An Interlanguage pragmatics analysis of Pakistani EFL Learners in Expression of Disagreement

Abstract

The present study is a survey based cross sectional study of the investigation of EFL learners’ inter-language pragmatics in expression of disagreement. Expressing disagreement is one of those speech acts which are commonly used in every day interaction in every language. However, EFL learners, sometimes face problem in the use of this speech act appropriately which often causes communication breakdown between native speakers of a language and EFL learners. The study identifies the extent to which Pakistani EFL learners’ pragmatic competence is towards or away from target language. The study has been carried out on sample of two hundred speakers, i.e. one hundred British English speakers and one hundred Pakistani EFL learners from four universities, i.e. University of Glasgow, Glasgow; Institute of Education, London, University of Management and Technology, Lahore and Government College University, Lahore. The data have been collected by using discourse completion test. Responses of subjects have been classified into five disagreement strategies by applying taxonomy proposed by Muntigl and Turnbull (1998). The results show that English native speakers and Pakistani EFL learners apply same types of disagreement expressions but their preferences of strategies are different in ten situations. Native speakers of English are more indirect in their expressions as compared to EFL learners. Gender does not influence the choices of strategies used by both of the groups.