Investigating The Use Of The Two Speech Acts Of Invitation And Offer Among Iraqi Efl University Learners
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Date
2016-08
Authors
Abbood, Hadher Hussein
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Abstract
The primary goal of the current study is to investigate the ability of Iraqi EFL learners to recognize and produce utterances related to the two speech acts of „invitation‟ and „offer‟. Another goal of the current study is to investigate the different strategies (Affirmative, Interrogative, Imperative, or Exclamatory) Iraqi EFL learners adopt when performing the two speech acts of „invitation‟ and „offer‟ at the recognition and production levels. Finally, the study aims at examining whether significant differences exist among gender and year of study in their relationship with students‟ ability to recognise and produce the two speech acts of invitation and offer. The sample included 160 students from the department of English Language Studies in Tikrit University and 8 lecturers teaching these students. Mixed methodology approaches were employed in which a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were utilised to triangulate the findings. The findings revealed that Iraqi EFL students experience noticeable challenges and difficulties in producing and recognising the two speech acts. Specifically, while 30.6% of the students showed ability in recognising the two speech acts of invitation and offer, the overwhelming majority of the students, 69.4%, did not possess such ability. As far as the production level is concerned, 33.2% of the students showed ability in producing the two speech acts of invitation and offer while 66.8% of the students did not possess such ability. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the students tended to use imperative and interrogative types of strategies while the exclamatory strategy was not favoured by the students. As far as the demographic factors of gender and
the year of study are concerned, no significant differences between males and females were reported at the recognition and production levels. Finally, the findings showed significant positive relationship between the demographic factor of the year of study and the students‟ ability to recognise and produce the two speech acts. The study concluded with a number of recommendations and future research suggestions.
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To investigate the ability of Iraqi EFL learners to recognize and produce , utterances related to the two speech acts of „invitation‟ and „offer‟.