This study shows impoliteness as a form of face-threatening that can be intentionally caused by verbal threats in a particular setting. It investigates: what strategies and mitigators do Iraqi-Kurdish English as a foreign language (EFL) learners use in situations of threat responses? The present investigation paper aims to examine impoliteness strategies and mitigators by these learners when they respond to threatening situations in their context. Thus, it fills a gap in pragmatics literature by investigating the reactions to threats in an Iraqi-Kurdish EFL context. To this end, 50 participants have participated in this study. An open-ended questionnaire in the form of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) is used to elicit responses from the participants. Besides, a focus group interview is conducted to support the data analysis. The data are coded based on Limberg’s (2009) model of impoliteness and threat responses to figure out the strategies used by the learners. Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper’s (1989) taxonomy of mitigators is adapted to analyze the mitigators. Overall, the findings reveal that the preferred responses surpass those which indicate dispreference by the learners. They tend to use face-saving acts when they comply with the threatener’s demand and opt for face-threatening acts when they reject that demand indirectly. Moreover, these learners use mitigators to attenuate the illocutionary force of their responses. Finally, this study provides some recommendations and pedagogical implications.
<div><p><em>This study investigates the use of the speech act of request by </em><em>Iraqi EFL (English as a foreign language) learners </em><em>in student-professor e-mail communication. It aims to examine request strategies and internal modifications in academic requests in e-mail. There has been little investigation of the issue of an academic request made by Arab EFL learners to a higher status person via an authentic data. Thus, this study intends to provide more investigation of the strategies and internal modifiers that are produced by Iraqi EFL learners when they interact with their professors via e-mail. However, this study adapts the CCSARP (cross-cultural speech act realization pr
... Show MoreBackground: A carefully planned clinical medical education is critical for the provision of supportive clinical educational environment. The latter will ensure effective teaching, active learning and good attitudes and performance at the bedside. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical learning environment at AL-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: A descripitive cross-sectional study involved resident doctors from Internal Medicine and Surgery departments who had six months or more residency training in the respective departments. Data were collected using the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure. Data where analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0 and presented us
... Show MoreEuphemisms are advantageous in people’s social life by turning sensitive into a more acceptable ones so that resentful feelings and embarrassment can be avoided. This study investigates the ability of Iraqi English learners in using euphemistic expressions, meanwhile, raising their awareness and the faculty members in English teaching faculties regarding the relevance of discussing the topics that demand euphemisation. This study comprised three stages: initial test, explicit instruction with activities, and a final test for the students’ development in this domain. A test has been distributed among 50 respondents, who are at the fourth year of their undergraduate study at the University of Babylon/ College of Basic Education. The lo
... Show MoreThe current study is concerned with investigating the difficulties that Iraqi EFL learners of English may face when translating English collective nouns. Such collective nouns as committee, government, , jury , Parliament , etc. are considered singular when the concept of the unity as a group is emphasized , but when the concept of the individuals or numbers is emphasized they are treated as plural. A sample of twenty undergraduate students have been selected randomly to translate certain English collective nouns in some selected political texts in order to find out the difficulties they might face in rendering them into Arabic. It is hypothesized that most of the testees have used the singular form rather than the plural ignoring the
... Show MoreTranslation is a vital process that needs much more understanding and mutual background knowledge on the part of ESL or EFL learners in terms of grammar , meaning and context of both the SL and TL . Thus , the main aim of the current research paper is to identify and figure out the techniques used by ESL or EFL learners when translating English barnyard verbs into Arabic . The main problem of this study is attributed to the fact that ESL or EFL learners may not be able to identify and understand the connotative meaning of barnyard verbs since these verbs are onomatopoeic (i.e,) a word that phonetically imitates, or suggests the source of sound that it describes. Therefore they may be unable to translate these verbs appropriately and accura
... Show MoreRating systems for evaluating the sustainability of communities are an essential tool that is increasingly applied throughout the developed world to set criteria indicators to optimize the physical, social, economic, and environmental potential within such communities. Rating systems vary based on existing disparities among societies and their unique building and physical planning practices. Iraqi cities lacked the adaptation of a formal methodology or sustainability rating system to correctly measure the built environment’s sustainability indicators. This research attempts to review the most substantial rating systems to measure the sustainability of communities worldwide to form a
This study aims to investigate the types of impoliteness strategies used in Putin's speech at the annexation ceremony. All of Putin's speeches were intentionally delivered to cause damage to the hearers' negative and positive faces. Culpeper's (2011) classifications of impoliteness, which consist of five strategies that are the opposite of politeness, were adopted. The data were collected from the President of Russia, providing a rich source for analysis. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were employed to achieve the study objectives. Qualitative analysis allowed for a detailed examination of the impoliteness strategies employed, while quantitative analysis provided a broader understanding of their frequency and distribution. Putin most
... Show MoreThe rapid growth of cities and their inflation is a big problem, especially in the last years. this growth is accompanied by such problems like population growth, housing need, low level of services, random expansion, traffic congestion as well as pollution of the environment, which leads to a decline in the quality of life in Baghdad, the population are concentration in Baghdad therefore that leads to imbalance of development among cities and productive concentration for service projects in a mega cities, causing migration from other provinces In search of a better life. The main objective of the new cities is to relieve pressure on major cities and guide the growth of cities. Basmaya city it’s a new city project adopted f
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