Examining Culture Differences in Iraqi EFL Learners' Pragmatic Tolerance towards Infelicitous Utterances

This research investigates Iraqi EFL learners' pragmatic tolerance for violations of Grice's Maxim of Quality, with particular attention to the use of verbal irony. The study examines whether these learners’ diverse cultural backgrounds influence their tolerance for violations of the Quality Maxim in ironic utterances. The sample comprised 80 female learners aged 19–25 from three Iraqi universities, representing Arab, Turkman, Kurd, and Syriac backgrounds. The participants completed an experiment using Sentence Judgment Tasks, which consisted of visual and written scenarios designed to elicit responses to pragmatic violations. They were required to evaluate several target and control utterances using a binary (Agree/Disagree) scale. The results indicate that participants’ pragmatic tolerance levels were similar across all groups. That is, participants’ cultural backgrounds did not appear to influence their pragmatic tolerance of ironic items, as all groups demonstrated lower tolerance for these violations. However, nearly half of the participants were inconsistent in their responses to these violations, suggesting difficulty with irony processing. The findings emphasise the importance of explicitly teaching irony to improve Iraqi EFL learners’ pragmatic competence and tolerance of such violations.