The DCT Design  104 

The DCT given to the Saudi advanced English learners, the Saudi intermediate English learners and the American native speakers had the same situations. Although the Saudi native speakers also had the same situations, the names were modified to Arabic ones. In situation number seven, the setting was also changed from a coffee shop to a celebration. The instructions were the same for all four groups, who were introduced to the questionnaire situations. The instructions were short and direct and asked the participants to read the situations carefully, to write whatever they would naturally say and/or do in that situation in English (English native speakers, and advanced and intermediate learners of English) or in Arabic. Native speakers of Arabic should also say if they felt the response was appropriate to each situation. For

105

the English language learners and native speakers everything was written in English, while the Arabic questionnaire was written in Arabic. As the people in the situations were also female, they all had clear and well–known female names, according to the reasons given at the beginning of the chapter.

After the instructions, the nine situations were presented. Every situation ended with “you say and/or do” and then there was space for the participant to write what she would say. These were the variables that formed part of the study. The situations were designed to examine as many different areas as possible related to the participants’ life, as the following table shows:

Table 3.2 The DCT Design

Setting Situation

Formality

Status Social Distance

1 University Formal Low to high Student to professor

2 House door Informal Equal status Sister of a participant’s friend

3 School Formal High to low Teacher to student

4 University Informal Equal status Best friends

5 Party at friend’s house Informal Low to high Mother of a friend

6 Own house party Informal Old to young;

High to low

Friend of the participant’s sister

7 Party for Arabic;

coffee shop for English

Informal Equal status Classmates

8 School Formal Low to high;

Equal status

Student to teacher and classmate

106

Some of the situations were adopted and modified to fit our research purpose. The following paragraphs contain a detailed description of each situation, explaining where they were borrowed from and how they were modified.

• Situation number 1: “You are a university student. It is after the break between

semesters and the beginning of a new semester, you see your female professor, aged 50–55, while in the University cafeteria. You have not seen each other during break. The cafeteria is not crowded. Your professor’s name is Prof. Victoria.”

In this situation, the setting was a university, so the situation was formal. The status between the people in the situation was from high to low. The social distance was from a student to a professor. It was included to elicit a form of greeting in this specific context. For the Saudi Arabic speakers’ questionnaire, the name of the professor was changed to an Arabic name, Prof. Hanan. According to a situation presented by Gharaghani, Rasekh and Tohidian (2011), particularly situation 3, the names were changed to fit the research objectives and the situation was shortened to be clearer and more direct; the setting was also changed from a university campus to a university cafeteria.

• Situation number 2: “You want to go pick up your friend Christina to go out

for lunch. You reach her house and her sister opens the door for you. She is one year younger than you. You have met her once before. Her name is Monica.”

Situation number two was to elicit a particular form of speech act. The setting was a doorstep of a house. The situation was informal, as it took place on a doorstep. The status of the people in the situation was equal, while the social distance was a

107

friend’s sister. The names of the people in the situation were changed to fit the Arabic context. Christina was changed to Sarah and Monica was changed to Layan.

• Situation number 3: “You are an English language school teacher. It is after

the break between semesters and the beginning of a new semester. It is the first day of work in the new semester. While walking your way to enter the building, you see your student, a 17–year–old girl, who doesn’t notice your presence, and the entrance to the building is not crowded. Last week, your students had an important college entrance exam. You have not seen each other during break. The student’s name is Abbey.”

For this situation, the aim was to elicit a form of greeting in this specific context. According to the reflection by Gharaghani, Rasekh and Tohidian (2011), the names were changed again to fit the research objectives, and the situation was shortened to be clearer. The setting of this context was a school. The situation was formal, as the social distance was between a teacher and a student. The status of the situation was from high (the teacher) to low (the student). The student’s name was changed to an Arabic one, Wafaa, so it fitted the Arabic context.

• Situation number 4: “You are a university student. It is after the break between

semesters and the beginning of a new semester, you see your best friend, who is very nice and the same age as you, while walking on the university campus. You have not seen her during the break. Your best friend’s name is Nataly.”

This situation was designed to elicit a form of greeting in a university setting. The situation was informal, as it took place between best friends, so the status between people in the situation was equal. The name Nataly was changed to Najla in the Arabic questionnaire, to fit the Arabic context, as mentioned before. This situation

108

was also taken from Gharaghani, Rasekh and Tohidian (2011), particularly situation 4. Nevertheless, the situation was shortened to be clearer.

• Situation number 5: “Your close friend Christina invites you to a party at her

house. You ring the bell and she opens the door for you. Her mother is sitting in the living room. Christina walks you there to meet her. You go to the living room and see her mother. Her mother’s name is Lisa.”

Situation number five was designed to elicit different forms of the speech act of greeting used at a party at a friend’s house, which is an informal setting. The status between people in the situation was from low to high. The social distance was that of a friend to a friend’s mother. The name Christina was changed to Dalal, and Lisa was changed to Fatemah.

• Situation number 6: “You held a party for your 10–year–old sister. The party

started and the doorbell rang. You walk towards the door and open it. It's your sister’s friend. Her name is Taylor.”

As the setting of this situation was a private house party, the situation was informal. The status between people was high to low, between an older and a younger person. The social distance was a sister’s friend. The names were changed from Taylor to Lojain, according to the previously mentioned reason.

• Situation number 7: “You run into Mellissa, a classmate with whom you are

not very familiar, at a coffee shop. You see her having some milk and sugar from the service table.”

In this situation, the setting was changed from a coffee shop to a party for cultural reasons, being an informal situation. People in the situation had equal status, as the

109

social distance was between classmates. The name Mellissa was changed to Buthainah in the Arabic questionnaire for the above reasons. This situation was developed from situation number four in Kirdisi’s (2013) research questionnaires. The setting of this situation was a coffee shop for the English questionnaire, and a wedding party for the Arabic one, due to cultural reasons. Also, the names were changed to fit the objectives of the study.

• Situation number 8: “You enter your teacher’s office to talk to her. While you

are at her office, you see one of your classmates sitting there. You haven’t seen the teacher and your classmate after the one–week vacation you recently had.”

The setting of this situation is a school so it is formal. The status between people in the situation was low to high, but also included equal status. The social distance was student to teacher, and student to classmate. This situation was taken from Gharaghani, Rasekh and Tohidian (2011), particularly situation 7. The names were changed to fit the research objectives, and the situation was also shortened to be clearer.

• Situation number 9: “This is your last semester at college. You are a volunteer

student/librarian at the university library. Your job is to help students find the books they need. There is a student who usually comes every day. It's only her first semester at the university. It is the first day after the one–week vacation you all came back from. Her name is Rachel.”

The setting of the last situation was a university and, therefore, formal. The status between people in the situation was high to low. The social distance was from a student librarian to a student. The researcher chose to have a student librarian instead

110

of professional one to make it easier. The name of the student, Rachel, was changed to Noor to fit the Arabic context.

After each situation, the phrase “you say and/or do” in bold letters is included in order to help the participant. This is followed by a reasonable space for the participant to write what she would say and/or do. After that, we expressed out appreciation of their participation by thanking them.

3.2. Study Participants

As this study aims to examine the strategies of the speech act of greeting by Saudi learners of EFL, the participants of this study were divided into the aforementioned four different groups: Saudi Arabic native speakers (SAS), American English native speakers (AES), Saudi advanced English learners (AEL) and Saudi intermediate English learners (IEL). In this study, there were 200 participants in total and 50 subjects in each group.