Inappropriate Response in Advanced EFL Conversational Exchange

Abstract

Advanced Arab learners of English experience difficulty in responding appropriately within a given situation. In a lively conversation, e.g. a business agreement over a business desk, a formal debate, polite requests, interviews, etc. the devices and strategies used, by and large, draw upon Arabic linguistic and cultural sources. As a result, the overall performance is adversely affected and mutual intelligibility is impeded. This study therefore focuses on utterances produced or reproduced by the other party (the listener) in a conversational exchange.

The objectives of this study is to highlight the type of response an advanced Arab learner selects in some typical English conversational interchanges so that similarities and /or differences between L1 and L2 are singled out. To achieve this end, two groups of advanced Arab learners of English have been selected. The first represents 'fluent' speakers of English and the second, the non-fluent' represents students who study English for instrumental purposes at Petra University.