Differences in the Advice-giving Behavior between Korean EFL Learners and English Native Speakers

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the Korean EFL learners' linguistic realization in discourse completion tests is significantly different from that of English native speakers under 4 advice-giving situations, each of which has different value in the degree of face-threat and urgency, and to 4 addressees, where social and psychological distance were variables, The findings show that although advices given by the two groups were similar in directness, Koreans tend to be more sensitive to the degree of face-threat and urgency of the situations and to give significantly more direct advice than English native speakers when they feel themselves psychologically close to the addressees, which is congruent with the assertion that in Confucianism- and Taoism-based societies advice is seen as a solidarity strategy. Since the data suggests the evidence that Koreans' direct advice-giving behavior is partly due to their low English proficiency, classroom instruction is desired on the constructions frequently employed by English native speakers as well as on the situations appropriate to give advice.