This article is concerned with the pragmatic and prosodic strategies that are employed in interrogative utterances by three groups of Belgian Dutch-speaking students acquiring Italian as a Foreign Language (FL) in a classroom context. The three groups have different levels of general proficiency in Italian. The focus of the investigation is on the realization of acts of request by the three groups of students. In the first part of the paper, we examine the pragmatic strategies used by the learners to express a request for a communicative contribution. We show that requests are predominantly realized by the learners through query_y moves or yes-no questions (YNQs); in the second part of the paper we present an intonational analysis of these types of utterances. The study shows that the acquisition of pragmatic skills does not progress appreciably when the general competence in the FL increases, whereas intonation shows significant improvements in the group with a higher proficiency level.

REQUESTING IN ITALIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: PRAGMATIC AND PROSODIC FEATURES

Alfano I.;SAVY, RENATA
2012-01-01

Abstract

This article is concerned with the pragmatic and prosodic strategies that are employed in interrogative utterances by three groups of Belgian Dutch-speaking students acquiring Italian as a Foreign Language (FL) in a classroom context. The three groups have different levels of general proficiency in Italian. The focus of the investigation is on the realization of acts of request by the three groups of students. In the first part of the paper, we examine the pragmatic strategies used by the learners to express a request for a communicative contribution. We show that requests are predominantly realized by the learners through query_y moves or yes-no questions (YNQs); in the second part of the paper we present an intonational analysis of these types of utterances. The study shows that the acquisition of pragmatic skills does not progress appreciably when the general competence in the FL increases, whereas intonation shows significant improvements in the group with a higher proficiency level.
2012
1443842478
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/3881381
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact