Seeking and giving advice : a cross cultural study in Indonesian and Australian English

Abstract

This study investigates behaviour in seeking and giving advice in Australian English and Indonesian. It seeks to determine the cross-cultural similarities and differences in seeking and giving advice in both languages in the areas of (i) the use of language routines and strategies (ii) the influences of cultural and social aspects. Data were collected from two preliminary questionnaires and a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The DCT was completed by Australian and Indonesian native speakers in their first language. Analysis focused on both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Findings reveal that speakers of both languages use similar strategies in terms of politeness, directness or indirectness and Speaker-or-Hearer Oriented utterances. The realization of the language routines of advice seeking and giving in both languages is, however, different. The influence of socio-cultural features is noticeable in both languages in terms of formality, relationship of interlocutors, age and gender. The results are not always consistent with the hypotheses posed in the study. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the Study and Chapter 2 presents the theoretical background and discusses the concept of advice. In Chapter 3 the methodology of the Study is described and the hypotheses are stated. Chapter 4 presents the results of the analysis of data and Chapter 5 sets out conclusions and recommendations.

Date of Award	1992
Original language	English