This book presents a study in interlanguage pragmatics, investigating disagreement from a cross-cultural perspective. It is based on Walkinshaw's Ph.D. thesis and bridges a gap in current literature with respect to how speakers of a second language—Japanese learners of English (JLEs)—experience pragmatic failure in their interactions with native English speakers (NSEs) in New Zealand. The author's interest in negatively affective speech act strategies derives from observing speakers of English as a second language interacting with NSEs, as much as it does from his own experience, both as a teacher of English as a second language and as a speaker of Japanese as a second language.
The book is clearly structured. Each chapter begins with an introduction and a chapter outline and ends with a conclusion, where the author summarizes his main points and establishes a link to the following chapter. It is divided into eight chapters. In Ch. 1, the author explains the rationale for his research, defines the core concept of a speech act, presents his research questions and the methods he will adopt to operationalize them, contextualizes his research, and explains the structure of his study. In Ch. 2, he presents a sound and clear review of the literature on speech act research and introduces the concept of politeness. These sections are followed by a critique of Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson's (1987) politeness theory, an introduction to the cultural dimensions of this study, and approaches to pragmatic development in a second language. In Ch. 3, Walkinshaw presents his methodology; he explains his data-collection instruments and procedure, and describes his participants.
The following three chapters are devoted to the analysis. In Ch. 4, Walkinshaw examines shifts in production and studies pragmatic sophistication. In Ch. 5, he examines length, both in written and in spoken disagreement utterances. In Ch. 6, he explains how participants recognize and interpret disagreements, including how they perceive interlocutor politeness in disagreement situations and how they assess the severity of disagreement situations.
In Ch. 7, the author discusses pragmatic variation by distinguishing enryo-based assessments from power-risk assessments and establishing a relationship between the two and utterance length. Before concluding the chapter, Walkinshaw presents facts that influence the process of pragmatic acquisition. In Ch. 8, the concluding chapter, the author summarizes his findings—evaluating his study (by pointing out its strengths and its weaknesses) and explaining its implications (both for the teaching of English as a second language and for cultural stereotyping). The book ends with hints for further research.
This innovative, very well-presented and well-organized study of politeness from a cross-cultural perspective covers relevant theoretical and conceptual issues. The author's unsuccessful attempt to find statistical significance in his findings is largely overcome by the strong empirical study employing an elaborate qualitative research methodology. Learning politeness will certainly be a reference on the topic.
