Learning how to request in German during stay abroad

Abstract

This study examines the request development of eight UK-based students during their stay abroad (SA) year in Germany or Austria. Open-ended roleplays were used to elicit 144 requests before, during, and after SA, and to track the development of external and internal request-mitigation strategies and deictic orientation. Semi-structured interviews and a language-engagement questionnaire were carried out to determine which contextual factors most influenced students’ pragmalinguistic development during SA. Participants mainly used conventionally indirect hearer dominant request strategies pre-sojourn. Whilst abroad, sojourners’ requests became more direct and mostly speaker dominant, whilst participants increasingly favored external mitigation strategies and, to a lesser extent, use of the internal-mitigation strategy upgrader. Of the factors hypothesized to be influential in their acquiring pragmalinguistic competence, participants’ awareness of differences in linguistic politeness, followed by their sense of identity in the host community and degree of interaction with the host community, influenced pre- to in-sojourn pragmalinguistic changes the most.