| Interlanguage pragmatics and Emotional Intelligence: Is EFL learners’ politeness strategies manifested in requests under question? |
| Paper ID : 1063-CNF-FULL |
| Authors |
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Masoumeh Ahmadi Shirazi * Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tehran |
| Abstract |
| Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) concerns the inspection of people’s interactions which are affected by individuals’ culture and social values. Of high value in social interactions, politeness is an essential constituent of ILP. If considered as a skill required to meet social demands, Emotional Intelligence (EI) may modify ILP and hence individuals’ politeness under social circumstances. This study investigates how EI of L1-Persian EFL learners relates to politeness strategies utilized in requests. Hundred and fifty undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) were randomly selected. Instruments of the study included EI Appraisal Test, Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Task, and Brown and Levinson’s politeness questionnaire. Results of correlational and regression analyses indicated EI cannot predict politeness, whereas educational level and pragmatic competence predict the EFL learners’ politeness appreciated in requests in different scenarios. Of interest, the higher the level of education, the more pragmatic ability and politeness thereof. |
| Keywords |
| Emotional Intelligence, Interlanguage Pragmatics, Politeness |
| Status: Accepted |