A comparative study of apologetic e-mails used by males and females Iranian EFL learners compared to English native speaking students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare apology strategies used by Iranian EFL learner students and native English speaking students (NSS) in formal and informal situations. The aim was further to investigate gender differentiation among participants. For this purpose, data were elicited from 40 Iranian (16 males and 24 females) and 40 native English speaking students (20 males and 20 females) through a Discourse completion task questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed specific similarities and differences in terms of frequency and percentage for apologetic strategies used by Iranian and native English speaking students. These findings could be a pedagogical help to teachers, students and those interested in interlanguage pragmatics. © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.