Abstract:

Abstract. The present study is an investigation of Iranian EFL learners’ request speech act among learners with different English proficiency. This study attempts to find out the request strategies and also the degree of familiarity among three levels of participants according to Lakoff (1973) taxonomy. In order for the Iranian EFL learners’ language proficiency in the use of request speech act to be argued, the discourse completion test (DCT) was used. The DCT included six authentic request situations. The total number of students who took part in this study were 231 at three levels of MA (master of art), BA (bachelor of art), and UI (upper intermediate of institute). Based on the Z ratio test, the degree of formality and also the participants’ request strategies were analyzed. The results revealed that there are significant differences in the use of patterns among three levels of participants and also the degree of familiarity according to the levels of student changed but significantly most of learners tend to used deference taxonomy which showed medium degree of familiarity.

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