<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The approximation of the pragmatic knowledge of English language learners to native speakers has been a realm of concern for the scholars and researchers in applied linguistics. Thus, this research was an endeavor to figure out the association between the proficiency level and politeness strategies and external/internal modifications in written communication skills in the speech act of requests in Iranian English language learners. To this end, a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT), adapted from <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_jolace-2017-0031_ref_021_w2aab3b7b7b1b6b1ab1ac21Aa">Rose (1994)</xref>, including 8 situations was administered to elicit data from Iran Language Institute120 female and male EFL learners, 60 upper-intermediate and 60 intermediate. The data were sorted out using Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies taxonomy (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_jolace-2017-0031_ref_004_w2aab3b7b7b1b6b1ab1ab4Aa">Brown and Levinson 1987</xref>) and external/internal modifications developed by <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_jolace-2017-0031_ref_011_w2aab3b7b7b1b6b1ab1ac11Aa">Faerch and Kasper (1989)</xref>. The written request utterances provided by each participant were analyzed in terms of frequency and types of politeness strategies, namely, positive, negative, bald on record, and off-record as well as external/internal modifications utilized in requests. The Pearson Chi-Square test results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between upper-intermediate and intermediate learners’ type of politeness strategies and external/internal modifications.</p></abstract>

The approximation of the pragmatic knowledge of English language learners to native speakers has been a realm of concern for the scholars and researchers in applied linguistics. Thus, this research was an endeavor to figure out the association between the proficiency level and politeness strategies and external/internal modifications in written communication skills in the speech act of requests in Iranian English language learners. To this end, a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT), adapted from Rose (1994), including 8 situations was administered to elicit data from Iran Language Institute120 female and male EFL learners, 60 upper-intermediate and 60 intermediate. The data were sorted out using Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies taxonomy (Brown and Levinson 1987) and external/internal modifications developed by Faerch and Kasper (1989). The written request utterances provided by each participant were analyzed in terms of frequency and types of politeness strategies, namely, positive, negative, bald on record, and off-record as well as external/internal modifications utilized in requests. The Pearson Chi-Square test results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between upper-intermediate and intermediate learners’ type of politeness strategies and external/internal modifications.

Politeness strategies in written communications: the issue of Iranian EFL learners

Journal of Language and Cultural Education

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The approximation of the pragmatic knowledge of English language learners to native speakers has been a realm of concern for the scholars and researchers in...

Politeness strategies in written communications: the issue of Iranian EFL learners

Published Online: Dec 29, 2017

Page range: 108 - 126

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jolace-2017-0031

Keywords
Pragmatics, Politeness strategies, Proficiency level, Gender, Speech act, written requests

© 2017 Giti Karimkhanlooei et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Politeness strategies in written communications: the issue of Iranian EFL learners

Published Online: Dec 29, 2017

Page range: 108 - 126

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jolace-2017-0031

KeywordsPragmatics, Politeness strategies, Proficiency level, Gender, Speech act, written requests

© 2017 Giti Karimkhanlooei et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Pragmatics, Politeness strategies, Proficiency level, Gender, Speech act, written requests