(Im)politeness strategies and use of discourse markers

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the L2 learners’, EFL teachers’, and American native speakers’ use of discourse markers as hedging devices to mitigate face-threatening acts considering gender, proficiency level, and control–experimental variables. It used open discourse role-play tasks, a self-assessment report of English competence, as well as a seven-scenario questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale and without it for L2 learners to translate into Persian. To this end, three groups of participants took part in the current study: (a) 8 groups of 20 L2 learners; (b) 90 participants (i.e. 30 L2 learners, 30 EFL teachers, and 30 native speakers); and (c) 150 Iranian advanced L2 learners. The results revealed that native speakers significantly surpassed EFL teachers and L2 learners in employing DMs and that instruction and proficiency level played a significant role in L2 learners’ use of DMs. The findings also substantiated that female L2 learners outperformed their male counterparts in using approximators, modals, and passives significantly. Furthermore, based on MAXQDA software, two areas of discrepancies, namely “precision” and “direct reasoning” in Persian versus “approximators” and “indefinites” in English, were found to delve into the subtleties between the two cultures.