Crossing Linguistic Bridges: Unravelling the Art of Persuasion Among Albanian Writers in Greek

Abstract

Pragmalinguistic (PML) failure complicates intercultural communication in both productive and receptive modes. This paper attempts to unravel the persuasive strategies used by Albanians writing in Greek and further record the overall suitability score they received when assessed by Greek teachers (n=176). A protocol sample of extracted persuasive strategies was created to be used for further investigation, with respect to their suitability. The evaluation body provided their scores systematically through a purposefully constructed internet evaluation tool, which recorded their responses in a scale format. All strategies used scored below the middle of the evaluation scale and were thus considered unsuitable to be included in a letter of this type. Direct pathos statements were found particularly unfit to be employed in this context, while logos received the highest votes. Significant correlations were found in the voting tactic of the judges, which suggests a personality question in the judgments, while younger judges seemed to be more rigid in their evaluations. On the other hand, inconsistencies were detected between a) the evaluation of ethos and pathos persuasive arguments by these Greek judges and b) the employment of the exact same strategies by Greeks writing in English, outlined in an earlier study. The judges’ level of education and their teaching experience did not correlate statistically with the judgment scores they provided.