Cross-cultural Perceptions of Impoliteness by Native English Speakers and EFL Learners: The Case of Apology Speech Act

This study investigated native English speakers’ and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ perception of (im)politeness. Seventy-five native speakers and 177 EFL learners were administered a discourse completion task for the speech act of apology accompanied by responses violating politeness by various degrees. Participants were asked to assess the degree of (im)politeness embedded in each response and to write down their assessment comments. Content analysis of respondents’ comments indicated that both groups mentioned similar (im)politeness criteria. However, the analysis of frequency counts displayed significant differences between the two groups in their degree of preference for each (im)politeness criterion.