The force behind illocutionary speech acts: Directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative

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The main purpose of this study is to examine the force and power of language expressions categorized under the rubrics of the types of illocutionary speech acts (directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative), particularly speech acts of permission, apologies, and compliments. A total of 30 male and female EFL (English as a foreign language) students who studied at Ajloun National University participated in this study. The data were collected through discourse completion tasks (DCTs). The students were asked to write down what they identified as permissions, apologies, and compliments similar to what they would use in real-life situations. The responses to the DCTs were analyzed based on suitable taxonomy of compliment and apology response strategies. The frequency of occurrence and percentage of each type were quantified. The analysis of the data confirmed that EFL learners used various strategies in expressing apologies, permissions, thanks and compliments thus leading to the following conclusions: Most EFL students use thanking and complimentary expressions in both formal and informal situations. Secondly, Jordanian EFL learners successfully identified the speech act of permission issued by explicit and implicit performative expressions and declarative construction rather than interrogative and imperative construction. Finally, it was noted that the most frequent responses expressing apologies were IFIDs (illocutionary force indicating devices).