The Effects of Academic English Learning Experience on University English-Majored EFL Students’ Use of Apology Strategies

• Main Author: Attila Muszka
• Other Authors: GUO, YI-HUI
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09546092924508783516

碩士 === 東海大學 === 外國語文學系 === 104 === The study investigated English majored freshmen and senior college students’ use of apology strategies in Taiwan and compared/contrasted these two groups’ use of apology strategies. Apologizing as a speech act is a great indicator of sociolinguistic competence due to its frequent use by language learners in specific situations that require selecting the most fitting apologies strategy for remedying a case. Olshtain and Cohen (1983) were the first researchers who investigated apologizing strategies in greater length, and their study served as the theoretical framework for this research. The participants of this study were English majors in the Taiwanese context and the two groups of participants consisted of 35 freshmen and 35 senior students. Participants were given written discourse completion tasks (WDCT) and their responses were coded and categorized. The study highlighted differences between freshmen and senior students’ apology strategies in terms of frequency and combination of these strategies. There were ten different strategies identified among the participants and seven of these strategies served as primary apology strategies whereas three were considered as supplementary strategies by the researcher. T-test showed that when looking at the overall apology strategies there is a significant difference between freshmen and seniors whereas in the case of the seven primary apology strategies the difference was not significant. T-test however showed a significant effect in the frequency of the three supplementary strategies between freshmen and seniors. Seniors also showed more signs of native-likeness by using intensifiers and premodifiers in greater frequency as well as more frequently expressing a combination of three, four and five apology strategies within the same situation. From differences observed between freshmen and seniors in their apology strategies the researcher concluded that years of academic learning experience does contribute significantly to how EFL learners express their apologies in English language.