Pragmatic Patterns of Disagreements among EFL Students

This paper analyses disagreements as speech acts among learners of English as a foreign language. The focus is on the linguistic pattern of written disagreements produced by EFL learners, the most frequently applied strategies and the level and type of politeness. Researchers employ a mixed method analysis aiming to determine the type and frequency of applied strategies through quantitative data, but also to analyze the interrelations and influences between the linguistic form of the disagreements with the social relations between the speakers through a quantitative analysis. The data was collected from 40 first-year university students enrolled in the Department of English Language and Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, Goce Delcev University in Stip; all with a B1+ level of English proficiency. An anonymous questionnaire containing three situational prompts was used as the main research instrument. Each scenario required participants to express disagreement toward the interlocutors of varying social roles: a friend, a classmate, and a teacher. The findings aim to reveal patterns in disagreement strategies and the use of pragmatic modifiers, contributing to a better understanding of intercultural and instructional pragmatics in EFL contexts.