Thesis (PhD) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research English Language Teaching

Numerous language-learning variables play a crucial role in students' pragmatic
competence development. However, amongst many of these variables, factors like
age, gender, and proficiency level have not been extensively researched. Specifically,
domains like motivation and its role in pragmatic development are understudied.
This extensive study followed a mixed methods approach with a sequential mixed
design first to investigate English preparatory school students' general pragmatic and
speech-act-specific motivation and explore their relationship with speech act
production. Research acknowledges that mixed method research design assist is an
approach that assists in obtaining both qualitative and quantitative data on a
phenomenon investigated (Creswell, 2007). A quantitative approach was adopted for
the first part of this study to determine an in-depth understanding of students'
pragmatic motivation and speech act-specific motivation for request, refusal, and
apology. Secondly, preparatory school students' performance in pragmatic
production has been investigated. Their ability to achieve pragmatic production has
been measured with a Written Discourse Completion Test, a measure of pragmatic
production. One hundred and sixty students participated in this study. The
participants were predominantly students who studied at the preparatory school of a
private university in North Cyprus. After collecting the data, it was analysed. The
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 26 and AMOS 26 software were used
to analyse the research data. The teacher-made rubric for analysing pragmatic
production was used to analyse the test for learners' pragmatic production based on
the WDCT. This rubric was structured on four variables: formality, politeness,
directness, and appropriateness.
The study revealed no significant difference between male and female EFL learners'
motivation for pragmatic and speech acts. Also, the study unveiled that no significant
differences exist among age groups of EFL learners in their motivation for pragmatic
and speech acts. Furthermore, no significant differences exist among proficiency
levels of EFL learners in their pragmatic and speech act motivation. From the
analysis of the results, it has been reported that a statistically significant relationship
exists between the participants' general pragmatic motivation and speech act-specific
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motivation. Equally, results concerning how learners produce requests, refusals and
apologies in different social contexts were provided and reported in the study. The
analysis of the production tests indicated that most of the learners were able to
produce the required level of politeness, formality and appropriateness in their
speech acts.