Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the pragmatic transfer Iranian EFL and ESL learners of English showed when complaining in English. The study aimed to find out if there exists any relationship between the amount of contact with English and pragmatic competence of both EFL and ESL groups as well as the relationship between the duration of stay in English-speaking countries and the pragmatic competence of complaining in the ESL group, living and studying abroad for some years. For this purpose, the data were gathered from four groups: twenty Iranian native speakers of Farsi and twenty English native speakers of English, as the baseline groups, as well as twenty EFL and twenty ESL learners, as the interlanguage data groups. The data were elicited through a personal information form and a DCT in which they were asked to answer six imaginative situations including complaint-required situations. The DCT data were examined to see to what extent the time spent with English and the duration of stay in target countries and the pragmatic competence of EFL and ESL respondents were related. The findings revealed no significant relationship between the amount of contact, the time spent abroad and the pragmatic competence of Iranian EFL and ESL learners.
Highlights
The findings revealed no significant relationship between the amount of contact, the time spent abroad and the pragmatic competence of Iranian EFL and ESL learners
Two native speakers of English evaluated the responses given by EFL and ESL groups to Discourse Completion Test” (DCT) using Balci (2009) ten-point appropriateness rating scale in order to assess the degree of appropriateness and nativeness of their responses
The data obtained from the background questionnaire was used to examine whether there was a positive relation among the variables of amount of L2 contact, length of residence and, learners’ L2 pragmatic competence
Summary
1.1 Pragmatic CompetenceDuring recent years, communicative competence has been paid more attention in the field of second/foreign language teaching and learning. Hymes (1972), holds that second language learners must learn to speak grammatically and "appropriately" to achieve communicative goals.Ahn (2007) confirms: "Acquisition of socio-cultural rules, which is widely known as pragmatic competence, is a basic requirement to second language learners". Tanck (2002) argues that speakers who seem "fluent" in a foreign language due to their command of the grammatical rules of that language and its vocabulary may still lack pragmatic competence, and as a result they may not be able to produce language that is socially and culturally appropriate.since nonnative speakers may be unaware of the socio-linguistic rules of the target language, they may use their mother language rules when using a second language. In the case of ESL and EFL groups, the researcher used the background questionnaire to identify the extent of English-language contact the participants were exposed to in daily life and length of time the ESL group had lived in the target countries. This background information was later used in analyzing the data. The questionnaire was a self-report instrument designed to elicit information on the total amount of time both EFL and ESL groups were in contact with English during the week, both inside and outside the classroom, and the number of years ESL members spent in the target countries. The data obtained from the background questionnaire was used to examine whether there was a positive relation among the variables of amount of L2 contact, length of residence and, learners’ L2 pragmatic competence
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