Factors behind L2 English learners’ performance of oppositional speech acts: a look at pragmatic-related episodes (PREs) during thinking aloud

Abstract The current study looked at the influence of different L1s, different proficiency levels, and other factors on the think-alouds in connection with oppositional speech acts by eighty tertiary-level Korean and Chinese learners of L2 English at two proficiency levels. The research instruments consisted of think-aloud protocols elicited during the learners’ production of written oppositional speech acts in the form of responses to the other learners’ essays, questionnaires, and focus group interviews. In particular, in the think-aloud protocols the number and content of pragmatic-related episodes (PREs) were identified. The results indicated that proficiency level, but not L1, significantly impacted the learners’ think-alouds. Other factors were revealed to include intensification of claims, focus on face issues, pragmatic transfer, and insufficient syntactic/semantic knowledge. These factors related to the sub-categories of the PREs involving ‘lexical upgrading’ and ‘external downgrading’.