Modifying requests in a second language

This study examines how Australian adult learners of Indonesian modify requests in everyday situations compared to Indonesian native speakers. The data were collected by means of interactive roleplay. Results showed that the learners underuse internal modifiers but use supportive moves frequently. This is compatible with previous findings and it is argued that these two features will tend to characterise second language speech acts for a number of reasons. The learners were also found to favour the same type of supportive move as natives: the Grounder (which gives reasons for making the request). Many of the learners' Grounders created a verbose effect because they contained excessive information. This feature of “verbosity” by learners, which has previously been observed only in written discourse, is argued here to be partly an artefact of the elicitation method, in both this and previous studies. The study lends only partial support to a well-known model of pragmatic acquisition, as it shows that acquiring new pragmatic knowledge can be a major task for adult learners.