Cancelar una cita como estrategia de rechazo postergado: resultados e implicaciones didácticas de un estudio transcultural

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.7.101

Keywords:

CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATICS, REFUSALS, LAST-MINUTE CANCELLATION

Abstract

The comparison of the modalities used by speakers of different languages/cultures to produce speech acts has been the object of numerous studies in recent decades, although less research on this topic has focused on Italian. This type of study is important for those who work in language teaching because it helps to raise students' awareness of the pragmatic differences between their own language/culture and the target language/culture. Being aware of cross-cultural differences in the performance of linguistic acts can reduce the risk of negative pragmatic transfer and consequent misunderstandings, communicative breakdowns or even interpersonal conflicts. The objective of this work is to investigate the linguistic act of the last-minute cancellation of an appointment as a possible strategy of delayed refusal to an invitation by native speakers of Italian and Colombian Spanish. The results show that there are important differences between the two groups related to the way in which the informants think they should carry out this linguistic act with respect to external and internal modifiers. This suggests that last-minute cancellations represent a more routinized strategy for Colombians than for Italians.

Author Biography

Diego Cortés Velásquez, Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT)

Diego Cortés Velásquez is professor of language teaching and Italian-Spanish translation at the Università degli Studi Internazionali of Rome (UNINT) and he collaborates with the Centro Lingüístico di Ateneo at the Università degli studi Roma Tre. He received his doctorate in 2013 with a dissertation focused on oral intercomprehension and metacognition. His areas of research include Romance intercomprehension, transcultural pragmatics and task-based language pedagogy.

Published

2017-12-31

How to Cite

Cortés Velásquez, D. (2017). Cancelar una cita como estrategia de rechazo postergado: resultados e implicaciones didácticas de un estudio transcultural. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 4(2), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.7.101

Issue

Section

Research Articles - Regular Issue

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