Iranian EFL Learners’ Proficiency Levels and Their Use of Apology Strategies

AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different proficiency levels on apology strategies that Iranian learners utilize when confronting apology situations. The participants included in this study were 16 students with different proficiency levels: elementary, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced level. The data were gathered through discourse completion test (DCT) which consisted of five apology situations and adapted from Tuncel (1999). The data were classified based on the categorization of Cohen and Olshtain (1981) and functional analysis was carried out. The results of the study demonstrated that students’ proficiency levels had a significant effect on type and complexity of strategies used by the learners. Therefore, learners with highlevel of proficiency are more familiar with and inclined to use different apology strategies