except for a few phrases that are quoted in the reading texts or in the sentences learners have to complete). As regards requesting in films, the first thing to comment upon is the presentation of contextualised speech acts in real-world conversations, showing the relationship between participants, setting, social status, and the like. Requests also appear mitigated by the use of modificational devices, such as excuse me, please, just or really. Table 2 below illustrates the different strategies used when requesting in the three films: Requests in films and in EFL textbooks… 25 ELIA 4, 2003, pp. 17-34 Type Strategy As good as it gets While you were sleeping War games Occurrences Percentage Indirect Hints 3 17 14 34 6,65% Ability 18 16 14 48 9,39% Willingness 2 8 21 31 6,06% Permission 6 3 2 11 2,15% Conventionally indirect (hearer-based) Suggestory Formulae 5 3 3 11 2,15% Wishes 0 3 0 3 0,58% Desires 6 7 18 31 6,06% Conventionally indirect (speakerbased) Needs 2 6 4 12 2,34% Obligation 4 8 6 18 3,52% Performative verbs 2 3 0 5 0,97% Imperative 76 33 104 213 41,68% Negative imperative 14 7 11 32 6,26% Direct Elliptical phrase 0 0 10 10 1,95% Other types or strategies 27 19 6 52 10,17% TOTAL 165 133 213 511 100% Table 2. Requests in films. 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