This dissertation research is on the discourse completion task (DCT) as an instrument to collect data about the speech acts of refusals performed in Korean as a second language (KSL). The research on speech acts focuses on comparing speech acts perfor...
This dissertation research is on the discourse completion task (DCT) as an instrument to collect data about the speech acts of refusals performed in Korean as a second language (KSL). The research on speech acts focuses on comparing speech acts performed by native speakers and learners of Korean, finding out the causes and patterns, and dealing with pragmatic failures. It can also help learners of Korean to understand Korean society and to communicate appropriately in Korean. In this regard the research on speech acts has significant implications for both KSL research and pedagogy in general.
Until now, the research on speech acts in the field has mainly focused on teaching speech acts through eliciting and comparing KSL speech act strategies used by specific first language-speaking groups. However, there have been very few KSL studies on discourse completion tasks themselves, which are the most important elicitation instrument of speech act realizations. DCTs can be said to be a very important speech act research instrument because it serves as a simple primary collection tool and at the same time as a basis for analysis of collected speech acts. This study acknowledges and appreciates the importance of DCTs and selected speech acts of refusals among DCT-based speech acts. To this end, a comprehensive literature review of the research on speech acts of refusals was undertaken, focusing on deriving a framework for classification and analysis of DCTs. The guidelines for DCT design and writing have been established to some degree through the previous studies, but there has been no discussion on the types and formats of DCTs. This necessitated a one-by-one examination of DCTs to arrive inductively at their characteristics, points of improvements, and analysis criteria.
The fact that the DCTs used in the previous studies have been modified and supplemented is positive in terms of validation of DCTs. However, the necessity of developing DCTs that fit the times and the reality of Korean society was also raised. The processes of the research conducted to meet these needs are as follows: Chapter 1 introduced research trends in related fields and examined the necessity of DCT research as a data collection instrument. And in Chapter 2, the speech act theory discussed in second language acquisition and Korean language education was introduced, and pragmatic ability and its assessment were introduced. Additionally, DCT types and their pros and cons were discussed. In Chapter 3, an inductive review method was used to derive DCT analysis methods and criteria, and 10 analysis criteria were derived based on these discussions. By analyzing the cases of DCTs according to the derived analysis criteria and organizing all situations in a table, it was possible to clearly understand how the DCTs used in the refusal speech act functioned as a collection instrument in terms of their format and organization. In Chapter 4, a discussion was developed on graded DCTs. This was reviewed through quantitative and qualitative analyses, and directions for improvement were suggested based on the results. In Chapter 5, application plans based on these results were examined. In particular, it was presented that DCTs function as an assessment tool, and a specification for writing DCTs was discussed when developing DCTs through assessment theories. The standardization of DCTs was presented as the most effective way to apply the results of the study, and discussions were held on this. Through this, the conclusion of Chapter 6 summarizes this study and suggests follow-up research tasks for DCT development.
While deriving the analysis criteria, the problems of the current DCTs were found. The lack of diversity of the characters appearing in speech acts of refusals and the ambiguous meanings of the vocabulary used in the description of the situations were highly likely to confuse the respondents. In addition, there are DCTs with the scenarios which are very unlikely to occur in real life situations, which renders DCTs unacceptable to the respondents, which needs improvement.
All KSL research on speech acts starts with DCTs, a data collection instrument. In addition to speech acts of refusals studied in this dissertation, DCTs used to elicit other speech acts should also be investigated so that the criteria for the DCT-based studies of speech acts in KSL could be established. Furthermore, if the research data and their collection instruments of individual researchers are accumulated and shared in the form of online databases so that future follow-up and replication research is promoted and facilitated, it is expected to contribute to developing DCTs suitable for KSL research and pedagogy and ultimately improving pragmatic competence in KSL learners.