Apology Strategies in the Target Language (English) of Israeli-Arab EFL College Students Towards Their Lecturers of English Who are also Native Speakers of Arabic

Tareq Mitaib Murad

Abstract


This paper investigates the apology strategies used by Israeli Arab EFL college students in the target language, English toward their lecturers of English who are also Arab native speakers. Analysis of the apology strategies were based on strategies developed by a number of researchers (Owen, 1983; Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Trasborg, 1987; Hussein & Hamouri, 1998). It is based on 42 apology e-mails sent by the students to three Arab lectures of English in the college. These e-mails were written in English. 240 apology utterances were performed in these messages. Frequencies and percentages are considered. The findings of the study reveal that the main apology strategy used by the students is “expression of apology”. This strategy consists of three sub-strategies: Expression of regret, offer of apology and request for forgiveness. The next frequent apology strategy used is “Acknowledgement of responsibility” which includes five sub-categories: explicit acknowledgement, expression of lack of intent, expression of self-deficiency, expression of embarrassment and explicit acceptance of the blame. Other strategies such as expression of concern for the hearer, offer of repair, explanation of account and others were also used, but in low frequencies.
Key words: Speech acts; Apology strategies; Israeli Arab EFL students; Target language (TL)

References


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