Zia Tajeddin; Elham Yazdanmehr
Volume 4, Issue 10 , March 2013, , Pages 27-51
Abstract
This study aims to delve into the unobservable dimensions of deciding and acting in a pragmatically significant speech event. Utilizing a Discourse Completion Test questionnaire, it seeks to find out the structure and pragmatic functions that lie behind EFL learners’ choice of specific wording ...
Read More
This study aims to delve into the unobservable dimensions of deciding and acting in a pragmatically significant speech event. Utilizing a Discourse Completion Test questionnaire, it seeks to find out the structure and pragmatic functions that lie behind EFL learners’ choice of specific wording while engaged in performing a recurrent speech act in Iran i.e. compliments. To this aim, 30 EFL learners were requested to self-assess their performance in a number of presumed situations in which they were required to make compliments to different addressees. The participants were adult intermediate EFL learners in 18-35 range of age. They were of both sexes and studied English between 1.5 to 5 years. To complete the tasks, they both made notes of their responses and uttered out simultaneously why they complimented in a certain way. Their responses along with transcriptions of their recorded think-aloud protocols were subsequently analyzed in this paper as for their structures and pragmatic functions according to Manes & Wolfson (1981), and Brown & Levinson (1987).