The Use of Request Expressions by Turkish Learners of Japanese

This study investigates the use of Japanese request expressions by Turkish learners of Japanese (TLJ). Data were collected through discourse completion test (DCT) making use of two different situations. 82 undergraduate students, studying at the Department of Japanese Language Teaching, Faculty of Education, anakkale Onsekiz Mart University and whose ages range from 18 to 27 years old, participated in the DCT. Since they consist of　1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students, their Japanese proficiency can be characterized as lower intermediate to advanced. Error analysis was applied to analyze data. The incorrect and inappropriate expressions were classified as lexical errors, grammatical errors, lexico semantic errors, grammatical semantic errors and pragmatic failures. As a result, it was found that although TLJ made some lexical and grammatical errors, they are capable of requesting from their teachers in Japanese. However, they are unable to request from their close friends appropriately due to pragmatic failure. In conclusion, it is argued that the results are closely related with learning contexts and textbook contents. Overall, this study puts forward some suggestions to enrich the use of Japanese request expressions by TLJ.Keywords: Japanese, Turkish Japanese learners (TLJ), speech acts, request expressions, second language acquisition (SLA)This study investigates the use of Japanese request expressions by Turkish learners of Japanese (TLJ). Data were collected through discourse completion test (DCT) making use of two different situations. 82 undergraduate students, studying at the Department of Japanese Language Teaching, Faculty of Education, anakkale Onsekiz Mart University and whose ages range from 18 to 27 years old, participated in the DCT. Since they consist of　1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students, their Japanese proficiency can be characterized as lower intermediate to advanced. Error analysis was applied to analyze data. The incorrect and inappropriate expressions were classified as lexical errors, grammatical errors, lexico semantic errors, grammatical semantic errors and pragmatic failures. As a result, it was found that although TLJ made some lexical and grammatical errors, they are capable of requesting from their teachers in Japanese. However, they are unable to request from their close friends appropriately due to pragmatic failure. In conclusion, it is argued that the results are closely related with learning contexts and textbook contents. Overall, this study puts forward some suggestions to enrich the use of Japanese request expressi