DEVELOPING A MEASURE OF SOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE: THE CASE OF APOLOGY¹

TLDR

Interest in measuring sociocultural competence has focused on the ability to use culturally appropriate speaking rules and stylistically suitable forms in context. The study seeks to develop a rating scale for assessing sociocultural competence in the speech act of apology. Thirty‑two native Hebrew speakers and twelve Americans role‑played apologies in eight expected situations, providing data for the scale. The study demonstrates that culturally and stylistically inappropriate L2 apologies can be identified, but the resulting measure is currently crude and requires further refinement.

Abstract

For a number of years, there has been interest in measuring sociocultural competence (Ervin‐Tripp 1972, Hymes 1974, Canale and Swain 1980). This study focuses on one important aspect of such competence: the ability to use the appropriate sociocultural rules of speaking, by reacting in a culturally acceptable way in context and by choosing stylistically appropriate forms for that context. We chose to look at productive performance in sociocultural aspects of speaking, focusing on the speech act of “apology.” The research question that prompted this study was, “Can a rating scale be developed for assessing sociocultural competence?” The subjects were 32 native Hebrew speakers, 20 of whom served as informants for apologies in English LZ and 12 as informants in Hebrew LI, and 12 Americans who served as informants in English LI. These subjects were asked to role‐play their responses in eight situations in which an apology was expected. The findings show that it is possible to identify culturally and stylistically inappropriate L2 utterances in apology situations. The authors feel, however, that the results so far provide at best a crude measure of sociocultural competence and that further work with this speech act and with others is called for.