Speech Acts Bibliography:
Negative Responses to Questions
DuFon, M. A. (2000). The acquisition of negative responses to experience questions in Indonesian as a second language by sojourners in naturalistic interactions. In B. Swierzbin, F. Morris, M. E. Anderson, C. A. Klee, & E. Tarone (Eds.), Social and cognitive factors in second language acquisition: Selected proceedings of the 1999 Second Language Research Forum (pp. 77-97). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Discusses the idea that two forms for negation in Indonesian, tidak 'no, not' and belum 'not yet,' are problematic for English speaking learners of Indonesian because the coverage isn't the same. L2 learners overgeneralize the use of tidak to contexts where belum applies. She compares how natives respond to life experience questions (e.g., "Have you ever been out of Sumbawa?") as compared to beginning and intermediate learners of the language. Then she shows how natives help learners through their input and interaction to acquire the appropriate use of the negative forms. The NNSs were four English L1 study abroad students (3 White males and a Japanese-American female) and 2 Japanese nationals on a 4-mo. program in the fall of 1996 from the University of Hawaii. All knew at least one other foreign language. Three were at the intermediate level and three at the beginning level. Experience questions calling for a negative response were fed into a data analysis program. What emerged was that acquiring the appropriate functions of belum took time. The conclusion: "...in response to experience questions, the learners progressed through stages from English 'no" to minimal responses and to overgeneralization of tidak and eventually at the intermediate level to a more automatic and appropriate use of belum. A combination of linguistic, social and cognitive factors worked together to move the learners forward through this acquisition process." (p. 96).