Making Requests by Chinese EFL Learners: 207

It is a virtue of Wang’s book that he builds his research on the basis of a solid grasp of previous research on interlanguage pragmatics. This allows him to provide a concise review of and critical view on the research background. The clear and step-by-step analysis of the request samples provides the reader with a deep understanding of request strategies in Chinese EFL learners. At the same time, the author does not lose sight of the L1 and L2 comparison. Wang has genuine empirical evidence for the usefulness of the context-based and formulae-based approaches and contributes a study for cross-cultural pragmatics, politeness and language pedagogy. — Shelley Ching-Yu Hsieh, on pragmatics-reviews.org (1.1, 2013).

In this monograph, Vincent Wang pins down the complex issue of pragmatic competence to its one important aspect: request making, which has a close bearing on L2 pedagogy and intercultural communication. The groups of subjects investigated and the scenarios creatively designed are essential, sociolinguistically speaking, to convincingly generate both the quantitative and qualitative findings of the research. The insightful, soundly theory-based as well as in-depth analysis is another prominent indication of academic values of the book. — Li Yanshu, Beijing Language and Culture University

Vincent Wang’s exploration of the way Chinese learners of English make requests in different scenarios is an excellent addition to the field of Interlanguage Pragmatics. Based on careful analyses of request productions by two different learner groups, this study documents the importance of a context-specific, socially situated approach to L2 learning and the crucial role formulaic expressions seem to play in the development of pragmatic competence in English as a foreign language. — Juliane House, University of Hamburg & Hellenic American University, Athens