The Effect of Context-External Factors on Context-Internal Factors in Apology Perception: A Case in Iranian Context

摘要

This study investigated the effects of contextual factors, on Persian and Armenian L1 speakers’ perception of the speech act of apology. The data were collected from 40 Persian L1 speakers, 27 Armenian native speakers. Participants responded to a Scaled-response Questionnaire (SRQ) containing 10 situations with four context-internal factors: severity of the offense, likelihood of apology, face loss and the acceptability of the apology, as well as two context-external factors: non/equality of social class and degree of solidarity involved. The results showed that the two groups differed in terms of the effect resulting from the four context-internal factors. There were also cross- cultural differences in the likelihood of apology and the apologizers’ estimation of the severity of the offensiveness of the situation. Findings of this study could be applied to CLT programs aiming to teach the use of EFL in various contextual settings.