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An Interlanguage Pragmatics Test of Request and Apology for Iranian EFL Learners

Isavi Kanesbi, Ebrahim | 2012

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: English
  3. Document No: 43759 (31)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Languages and Linguistics Center
  6. Advisor(s): Salehi, Mohammad; Mousavi, Abbas
  7. Abstract:
  8. This study is an attempt to develop a multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) in order to measure Iranian EFL learners’ knowledge of interlanguage pragmatics in relation to the speech acts of request and apology as interlanguage language pragmatics testing is new field of inquiry. In developing of the current pragmatics test we went through the following steps: The first step was exemplar eneration where Iranian EFL learners wrote down situations in which they would need to make requests and apologies. In the second stage, the extent to which each situation suggested by learners in step one was likely to occur was investigated. The third step was scenario generation and initial piloting where the generated open-ended situations were given to a group of native speakers and intermediate and advanced Iranian earners to respond to. In the fourth step, the multiple-choice items were developed with native speaker responses being chosen as keys and non-native speakers’ responses as distractors. Finally, the 25-item test was given to 100 Iranian learners for statistical analysis.
    The data was analyzed using winsteps. An analysis of the fit of the items indicated that only one item did not fit; therefore, its Item Characteristic Curve (ICC) was also checked. For the remaining items, no difference was found between the expectations of the model and the response patterns from the respondents. Person fit analysis revealed no misfitting persons. Moreover, person reliability was found to be .64 while the item reliability was .88. Also, to compare the performance of the low and the high group, an independent samples t-test was run. The Levene’s test was significant at p <01 indicating that the groups were not homogeneous. The t-test indicated a significant difference between the performance of the low and high groups (t(60)= -4.653, p <01)
  9. Keywords:
  10. Interlanguage Pragmatics ; Speech Acts ; Discourse Comprehension Test ; Reguest ; Apology

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