Social Beliefs for the Realization of the Speech Acts of Apology among Jordanian EFL Graduate Students

Abstract

This study is an investigation into the apology strategies by Jordanian EFL (English as a foreign language) graduate students in various situational settings. The objective of this study is to highlight the influence of social status and social distance on the choice of apology strategies. Data were collected through Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT) and semi structured interviews. Briefly, the findings revealed that the majority of most the students used Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID) and accept responsibility strategies. Other new strategies (arrogance and ignorance, blame something else, swearing) which fall outside the model adopted from Cohen & Olshtain also appeared in the Jordanian responses. The newly detected strategies are culture-specific acts that are deeply rooted in the Jordanian society. The findings also showed that the choice of apology strategy is affected by social status more than social distance.