The university has truly been unceasingly planting its seed of excellence in different parts of the globe and progressively on its way to becoming the total university of choice in the pan pacific rim.Just recently, another faculty member of PUNP Tayug presented his research paper during the 2nd International Conference on Language,Literature and Society in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, hosted and organized by the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), on November 8-9, 2018. Marvin Gabatin, faculty member of the College of Teacher Education (CTE) and the Director of the Office of Student Services (OSS) presented his paper entitled “Filipino Apology: ACross-cultural Pragmatic Investigation.”
The conference served as an avenue for
scholars and researchers in the fields of language, linguistics, and society to
highlight significant research-based thoughts on the central role of language
in all human social organization. With this year’s theme “Language,
linguistics, and society in the era of disruptive technologies”, it sought to
discuss current studies, share ideas, and propose solutions to various social
realities involving language in the midst of technological innovation and
advancement.
Held in one of the most fab hotels in
the Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, the conference showcased wide array of
intercultural and pedagogical use of language. It brought together language
educators and language researchers from all over the world – from Asia, Latin
America, and Europe. More than 100 participants took part in the event and over
60 research outputs were presented that mainly explored topics related to the
conference theme.
One of the subthemes talked about was
intercultural differences in communication in various media. Marvin talked
about the findings of his research on strategies Filipinos use in performing
the speech act of apologizing. In his presentation, he highlighted the
importance of understanding intercultural pragmatic features in order to
minimize misunderstanding across cultures. Particularly in technology-mediated
discourse, knowledge of distinctive features of how people in certain groups
perform speech acts, such as apologizing, downplays the possibility of
intercultural misunderstanding.
As per Marvin’s findings, Filipinos were
found to be using four strategies – use of explicit apology or IFID
(Illocutionary Force Indicating Device), explanation, taking of responsibility,
and offer of repair. These strategy results were found to be similar in some
cultures according to some literatures, such as in Western cultures, Jordanian
Arabic, and Indonesian apologies. However, one distinct features of Filipino
apologies non-existent to other cultures is the use of expressives which
includes exclamations (e.g. OMG, halla, oh my, etc.), swearing, and even
cursing.
The study also found out that while many
cultures report to have differences in the performance of apology speech act in
terms of gender, Filipinos appear to have no significant difference in gender
which can be attributed to the widely egalitarian and democratic society in the
Philippines.
