Saudi EFL Students’ Production of Conventional Expressions in Second Language Pragmatics

Abstract

This study compared and explored the differences and similarities in the production of conventional expressions between native English speakers and non-native English speakers represented by the Saudi EFL learners. It also examined the pragma-linguistic differences in the production of conventional expressions. Forty-seven native English speakers and forty-seven non-native English speakers participated in this study. The questionnaire consisted of nineteen scenarios representing different speech acts. Students were requested to reply to these scenarios as if they were real-life situations. The findings established that almost half of the comparisons between Saudi EFL learners and native English speakers presented similarities in the production of conventional expressions. However, there were some pragma-linguistic differences between the native English speakers and some of the Saudi EFL learners, such as misunderstandings due to the misuse of expected expressions, verbosity, the use of expressions that formal speakers considered rude, and transferred from their first language. These findings provide an empirical vision to the status of Saudi EFL learners conventional expressions. Future research could investigate conventional EFL expressions locally and globally.