scholarly journals Pragmatic Competence of Iranian EFL Learners in the Light of Refusal Speech Act

2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-65
Author(s):  
Bibi Malihe Vamagh Shahi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Know How ◽  
Refusal Strategies ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

In order to communicate accurately and fluently, learners need to know how to produce different speech acts inside and outside the classroom context. Refusal speech act is complicated, and performing refusals successfully needs a higher level of pragmatic competence (Eslami, 2010). This study is done in order to analyze refusal speech act and its responses among Iranian EFL learners. The participants of this study are 120 advanced Iranian EFL learners. These learners are provided with scenarios so that they are exposed to situations where they should both refuse and respond to refusals. The first phase of this paper includes the analysis of refusal strategies. The second phase of the paper deals with refusal responses. It was revealed that female participants are more inclined to use indirect strategies as related to refusals and male participants are more inclined to use direct strategies. For refusal responses, male learners used reinforcing micro functions while female learners used accepting micro functions more frequently. The results of this study contribute to pragmatic instruction in a way to help learners interpret and realize this speech act successfully. I will also investigate possible cross-cultural miscommunication, which its occurrence is also acknowledged in previous research studies (Shishavan & Sharifian, 2016).

scholarly journals Cross-Sectional Study of Refusal Speech Act Used by Iraqi Undergraduate Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-173
Author(s):  
Hutheifa Y. Turki ◽  
Juma’a Q. Hussein ◽  
Ahmed A. Al-Kubaisy
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Refusal Strategies

This paper is conducted to investigate how Iraqi EFL learners refuse different speech acts across different proficiency levels. It aims to examine the most appropriate strategies used by 2nd year students of English as compared to those of 4th year when refusing their interlocutors' invitation, suggestion, and offer. WDCT questionnaire was used to collect data from 40 Iraqi undergraduate students of English: 20 2nd year and 20 4th year. Adopting Beebe et al.'s (1990) theory of refusal, data collected was analyzed quantitatively using statistical analysis. The findings revealed that the 2nd year students of English were more frequent in using direct refusals than their 4th year counterparts. This means the latter were more aware of using refusals politely than the former. On the other hand, the findings showed that 4th year students more frequent in their use of indirect refusal strategies that the 2nd year students. This indicates that the EFL learners of low proficiency level might not bridge the gap between the pragmalinguistic strategies and the grammatical form of the target language. This means that they were not pragmatically competent of the use of the appropriate pragmalinguistic strategies. This implies that the 2nd year students need to pay more attention to pragmatics and use their refusal strategies appropriately. Thus, the paper recommends conducting further research on the use of refusal speech act in Arabic and English.

scholarly journals Promoting pragmatic awareness of Indonesian English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners through teaching speech acts of oral and written complaints

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Waliyadin Nuridin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Discourse Processing ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Pragmatic Awareness ◽  
Processing Framework

<p>The lack of pragmatic competence could result in unexpected effects on the speakers; for example, the speakers are considered as rude and aggressive people. Accordingly, developing pragmatic competence for EFL learners should be a great concern. This article is aimed to fill in the needs of pragmatic teaching by providing examples of teaching practices that have successfully developed learners’ pragmatic competence. There are two tasks that have been designed and implemented by drawing on discourse processing framework proposed by Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) to achieve the production of both written and spoken discourses. The first task is on speaking, particularly on the speech act of oral complaints. The second task is on writing a letter of complaint. This article suggests that developing pragmatic awareness through the speech act of oral and written complaints is effective.<strong></strong></p>

scholarly journals A theoretical review of the speech act of suggesting: towards a taxonomy for its use in FLT

2005 ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Martínez Flor
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Teaching Approach ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Directive Speech Acts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Directive Speech

The aim of this paper is to present a taxonomy of linguistic realisation strategies concerning the speech act of suggesting. In this regard, we will first provide a definition of this particular speech act, outlining its main characteristics and differentiating it from other directive speech acts, such as requests. Second, we will review the research conducted on suggestions by examining studies from both the cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics fields. Third, we will present the taxonomy we have drawn up on the basis of two theoretical frameworks, namely those of speech act and politeness theories, as well as findings from previous studies on this particular speech act. Finally, we will propose an example of a teaching approach in which this taxonomy could be implemented in order to develop learners' pragmatic competence when making suggestions.

An Investigation into EFL Learners’ Perception towards L2 Pragmatic Instruction

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyekyeng Kim
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Positive Perception ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Regular Class ◽  
Pragmatic Awareness ◽  
L2 Pragmatics ◽  
Sentence Patterns ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

The present study investigated EFL students’ perception toward the pragmatic instruction provided as a part of regular English curricula. A total of 52 university students from various majors participated in the study. The treatment was given for nine weeks during the regular class hours in terms of four speech acts, compliments, apologies, requests, and refusals, with the goal of enhancing the learners’ pragmatic awareness as well as pragmatic competence. A questionnaire and the learners’ reflection journals were adopted as data collection instruments, and an eclectic design was adopted to analyze their perception. Both the intermediate and low groups showed positive perception in terms of the four major categories—interest, usefulness, importance, and motivation, yet more than half of the learners from the low group found that learning L2 pragmatics was difficult due to the complexity and length of some of the sentence patterns of formulaic expressions. Further, there were significant differences between subjects regarding the category of difficulty for each speech act. Nevertheless, the learners expressed that pragmatic instruction facilitated their communication skills, enhanced their pragmatic awareness on intercultural differences, as well as instilled confidence in English interactions. These findings imply learners’ motivation and needs for learning L2 pragmatic features.

scholarly journals PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF THE YEMENI EFL LEARNERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Qasem H. Al-Khadhmi ◽  
Mirza M. B. ◽  
Abdullah Ali Al-Eryani
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Refusal Strategies ◽  
Loading Scheme

<p>The present study aimed at investigating the pragmatic competence of the Yemeni Non-Native Speakers of English (YNNSs) through examining their performance in the speech act of refusals. The study followed the qualitative comparative analytic approach. For the purpose of attaining the required data for this study, forty (YNNSs) and forty American Native Speakers (ANSs) of English were involved. The questionnaire used for collecting data from the participants was a written Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which was developed by Beebe et el. (1990), employed for collecting the data related to the use of refusal strategies by the two groups of participants in English. The data collected from DCT was analyzed by using a loading scheme adapted from Beebe et al. (1990). This study revealed that the Yemeni NNSs were not pragmatically competent enough in English. In spite of the similarity between the two groups in their use of refusal strategies, the differences between them were more apparent. The total number of strategies used by the American NSs was almost double those used by the Yemeni NNSs in all refusal situations. This study recommends that instructors should design contextualized, task-based, oral activities and integrating the intercultural aspects of language into ELT textbooks. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0895/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals DEVELOPING PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS THROUGH TEACHING SPEECH ACTS OF ORAL AND WRITTEN COMPLAINTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Waliyadin Nuridin
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Discourse Processing ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Pragmatic Awareness ◽  
Processing Framework

The lack of pragmatic competence could result in unexpected effects on the speakers; for example, the speakers are considered as rude and aggressive people. Accordingly, developing pragmatic competence for EFL learners should be a great concern. This article is aimed to fill in the needs of pragmatic teaching by providing examples of teaching practices that could be used to develop EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. There are two tasks that have been designed by drawing on discourse processing framework proposed by Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) to achieve the production of both written and spoken discourses. The first task is on speaking, particularly on the speech act of oral complaints. The second task is on writing a letter of complaint. This article suggests that developing pragmatic awareness through the speech act of oral and written complaints is desirable.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Competence: Difficulties faced by Pakistani EFL Learners

sjesr ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 444-451
Author(s):  
Dr. Sikander Ali ◽  
Muhammad Ashraf
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Competence Level ◽  
Pragmatic Failure ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

The study investigates the pragmatic knowledge; pragmatic competence level as well as speech act strategies used by Pakistani EFL learners. It reveals that Master level English language learners are unable to produce and comprehend the intended meanings in the target language. As a result, pragmatic failure and misunderstanding occurred. Pragmatic comprehension and production is essential for effective communication especially for EFL learners in this modern age where people have to communicate cross-culturally as English is being used as lingua franca internationally. The study explores the problems faced by EFL learners in comprehending and producing the correct speech acts in English. The study used two data collection tools: a WDCT in which speech acts of refusal and apology are used to find out pragmatic competence level and difficulties faced by Pakistani EFL learners. A Likert Scale questionnaire is used to know about the views and suggestions of the Pakistani EFL learners about the teaching and learning environment regarding the pragmatics. The data of speech acts of refusal is analyzed qualitatively according to the taxonomy of Beebe, keeping in view frequency, shift and content of semantic formulas. While the data of speech acts of apology is analyzed according to the speech act strategies of Cohen. Data collected through the Likert scale questionnaire is analyzed quantitatively. The study finds out that pragmatic competence level of Pakistani EFL learners is very low as well as they have to face many difficulties which result in pragmatic failure.  Findings of the study show that Pakistani EFL learners lack knowledge of pragmatics in the target language. EFL learners acknowledged that pragmatic knowledge is very important for effective communication and it should be an integral part of syllabus and classroom activities.

scholarly journals Croatian EFL Learners’ Interlanguage Requests: A Focus on Request Modification

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Danijela Šegedin Borovina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Completion Test

This paper explores the development of pragmatic competence in the interlanguage of Croatian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at three proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). It investigates the way Croatian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) use internal and external supportive moves to modify their requests. Data were collected using an oral Discourse Completion Test consisting of ten school-related situations. The research participants were 60 EFL learners aged between 11 and 18. The coding categories developed in the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP, Blum-Kulka et al. 1989) and adapted by Schauer (2009) were used to analyse the data. Overall results indicated that the request production of EFL learners showed little variation regarding the type of modification and frequency of their use. Results also indicated weak evidence of pragmalinguistic development across levels, particularly in the use of grounders. The infrequent use of request modification suggests that pragmatic instruction should be included in FL classrooms to facilitate the development of L2 pragmatic ability.

The Effect of Using Video Games on EFL Learners' Acquisition of Speech Acts of Apology and Request

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahshid Shirazi ◽  
Seyyed Dariush Ahmadi ◽  
Ali Gholami Mehrdad
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Competence Test

This article presents a discussion about the inclusion of video game based pragmatic competence instruction as a facilitative tool to develop interlanguage pragmatic competence of Iranian EFL learners' acquisition of speech acts of apology and request. The question this article is intended to answer includes: whether using video game as a facilitative tool for developing interlanguage pragmatic competence have any effect on EFL learners’ acquisition of speech acts of apology and request or not. To answer this question, 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners were selected via administering the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Following the Jianda Liu pragmatic competence test (2004) that made test of apology and request speech acts were administered as the pre-test before the targeted speech acts were instructed to them for 8 sessions. The post-test of apology and request speech acts were then administered and data were analyzed via calculating ANCOVA and Mann-Whitney U test. The results indicated that the video game-based instructed EFL classroom showed positive progress in acquisition of apology and request speech acts.

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