Abstract

The present study is a survey based cross sectional study of the investigation of EFL
learners’ inter-language pragmatics in expression of disagreement. Expressing disagreement is one
of those speech acts which are commonly used in every day interaction in every language. However,
EFL learners, sometimes face problem in the use of this speech act appropriately which often causes
communication breakdown between native speakers of a language and EFL learners. The study
identifies the extent to which Pakistani EFL learners’ pragmatic competence is towards or away from
target language.
The study has been carried out on sample of two hundred speakers, i.e. one hundred British
English speakers and one hundred Pakistani EFL learners from four universities, i.e. University of
Glasgow, Glasgow; Institute of Education, London, University of Management and Technology, Lahore
and Government College University, Lahore.
The data have been collected by using discourse completion test. Responses of subjects have
been classified into five disagreement strategies by applying taxonomy proposed by Muntigl and
Turnbull (1998). The results show that English native speakers and Pakistani EFL learners apply
same types of disagreement expressions but their preferences of strategies are different in ten
situations. Native speakers of English are more indirect in their expressions as compared to EFL
learners. Gender does not influence the choices of strategies used by both of the groups.

Key words: Communicative competence, Interlanguage pragmatics, Disagreement, Speech act, EFL Learners