The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of language proficiency on production of the refusal speech act among Iranian EFL learners. Using the Preliminary English Test, the participants were divided into high and low groups based on their proficiency scores. To examine their pragmatics competence, data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire in the form of Discourse Completion Task (DCT) consisting of 12 refusal situations. Their responses were scored by two English native teachers based on Hudson, Detmer, and Browns’ (1995) analytical rating criteria considering four aspects of appropriacy, i.e. the ability to use correct speech act, correct expressions, amount of information, and level of politeness. The findings of the statistical analysis showed language proficiency was not the influential factor in the degree of pragmatic knowledge which indicated that high EFL learners did not perform significantly better than their low counterparts in pragmatic production. These findings underscore that teaching pragmatics and cultural behaviors of the target language in language classrooms might build up pragmatic competence of language learners.

中文翻译：

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伊朗EFL学习者使用拒绝演讲法的语言能力和适当性

本研究旨在调查语言能力对伊朗EFL学习者拒绝言语行为产生的影响。使用初步英语测验，根据他们的熟练程度分数将他们分为高组和低组。为了检查他们的语用能力，通过不限成员名额调查表以“话语完成任务”（DCT）的形式收集了数据，其中包括12种拒绝情况。两位英国本地老师根据哈德逊，德特默和布朗斯（1995）的分析评分标准对他们的回答进行了评分，其中考虑了适当性的四个方面，即使用正确的言语举止，正确的表达，信息量和礼貌水平的能力。 。统计分析的结果表明，语言熟练程度不是影响实用知识程度的因素，这表明高EFL学习者的学习成绩并不比低EFL学习者好得多。这些发现强调，在语言教室中教授目标语言的语用和文化行为可能会增强语言学习者的语用能力。