SUGGESTIONS IN TEACHER-STUDENT CONFERENCES

Abstract

In this paper, we present a preliminary study to explore whether highly advanced L2 speakers realize the speech act of suggestion in the same way as native speakers and the reasons behind their pragmatic choices. We compared suggestions provided by three non-native speaking English Composition instructors and three native speaking Composition instructors when they hold conferences with their American students to discuss how to improve the students’ drafts.  The data consists of audiotaped conferences between the participating instructors and their students and the final interview data from the three NNS instructors. This preliminary study indicated that although all the instructors provided more direct than indirect suggestions, the non-native speaking instructors were more direct than the native speaking instructors.