The Apology Speech Act Realization Patterns among Persian EFL Learners, Russian EFL Learners and English Native Speakers: A Cross-Cultural Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Seyyed Mohammad Reza Adel ¹
• Fatemeh Akbari ²

¹ Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English, Ferdowsi University of ‎Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

² Ph.D Candidate of Applied linguistics, Department of English, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran.

10.22067/jlkd.2025.92497.1310

Abstract

This study aimed to examine apology strategies used by Iranian and Russian students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in both informal and formal contexts, as part of the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) project. Additionally, this study sought to explore the impact of social distance and social dominance on the frequency of apology strategies and internal intensifiers across Russian, Persian, and English languages. This research included 84 participants who engaged in two role-play apologizing situations, which were then coded according to Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper's apology taxonomy and analyzed. The results indicated that Persian and Russian EFL learners used more formulaic pragmatic structures compared to English native speakers (ENS), with the most frequent apology semantic formula used in Persian being Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFID) and in Russian being Explanation or Account. Moreover, the values assigned to the external context variables affected the frequency of internal intensifiers in different situations. The study’s implications for intercultural communication are also discussed.

Keywords

• Apology Strategies
• Cross-cultural Study
• Social Status
• The Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns

Main Subjects

• Linguistics and Khorasan dialects

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References

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