Magyar anyanyelvű tanulók köztesnyelvi kérései lingua franca angol (EFL) kontextusban
Interlanguage requests of students with Hungarian as their mother tongue in English as lingua franca (ELF) context

Summary/Abstract: The study analyzes Hungarian EFL speakers’ requests in English elicited through roleplays in interaction with international students in a setting where English is used as a lingua franca. The aims of the study are (1) to examine degree of directness and to find out if directness varies with increasing the imposition of requests; and (2) to find out about internal modifications employed by students to minimize the imposition. The study applies Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper’s (1989) speech act analysis framework. Results show that students tend to prefer indirect strategies in all request scenarios. This is manifested in the preference of conventionally indirect strategies (i.e. suggestory formula and query preparatory) and to some extent non-conventionally indirect strategies (mostly mild hints). Participants used more lexical modification, particularly the marker please and the downtoners possibly, just and maybe. Lowand high-imposition requests turned out to differ in many ways, out of which their manifestation through hedged performative direct strategy proved to be statistically significant.

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