Gaya lakuan permohonan dalam kalangan pelajar di Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe sociopragmatic features of Malaysian students in the Malay communicative act of request. For the purpose, 264 students were asked to respond in Malay to five different domains in which they carry out the speech act of request. The study applies Byon’s (2002) semantic formulae of request supportive move (RSM): opener, grounder, disarmer, preparatory and compliment. This study aims to investigate: (i) the patterns of Malaysian requests; and (iii) the strategies of request among Malaysian ethnics (Malay, Chinese and Indian) and (iii) the markers of request in Malay. Results showed that Malaysian students apply all request supportive moves in their speech. However direct and indirect requests were dominantly used by Malaysian student compared to other types of request. These findings suggest that Malaysian student’s notion of politeness is affected by social variables.