The use of please in requests made by Japanese learners of English

The purpose of this study is to investigate Japanese learners' requestive strategies in English focusing on the use of "please." The data was collected through a discourse completion test (DCT). The DCT consisted of two small, intermediate and large requests, which were directed to a friend of equal status and a teacher of higher status. The data were analyzed in terms of the following three points of view: 1) the frequency of the use of "please", 2) the requestive strategies, 3) the awareness of the politeness of the use of "please" to make a request. The results of this study showed that Japanese EFL learners preferred to use "please" in making requests. They frequently formed a sentence "please + imperative sentence" as a way to show politeness when making requests. In addition, it was revealed that they had some intention to show their polite feelings by using or not using "please," depending on the status of the interlocutor.