On Gender and Apology Strategies: The Case of Arabic

The purpose of this study is to see whether gender plays a role in the apology strategies employed by native speakers of Arabic, i.e., how Arab males and females express apologies in different situations. Data necessary for this study were collected via a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) questionnaire, incorporating 10 real-life scenarios in the form of short descriptive statements. In accordance with the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realisation Patterns, participants’ responses(n = 20) were analysed and further classified into five distinct apology strategies: (Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID), Responsibility (RESP), Explanation (EXPL), Repair (REPR), and Forbearance (FORB)). The researcher initially hypothesised that apology strategies employed by participants would exhibit more differences than similarities among native speakers of Arabic. Contrary to previously conducted research on this subject (i.e., attesting more differences), the data analysed (n = 350 apology exchanges) revealed more similarities than differences regardless of gender. In fact, no statistically significant differences were found. In addition to contributing to the current theoretical debate on gender and gender-related topics, the results of this study may entail pedagogical implications for those in direct contact with Arab learners of English as a Second Language or with speakers of Arabic in general terms.