Revue Des Sciences Humaines
Volume 37, Numéro 1, Pages 07-16
2026-03-31
(in)directness In Saudi University Students’ Request Strategies
Authors : Tag Eldin Khalid .
Abstract
This study investigated Saudi university students’ Arabic and English requests and compared the (in)directness levels in their performance to identify their preferences. It also evaluated the impact of the contextual constraints of power, social distance, and level of request imposition on the students’ choice of (in)direct strategies. The study used two discourse completion tests i.e., Arabic and English, to gather its data from 120 students from Shaqra University. The results of the study showed that the subjects utilized the three request strategies i.e., direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventionally indirect (hints) when responding to the two DCTs. It also showed that the subjects used more direct strategies in the Arabic DCT answers than in the English version, and more conventional indirect strategies in their responses to the English DCT than to the Arabic test. Moreover, it showed that the subjects resorted to the non-conventionally indirect requests the least. The results of the study revealed that the contextual factors had no impact on the subjects’ strategy choice.
Keywords
Saudi university students, pragmatics, speech acts, request, (in)direct requests, contextual constraints.
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