Identifying and producing the persuasive speech act by Iraqi EFL university students: a pragmatic study

Abstract

This study investigates the identification and the production of the persuasive speech act by the Iraqi university students who study English as EFL. The paper aims at examining the frequencies and the percentages of the students’ correct and incorrect answers. In the theoretical part of the study, the concepts such as pragmatics, speech act theory, speech act of persuasion, techniques of persuasion and its types are clarified briefly. In the practical part, the students’ responses are statistically analyzed. It provides an analysis for the frequencies and the percentages of the correct and incorrect answers in both recognizing and producing each type of the persuasive speech act to know which of these types is the easiest, and which one is the most difficult to be identified and produced. To give a clear idea of the frequencies and percentages of each type, tables and figures are used. A comparison is made between identifying and producing each type of persuasion to recognize whether the performance of identification or production is difficult for the ibn students. Finally, the study reveals the general findings observed through the analysis of the data.