A Comparison of DCT and Role-Play Using L1 and L2 via Compliment Responses

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

  This study compares use of two data eliciting techniques -- discourse completion test (DCT) and role-play -- in two languages (L1 and L2), via compliment responses. One hundred eight low-intermediate university freshmen in Korea were assigned one of the four conditions: DCT in L1, role-play in L1, DCT in L2, and role-play in L2. The DCT generated longer responses than role-play in both languages, but the difference was not significant. However, there were interesting findings in terms of compliment response strategies. With respect to L1 (Korean) data, learners produced very comparable responses; a chi-square analysis indicated no significant difference between the DCT and role-play groups. Very rapid and automatic nature of L1, and situations designed to maintain the present identity of respondents might have triggered learners to produce comparable responses between the two methods. In the case of L2 (English) data, there were quite noticeable differences; a chi-square suggested that there was a significant difference between the two groups. The discrepancy between the two procedures might have been due to the combination of constrained L2 processing ability (proficiency) and the nature of different data collection methods -- perceived language in planned discourse vs. actual language use in spontaneous discourse.