2014 IJRSLL – Volume 3 Issue 4
Author/s:
Simin, Shahla*
English Department, University of Isfahan, Iran (shahlasimin@yahoo.com)
Eslami, Zohreh Rasekh
English Department, Texas A&M University, USA (zeslami@tamu.edu)
Eslami-Rasekh, Abbass
English Department, University of Isfahan, Iran (Abbasseslamirasekh@yahoo.com)
Ketabi, Saeed
English Department, University of Isfahan, Iran (ketabi@fgn.ui.ac.ir)
Abstract:
The present study was conducted to examine the effect of explicit teaching of the speech act of apology on learning and recognition of Persian EFL learners with the help of e-communication through exchange of e-mails. The participants of the study consisted of 60 upper-intermediate EFL learners majoring in English Literature and Translation who were divided into two groups: a) the explicit teaching group and b) the implicit teaching group. Accordingly, instruction on various apology situations was provided and the experimental group was asked to have e-communication through e-mail exchanges with their instructor during the semester. The study consisted of a pretest and a posttest which was considered to be quasi-experimental. The independent variable was the explicit teaching of speech acts and the dependent variable was learning success of the participants. After the treatment, the participants were given a posttest. The Analysis of the results revealed that the learners in the explicit teaching group who participated in e-mail exchanges gained significantly in terms of pragmatic proficiency required for strategies of apology. And the use of explicit teaching of apology involving them in e-communication exchanges significantly enhanced the pragmatic awareness of Persian EFL learners.
Keywords: apology speech act set; pragmatic competence; pragmatic instruction; raising pragmatic awareness; meta-pragmatic; explicit teaching; e-communication
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsll.2014.661
*Corresponding Author