Speech Act of Suggestion Across Language Proficiency and Gender in Iranian Context

This study seeks to investigate how Iranian EFL learners employ suggestion speech act. With this aim, 105 Iranian EFL learners participated in this study. A Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was used to produce data related to the suggestion forms utilized by the participants. Percentage and Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. Research findings revealed similarities and differences between English natives and Iranian EFL learners in terms of suggestion forms produced. The findings further showed that different language proficiency level did not produce any significant differences in production of suggestion speech act. However, participants’ performances considering different gender reached statistical significance. It was also found that Iranian EFL learners transferred their L1 structures in using suggestion forms.