EFL Undergraduate Learners’ Politeness Strategies in the Speech Act of Disagreement

Abstract

This study investigated politeness strategies of disagreement expressed by undergraduate Iraqi EFL students in Online Asynchronous Discussions OADs. The data were collected from 100 individuals randomly chosen from undergraduate classes at Mosul university. The investigation focused on the impact that gender may have on politeness strategies that could be used to lessen the possibility of conflict in expressing the face-threatening act FTAs. For data collection, the participants were required to fill a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), adapted from Rasekh and Simin (2015) to simulate online asynchronous discussions. Muntigl and Turnbull's (1998) taxonomy was used to identify disagreement expressions. For politeness investigation, Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory was adopted. The study demonstrated that both males and females do not consider others’ faces. In addition, it showed no regard for interlocutors' power and social statuses in expressing the FTAs. However, the results provided a valuable insight for teachers and curriculum designers, generally in EFL and the Iraqi context in specific. Pedagogical recommendations are discussed based on the findings.