The Effects of Monolingualism on the Apology Strategies of ‎Saudi Arabic Speakers

Abstract

Speech acts (excuses, greetings, complaints, compliments, justifications, requests, and apologies) have been investigated in many studies to understand how to facilitate communication among people from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. However, studies that aim to understand speech acts in Arabic language varieties are still rare, and this study hopes to enrich the literature in this area. The study aims to describe the apology strategies used by six Saudi Arabic speakers in six communicative contexts as seen in their responses in role-play tasks (RPTs) and to investigate the differences (if any) between males and females in terms of using these strategies. The findings demonstrate that participants used the following strategies when apologizing: illocutionary force indicating device (IFID), offer of repair, explanation, taking responsibility, and denial of responsibility. Additionally, female participants were more likely to use no strategy and/or one strategy, while male participants employed two and/or three strategies more often than their female counterparts did. Moreover, the participants tended to use one or two strategies in their apology more than not apologizing at all or using three strategies. Furthermore, the perceived severity of the offense affects the number of apology strategies used by participants. Finally, knowing another language might have an effect on the way people apologize.