A Comparison of Arab and Turkish EFL Learners’ Apology Strategies

Year 2021, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 1 - 26, 30.06.2021

Eda Elmas Ali Öztüfekçi Nihal Özdemir

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to identify and compare apology strategies employed in English by Turkish and Arab EFL students. To this end, this research study further attempted to indicate the preferences of apology strategies used by both groups, making a comparison between Turkish EFL learners’ and Arab EFL learners’ responses in terms of frequency of using different types of apology strategies. To this end, data were collected through a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) which afforded insights into how both Arab and Turkish EFL learners adopt apology strategies in their pragmatic competence in the target language. Findings revealed that the most preferred strategy by both groups was reported to be that of Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs) and that their linguistic repertoire is influenced by factors such as their proficiency level. Based on the findings of the study, further suggestions and implications are provided.

Keywords

speech acts, apology strategies, EFL, interlanguage pragmatics

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