The Use of Apology Strategies by Arab Postgraduate Students

The study was designed to focus on the pragmatic competence of Arab postgraduate students in producing apology speech act in Eastern Mediterranean University context, where English is the medium of instruction. Additionally, it aimed to find out the relationship between expressing apology, gender, proficiency level, and first language influence. The study’s theoretical framework was the speech act theory, its usage in diverse contexts, and the impact of certain social factors on expressing apology. Consequently, it is important because it may inform English as foreign language teachers and syllabus designers to emphasis more on producing pragmatics concepts to learners. In fact, the setting of this study is different and unique compared to previous empirical researches that considered speech act of apology. The mixed method approach, which encompassed placement test, adopted discourse completion test and structured interview, was used as data collection instruments. For processing the data, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used. The results revealed that illocutionary force indicating devices, reparations, and compensations were the most frequently used apology techniques among the participants. Also, the relationship between producing apologies, proficiency level and gender variables were statistically insignificant. Furthermore, the sample revealed an inconsiderable impact of the first language on expressing apology. For the implications, English teachers should endeavor to increase learners’ pragmatic competence in the foreign language learning. Also, syllabus designers should develop practical lessons by focusing on apology speech act in real life situations. Considering the limitations, firstly, qualitative methods were used to collect the data. For future researchers, observing respondents in real conditions would be more constructive. Second, this study covered Arab postgraduate student with different proficiency levels. Future studies might select students with a particular proficiency level to explore new apology expressions.