A Cross-Sectional Study of Iranian EFL Learners' Realization of Request Speech Acts

ABSTRACT: The present cross-sectional study contributes to the research to date on interlanguage pragmatics by exploring Iranian EFL learners‟ realization of requestive speech acts compared to that of British English native speakers. Specifically, the study examined the requestive behavior of Iranian EFL learners from four different English proficiency levels in terms of directness, as well as the social variables of power and distance to reveal their pragmatic development, if any, in the target language learning. To this end, a Discourse Completion Test (Jalilafar, 2009), as well as Cross-cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP) (Blum-Kulka et al., 1989) were employed to elicit and code requestive interlanguage data from 115 Iranian EFL learners, as well as English baseline data from 10 British native speakers, respectively. The study findings revealed that there was evidence of pragmatic development across the English proficiency levels of the Iranian learners in terms of directness as well as in relation to the situational variable of power. However, in terms of the strategy selection and frequency of strategy use, as well as the social variable of distance the EFL learners exhibited requestive performance somewhat different from that of the native speakers. In this regard, the advanced level learners, compared to the other levels, showed requestive production closer to that of the British participants. Yet, the Iranian learners at this and lower levels required further development of their pragmatic competence. In conclusion, this study provides some implications for more effective pedagogy in EFL contexts, as well as suggestions for prospective research. Keywords: interlanguage pragmatics, pragmatic competence, pragmatic development, request speech act, request strategies. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………