| dc.description.abstract | Previous studies have found a positive correlation between gaming and various aspects of language learning; however, little research has been carried out on the correlation between gaming and pragmatic competence, and the use of politeness strategies among gamers. The present study investigates the impact of gaming on the acquisition of politeness strategies among Norwegian gamers: whether frequency of gaming impacts the choice of politeness strategies when performing requests in out-of-game contexts, and whether there are differences between male and female gamers. It also investigates gamers’ use of swearing and other bad language expressions (BLEs) and their attitudes towards such usage in gaming, and whether gamers apply bad language to requests outside gaming. Data was elicited from Norwegian tenth graders through a discourse completion task and a questionnaire. The findings show no clear effect of gaming on the politeness strategies used, but they indicate that there might be a positive gaming effect on request strategies used by the boys, the frequent gamers having slightly more variations depending on the situation. There seems to be a gender difference in the use of alerters and supportive moves between boys and girls in general, rather than between male and female gamers. The use of swearing and other BLEs is common among gamers in the gaming context, and they are for the most part indifferent to such usage. The gamers did not apply bad language to requests outside gaming. Even though the present study has not found a clear effect of gaming on the choice of politeness strategies, it has identified some promising tendencies with respect to gaming frequency and request strategies. Further research is needed to establish a gaming effect on the choice of politeness strategies. As in previous studies, there turned out to be few female gamers and few male non-gamers in the population studied. In order to reliably study gender differences in the effects of gaming, it might thus be necessary to actively seek out female gamers and male non-gamers. | eng |