Learning to disagree in German: the case of New Zealand university students

Abstract

Acquiring a foreign language exceeds knowledge about grammar, syntax and vocabulary. If learners want to be able to communicate successfully in their target language they also have to acquire pragmatic competence, i.e. how to convey the intended meaning of an utterance. Accordingly a learner needs to make appropriate use of politeness and directness in speech act behaviour. In the present comparative study, 10 German Native Speakers (GNS)and 10 Germans Second Language Learners (GSLL) completed three different questionnaires in order to explore their production, perception and interpretation of disagreements in German. GNSs were predicted to show a more direct and less polite disagreeing behaviour. While this is true to some degree, the results suggest that the use of politeness is relative to the situational contexts. While the GNSs and the GSLLs showed a very similar use of politeness and directness if a disagreement occurred among interactants with little social distance or if the matter was a very trivial or a very serious one, there are situational contexts that are being assessed very differently, including power and status differences and the degree of imposition.