Apology strategies for maintaining relationships among people

Abstract

One important speech act speakers employ for restoring harmony is apology. Learners of English as a foreign language find it difficult to perform since it is essential to realize whether a specific action or utterance calls for an apology or not and make use of appropriate linguistic forms. The current study aims at investigating the apology strategies used by 60 Algerian undergraduate students of English at the University of Constantine 1 in relation to social status, social distance and severity of the offense. It is hypothesized that the most predominant factor that determines the selection, frequency and intensity of apology strategies is the seriousness of the offense. Data for analysis are collected through a Discourse Completion Questionnaire. Interviews are also conducted. The findings reveal that the respondents prefer giving direct expressions of apology and taking on responsibility more than the other strategies. They also resort to new strategies. These include a call to hold anger, determinism and arrogance. The results further show that EFL learners intensify the apologies given to high status interlocutors to evade academic penalty. They give simple expressions of apology to acquaintances but polite and complex ones to strangers. Such formal apologies are given to close friends when the offense is perceived as severe. Learners’ intensified apologies are given more frequently in high severity situations. It becomes obvious that the severity of the offense is the predominant factor that determines the selection and intensity of apology strategies. All the interviewees agree that apology speech act maintains a good relationship among people. They believe using explicit apology teaching in a language classroom would enable them to select appropriate apology strategies in different contexts and that comparing the similarities and differences of Algerian Arabic and English apology could raise their ability to communicate in English.