Investigating disagreements through a context-specific approach: A case of Iranian L۲ speakers

The  current  study  investigated  the  expression  of  disagreement  by  Iranian  advanced  English learners.  The  data  for  the  study  comprised  the  recorded  discussions  of  ۲۶  male  and  female interlocutors  in  three  different  settings:  ۱)  language  institute,  ۲)  home  environment,  and  ۳) university  setting.  Analysis  of  the  arguments  pointed  to  the  influence  of  contextual  factors. More precisely, disagreements  were  found to be complex and  multidirectional  speech acts and thus  various  factors,  including  the  interlocutors’  power,  relationships,  background,  and  the situational context, influence their realization as face-threatening or face-enhancing speech acts. Therefore,  the  linguistic  markers  cannot  safely  categorize  disagreement  turns  into polite/impolite or preferred/dispreferred acts.

Keywords:

Argument , Disagreement , Politeness strategies , Speech acts , conversation analysis