Pragmatic Strategies of Nigerian and Cameroonian migrants in Italy

Abstract

This study addresses the communication strategies of Nigerian and Cameroonian migrants in Italy, with a focus on the directness and indirectness of their verbal message across different communicative situations. Based on Hall's (1976) cultural framework and Hofstede's (1980) cultural dimensions, the study investigates how the sociocultural values of Nigerian and Cameroonian societies as well as variables such as social hierarchy, social distance, and addressee gender affect the selection of Nigerian and Cameroonian speakers’ communication strategies and style. 18 participants (10 Nigerians and 8 Cameroonians) were interviewed and administrated a multiple-choice questionnaire (Ogiermann, 2018) to elicit responses across six communicative situations: advice, apology, cancellation, refusal, request, and reply to information request. The initial interview reveals that participants are aware of the existence of communication and cultural differences between the Italian society and their countries, making their integration difficult.  Moreover, the multiple-choice questionnaire reveals that participants use a hybrid communication style, drawing on both direct and indirect strategies depending on the communicative situation. However, indirect communication strategies were used more frequently than the direct ones. Indirectness was found to be statistically significant in advice, request, and reply to information request, but not in apology, cancellation, and refusal. The addressee gender was the strongest predictor of communication style: participants were significantly more likely to use indirect strategies when addressing male interlocutors than female ones, an asymmetry that was further affected by the familiarity with the interlocutor. This tendency is due to the fact that females are considered weak and cannot participate in social decisions, which are reserved for males, who are recognized to be the source of social power and leadership due to the patriarchal nature of these societies (Gardiner, 1998, Yaw Oppong, 2013, Awoniyi, 2015). These results are consistent with the postcolonial pragmatics literature and with the patriarchal values characteristic of sub-Saharan African societies (Anchimbe, 2018).