Strategies of Apology in Arabic

الملخص EN

The present paper investigates the existence of pragmatic transfer in refusal strategies used by Iraqi learners of English as a foreign language.

Kasper’s (1992) modified version of Selinker’s (1972) operational definition of language transfer was adopted.

On the basis of some identified situations modified open-ended discourse completion test was constructed for written elicitation.

Evidence of negative transfer in the refusals Iraqi learners of English was seen in the order of semantic formulas and the frequency of composite semantic formulas.