Apology Behavior In Intercultural Communication: A Socio-Pragmatic Perceptions Of Pakistani Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research study is to identify apology behavior and socio-pragmatic norms employed by Pakistani undergraduate students in the English language. To achieve this, apology strategies have been conducted in both the English and Urdu languages to ascertain whether the participants have an awareness of linguistic and pragmatic competence or not. The participants were given the same scenarios in both the languages English and Urdu to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. The study adopts a quantitative research framework, utilizing a written discourse completion task (WDCT) as the data collection method. The WDCT was designed for a sample of 100 participants, evenly divided between two groups: 50 students affiliated with the English department at The University of Lahore (UOL), and 50 students from the English department at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad (NUML). The WDCT involved eight distinct scenarios, presented in both Urdu and English languages. Participants were instructed to imagine themselves within the provided scenarios and provide appropriate responses. The results of the study unveiled that the participants' competency level displayed a tendency toward a broad application of Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs). Furthermore, the findings also indicated that the participants echoed a deficiency in their awareness of additional apology strategies apart from the direct apology strategy. This tendency suggests that Pakistani undergraduate students may possess insufficient linguistic and pragmatic competence, potentially rendering them susceptible to instances of pragmatic failure in intercultural communication contexts. Consequently, English teachers should prioritize pragmatic competence, particularly the speech act of apology strategies, and their contextual variations.