The Use of Speech Acts in Social Media Interaction Among Female Learners of Arabic as an Additional Language

Abstract

Pragmatics refers to knowledge about the cultural and social norms of a language and the context of communication. Due to their limited pragmatic competence, second language learner students often struggle to use context-appropriate language, including speech acts (e.g., requests, refusals, and apologies). This is the case for students studying in Saudi Arabia who have Arabic as an additional language (AAL). Therefore, this study focuses on speech acts and specifically requests, as they are among the most frequently used and also the most challenging for AAL students—when used inappropriately, they may cause discomfort or threaten the addressee’s face. Currently, there is a gap in the literature with no existing research examining the use of speech acts by female AAL students. This study explores requests in written, naturalistic interactions on social media by analysing WhatsApp messages sent by female university students to their lecturers at a large university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In particular, this research aims to investigate how AAL learners and non-Arab (NA) university students at the bachelor’s and master’s levels use direct and indirect requests, as well as how they modify them. It also aims to compare their use with that of Saudi Arabian (SA) university students. The study additionally examines whether these differences are related to language proficiency or length of residence in Saudi society. A total of 129 student participants and 27 lecturers contributed to the study. Data were collected using mixed methods, including a demographic questionnaire, WhatsApp messages, and semi-structured interviews. In total, 10,882 WhatsApp messages were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentages) and inferential statistics (chi-square and Fisher’s exact test) were applied. The qualitative analysis employed transtextual analytics and thematic analysis to examine the WhatsApp messages and interviews. The results showed that AAL students preferred direct requests, as did NA students, but to a lesser extent, while SA students were the least likely to use this strategy. Conversely, SA students preferred conventionally indirect requests more than the other groups. In terms of modifications, SA students used them most frequently, followed by NA students, and then AAL students, with external modifications being the most common type overall. The qualitative analysis revealed that AAL students’ requests were generally short and characterised by simple grammatical structures, whereas NA students’ requests were longer and grammatically more complex, resembling those of SA students. In addition, NA students used emojis, colloquial expressions, and some transliterated English terms, pragmatically aligning their messages more closely with SA students. Across all groups, the most common modifications were titles, small talk, justifications, and religious supplications. These findings have the potential to contribute to the teaching of AAL by helping curriculum developers design materials that enable learners to distinguish between polite and impolite forms. In doing so, learners can avoid pragmatic errors.