Apology Strategies Of Yemeni University Students - Dissertation Example

The purpose of the study is to determine the sufficiency of English training among students whose main language is Arabic and to explore factors that influence their effective communication, particularly apology speech acts, in English. The study takes into account that not everything about learning a language is resolvable into spelling, grammar, and syntax. There are discrepancies in speech acts (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Cohen, et al., 1986) that are present between any two cultures that are sufficient to cause a misalignment in the manner foreign students communicate in English.

The data evaluation was conducted with use of the discourse completion test (DCT) and the apology introspection questionnaire (AQI), along with the lines of the type of offense, the relationship of participants, and the apology trigger, and tabulated through the Data Assessment Form (DAF) developed by the researcher. Results of the study showed that direct apology through the explicit expression of apology is commonly resorted to in both English and Arabic for all contexts which prompt the need for expression of regret or apology.

There are material differences, however, between English and Arabic where indirect apology strategies are used, and when they are in combination, or where they are modified. A study by Ismail (1998) inquired into the apology behavior of Saudi learners of English, in the Arabic and English languages. The dissertation was anchored on the observation that fluency in the use of a second language learned through pedagogical training does not necessarily prepare the learner to communicate competently within the cultural constructs of the language.