A Comparison of Speech Act Strategies for Request in Slow-Learning versus Normal Children: A Case Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Seyed Mohammad Hosseini Maasoum ¹

Mahbubeh Yar ²

¹ Associate Professor of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

² PhD Candidate of Linguistics, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22067/jlkd.2026.97433.1367

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the strategies for the request speech act and compare them in slow-learning and normal teenagers. The theoretical framework is based on the three-layer model of Blum-Kulka, and Olshtain (1984) and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of linguistic politeness. The data were collected through a discourse analysis questionnaire focusing on eight different communicative situations, taking into account such variables as formality level, familiarity, topic significance, power and age of the addressee. The participants included 30 normal teenagers aging between 14 to 17 and a slow-learning teenager of 17. Their responses were analyzed based on direct strategies, internal hedging, and external hedging. The results of the statistical analyses indicated that the slow-learning child significantly used the direct strategy more than other strategies, while normal children showed a stronger tendency to use internal and external hedging more than the direct strategy. The findings indicate that cognitive and pragmatic differences influence the choice of the linguistic strategy in the request speech act. These results put more emphasis on the necessity of designing pragmatic educational interventions for slow-learning students.

Keywords

Speech Act

Request

Pragmatics

Slow Learners

Hedging

Linguistic Politeness

Subjects

• Pragmatics

---

References

آقاگل‌زاده، ف. (1391) توصیف و تبیین ساخت‌های ایدئولوژیک زبانی در تحلیل گفتمان انتقادی. پژوهش‌های زبان و ادبیات تطبیقی. 2 (10). صص 1-19.

تاجعلی، م. (1388). تعدیل‌های حاشیه‌ای در کنش‌گفتاری درخواست کردن. پایان‌نامه کارشناسی ارشد، دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی.

حسینی معصوم، س. م؛ و رادمرد، ع. (1394). تأثیر بافت زمانی- مکانی بر تحلیل کنش‌‌گفتار؛ مقایسه فراوانی انواع کنش‌های گفتار در سوره‌های مکّی و مدنی قرآن کریم. جستارهای زبانی. 6 (3). صص 65-92.

شاهسوار، م.، و علوی، س. م.، و نوروزی، م. ح. (1397). ارزشیابی پویا دانش کاربردشناسی: با تکیه بر کنش‌های گفتاری عذرخواهی و درخواست. پژوهش‌های زبان‌شناختی در زبان‌های خارجی (پژوهش زبان‌های خارجی)، 8 (1)، صص 187-‏205.

شیخ‌محمدی، چ.، و یاراحمدزهی، ن.، و محمدیان، ا. (1398). انتخاب راهبردهای کنش‌گفتاری تقاضا در زبان کردی بر اساس دو عامل اجتماعی جنسیت و قدرت. پژوهش‌های زبانی. 10 (1)، ص 183-202.

غفوریان، م.، و عاشوری، م. (1396). دانش‌آموزان دیرآموز: ارزیابی پویا، ویژگی‌ها، شناسایی، شیوه‌های تدریس و بهبود ظرفیت یادگیری. تعلیم و تربیت استثنایی، 17 (4)، پیاپی 147. صص 57-64.

مدرسی تهرانی، ی.، و تاجعلی، م. (1391). کنش گفتاری درخواست: مقایسه فارسی‌زبانان و فارسی آموزان. پژوهش‌نامه آموزش زبان فارسی به غیرفارسی‌زبانان، 1(2)، 83-107.

Alc´an Soler, E., Safont Jorda, P. & Martinez–Flor, A. (2005). Towards A Typology of Modifiers for the Speech Act of Requesting: A Socio- Pragmatic Approach. Revista Electro´nica de Linguis Aplicada, Vol. 4. 1- 35.

Austin, John (1962). How to Do Things with words. Oxford University Press

Babazade, Yasin. (2025). Speech Acts and Hidden Meaning: A Journey into Pragmatics. Acta Globalis Humanitatis et Linguarum. Vol. 2, No. 1. pp. 221-228.

Barber, A., & Stainton, R. J. (Eds.). (2010). Concise Encyclopedia of philosophy of language and linguistics. Elsevier.

Barron, A. (2003). Acquisition in Interlanguage Pragmatics: Learning How to Do Things with Words in a Study Abroad Context. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Blum-Kulka, S., and Olshtain, E. 1984. Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP), Applied Linguistics, 5(3): 196-213.

Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., and Kasper, G. 1989. Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, Norwood, NJ, Alblex Publishing Corporation.

Brown, G., and Yule, G. 1983. Discourse Analysis, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Brown, P. Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. (2003). A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics (Fifth edition). Oxford: Blackwell.

Ervin-Tripp S. (1976). Is Sybil there? The Structure of Some American English Directives. Language in Society. 5 (1). 25-66.

Hagmann, C. E., Wyble, B., Shea, N., LeBlanc, M., Kates, W. R., & Russo, N. (2016). Children with Autism Detect Targets at Very Rapid Presentation Rates with Similar Accuracy as Adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 46, 1762-1772.

Halliday, M. A. & Hasan, R. (1989). Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social‑Semiotic Perspective. Oxford University Press.

Haverkate, Henk. (1984). Speech Acts, Speakers and Hearers. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s Publishing Company.

Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Malmkjær, K. (2010). The Routledge Linguistics Encyclopaedia. Third Edition. Routledge: New York.

Martinez–Flor, A. (2009) The Use and Function of “Please” in Learners’ Oral Requestive Behaviour: A Pragmatic Analysis Journal of English Studies. Volume 7, pp 35-54.

Oishi, E. (2006), Austin’s speech act theory and the speech situation. Escrizi Filosofici. No. 1. pp. 1‑14.

Safont, M. P. & M. C. Campoy. (2002). Requests in Learners’ Dictionaries: Their Role in Foreign Language Users’ Pragmatic Competence and Meta-Pragmatic Awareness. ELIA, pp 139-155.

Searle, R. J. (1979). Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sifianou, M. (1999). Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sills, D. L. 1991. International encyclopedia of the social sciences, Vol. 19: New York: Free Press.

Yvonne M.Y. Han, Agnes S. Chan, Sophia L. Sze, Mei-Chun Cheung, Chun-kwok Wong, Joseph M.K. Lam, Priscilla M.K. Poon. (2013). Altered immune function associated with disordered neural connectivity and executive dysfunctions: A neurophysiological study on children with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 7, Issue 6, pp 662‑674.