Negative Pragmatic Transfer as a Factor Jeopardizing Formation of Multicultural Personality in RFL Classroom (the case of request speech act)

Language learning provides vast opportunities for formation and development of multicultural personality since language is a source and method of learning culture. However, sometimes this process may be hindered by lack of crosses between cultural awareness and negative pragmatic transfer resulting in culture shock. Cross-linguistic influence makes learners transfer their pragmatic and sociocultural knowledge from their native language into a target language without differentiating them. From this point of view, the speech act of request presents one of the areas that due to cultural and linguistic specifics of the Russian language might with great possibility be affected by negative pragmatic transfer on the part of Englishspeaking RFL learners. This paper contains results of research aimed at answering the question whether negative pragmatic transfer influences the production of Russian requests by English-speaking students and, if not, what other factors may hinder this process. The findings show that negative pragmatic transfer is an important but not the sole factor jeopardizing students' production of Russian requests. What is much more important is students' insufficient knowledge of means to express requests in the Russian language, which are vital in terms of pragmatics, i.e. linguistic means that affect politeness of requests in a positive or negative way, as well as a range of standard constructions for requesting in communicative situations with different sociolinguistic variables. Thus, developing pragmatic competence in this sphere can be a key factor facilitating cross-cultural awareness and formation of multicultural personality through language