A Comparative Analysis of Apology Strategy: Iranian EFL Learners and Native English Speakers

Abstract

The present study reports a descriptive comparison of apology strategies used by Iranian EFL learners and English native speakers in different situations to determine whether and to what extent inter-language realizations of the speech act of apology resemble or differ among them. For this purpose, a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) including five different social situations was distributed among 21 Iranian MA students and also emailed to15 English native speakers around the world. The findings revealed certain similarities and few differences in terms of the frequency and the type of strategies used by the participants in those situations.