Investigation of the Effects of the Social Power and Social Distance on the Realization of Apology between Jordanian and English Cultures
Abstract: The current study
investigated the influence of context-external variables; social power (High,
Equal and Low) and social distance (Familiar and Unfamiliar) on the perception
of Jordanian and English speech act of apology. Discourse Completion Test (DCT)
and Scaled ResponseQuestionnaire (SRQ) were used to elicit data from three
groups: 40Jordanian L2 speakers in Malaysia, 40 Jordanian non-English speakers
inMalaysia and 40 English native speakers from British Council in Jordan.The
three groups of respondents were asked to assess four contextinternal variables
i.e. the severity of the offence, the possibility of the offender apology, the
difficulty of the apology by the offender and thelikelihood of apology
acceptance by the offended party. Results of the study were accomplished using
one way ANOVA and Tukey HSD posthoc statistical tests. The findings revealed
that Jordanians have high sensitivity toward hierarchical power and social
distance more thanEnglish native speakers. Moreover, results revealed that
there are negativesociopragmatic transfers from L1 to L2 by JL2Ss based on
their perception of the four-context-internal variables. Findings could be used
to increase the cultural awareness toward some similarities and differences between
both cultures.
Keywords: Speech act of
apology, Inter-language pragmatics, sociopragmatic competence, Discourse
Completion Test (DCT), Scaled Response Questionnaire (SRQ)
Author: Bilal Ayed
Al-Khaza’leh
Journal Code: jppendidikangg150164
