Exploring Subjectivity in Verbal Reports of Iranian EFL Learners in Institutional Discourse

Abstract

The present study investigates Iranian EFL learners' subjectivity in single-subject retrospective verbal reports that allow the examination of the changes in the cognitive, social and affective processes involved in L2 pragmatic production. To this end, eighteen EFL learners at three proficiency levels produced verbal reports after the administration of a written discourse completion task eliciting requests and apology in asymmetrical (status-unequal) relations in institutional discourse. Qualitative analyses of students' responses indicate that sociocultural, socio-psychological and socioaffective aspects of the discourse situations influenced both their pragmalinguistic and sociolinguistic choices and negotiation of lexical and grammatical choices in planning the speech acts of requests and apologies. Apparently, the degree of sociocultural accommodation to the L2 pragmatic norms may be a matter of choice as of ability.

The Impact of Cognitive Styles on the Speech Act of Apology among Iranian EFL Learners

“…The learning and use of a language other than the L1 is bound to have an impact on the person as a whole. The semantic content of lexical items depends on how speakers of a language categorize their experiences (Haji Maibodi et al, 2016). The novelty offered to the keen EFL/ESL reader is that there are no fixed rules to acquire pragmatic competence.…”

“…Interestingly, findings from the current study lead to the conclusion that Iranian non-native speakers' pragmatic norms may not be completely based on Western patterns and norms of social interaction. Largely, these interactions are based on sociocultural and socio-psychological factors that govern patterns of behavior (Haji Maibodi et al, 2016). Apparently, a great deal of what we want to communicate is determined by our IDs and social relationships, and students with different types of cognitive styles may need different instructional strategies to suit their information processing needs and learner preferences.…”

“…However, compared with other areas, research in the area of cognitive development and pragmatic competence is not as impactful as expected to be. While some of the findings on interlanguage pragmatics may simply reflect the state of learners' lexical and syntactic knowledge, the issue becomes clearly a pragmalinguistic one when learners demonstrably know a particular lexical item or syntactic structure yet use it in a way that does not convey the intended illocutionary force or politeness value (Haji Maibodi et al, 2016).…”