Abstract: This study aims at investigating potential gender effects in American university students’ use of apologies within the framework of the two-culture theory which claims that men and women are so different that they comprise strikingly different cultures. The researchers used a 10-item questionnaire based on Sugimoto’s (1997). The findings revealed that male and female respondents used the primary apology strategies of statement of remorse,... [...] Read more

Abstract: This study explores the cross-cultural pragmatic features of apology speech acts generated by Arabic native speakers, English native speakers and advanced Saudi learners of English. The instrument employed for this study was a discourse completion task (DCT). The DCT included eight situations that elicited apologetic responses from 69 participants. Results revealed that Arabic native speakers and Saudi learners of English use apology... [...] Read more

Abstract: The paper examines Cantonese tertiary students’ email apology style for personal offences to teachers in their native language (L1, Cantonese) and second language (L2, English) learnt at school by testifying three hypotheses. Firstly, the Cantonese students’ L1 and L2 apologies are always multi-componential, with at least two parts in one apology email, in spite of the fact that there is no statistically significant difference between... [...] Read more

Abstract: Pragmalinguistic (PML) failure complicates intercultural communication in both productive and receptive modes. This paper attempts to unravel the persuasive strategies used by Albanians writing in Greek and further record the overall suitability score they received when assessed by Greek teachers (n=176). A protocol sample of extracted persuasive strategies was created to be used for further investigation, with respect to their suitability.... [...] Read more

Abstract: The present study is an attempt to examine how Iranian international students in Malaysia and Malay university students express gratitude. To this end, the data were collected from Iranian and Malay university students in Malaysia through an open-ended questionnaire in the form of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and a follow-up semi-structured interview. Data were then analyzed based on a modified version of Cheng’s (2005) classification of... [...] Read more

Abstract: This study examines how Vietnamese postgraduate students interpret (im)politeness during clinical consultations with doctors in English-speaking countries. Drawing on narrative reflective reports from 14 Vietnamese university academics who completed their doctoral studies in TESOL and Applied Linguistics abroad, the research analyzes participants’ retrospective accounts of critical medical encounters in which they evaluated native... [...] Read more

Abstract: This study examines the use of suggestion speech acts in Instagram comments, with particular attention to how Saudi EFL users demonstrate pragmatic competence in digital communication. Drawing on Martínez Flor’s taxonomy of suggestion strategies, the study analyzes 103 suggestion-oriented comments selected from an initial dataset of 150 Instagram comments. A mixed-methods design was adopted: qualitative analysis was used to classify... [...] Read more

Abstract: The primary objective of any Business English course is to equip learners with the communicative competence required for professional environments. Accordingly, this study aimed to design and evaluate a technology-enhanced educational intervention to improve Business English proficiency among undergraduate economics students. Employing an action research methodology, the study was supported by post-tests, student surveys, and descriptive... [...] Read more