In Marriott’s study of Japanese L2, all of the speakers used a wide
variety of routine formulae: they had successfully acquired polite formulaic
utterances. In relation to openings and closing, a comparison was made
of the students’ use of formulaic routines in the opening and closing
sequences of the interviews, and their ability to produce a self introduction
was considered. The data showed the students’ management of formulaic
routines with their use — appropriate or otherwise — in the opening and
closings of the pre- and post-exchange interviews. The study demonstrated
that at the end of the stay in Japan the students had successfully
acquired polite routinized expressions for use in both the opening and closing
sequences of the interviews. They used rapidly-spoken utterances, had
achieved ease of delivery and the ability to select an appropriate level of
politeness. Speaker 2 in the Siegal study makes much use of formulaic
phrases, which serves as a strategy to cover up her difficulty with the complete
incorporation of concepts such as the beneficial relationships between
people. Regan found that formulaic phrases favoured ne deletion in the successful
approximation of vernacular native speech norms.