iranian efl learners’ production of gratitude speech act: an interlanguage pragmatics study

Speech acts are key concepts in interlanguage pragmatics (ilp) research. tackling the delicate nuances of speech acts is a serious challenge to non-native speakers, and the complexity is even enhanced when it comes to the efl context. therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the ilp behavior of iranian efl learners focusing on their production of gratitude speech act in english. the study was further interested in investigating whether iranian efl learners’ ilp behavior was associated with their level of l2 proficiency. to this end, a quantitative research design was adopted, and two instruments including the oxford quick placement test (oqpt) and a written discourse completion test (wdct) were administered to three groups of participants including 94 iranian undergraduate efl learners responding to the wdct in both english and persian and 32 american english native speakers responding to the wdct in english. the efl participants were divided into elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels based on their scores on the oqpt. the wdct was administered to the iranian efl learners in both english and persian, and the american native speakers responded to the questionnaire in english. drawing on taguchi (2012), the wdct responses were analyzed based on two aspects of pragmatic production (i.e., pragmatic appropriateness and grammatical accuracy). one-way anova results showed statistically significant differences for both grammatical accuracy and pragmatic appropriateness scores, and correlational analyses yielded positive correlations, with higher accuracy and appropriateness scores being associated with higher proficiency levels. post hoc analyses revealed significant differences for the advanced group. in conclusion, this study, as part of the ever-expanding literature, has both theoretical and pedagogical implications and adds to the body of ilp and cross-cultural pragmatics research.