International Journal of Educational Investigations Available online @ www.ijeionline.com 2016 (March), Vol.3, No.3: 75-84 ISSN: 2410-3446 75 The Relationship between Iranian Learners of Different Proficiency Levels and Their Use of Congratulation Strategies Shokoufeh Basami 1 , Habib Soleimani 2 * 1. Department of English Language, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran. 2. Department of English Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran. * Corresponding Author’s Email: h.soleimani@uok.ac.ir Abstract – This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between Iranian learners' different proficiency levels and their use of congratulation strategies. To this end, two sets of questionnaires, Congratulation Strategies and Sub-strategies Coding by Elwood (2004) and its translated and modified version by Allami and Nekouzadeh (2011) were used to collect the required data. The participants of the present study were 60 students who were selected from among junior and senior BA students of English majoring in English teaching, English translation, and English Literature. Based on the results of a proficiency test, the participating learners were placed in two groups of low and high proficiency. Then, a week later, in two intervals, the copies of the questionnaires were distributed among the participants of study. The results of Pearson correlation indicated that there was a significant relationship between learners' different proficiency levels and their use of congratulation strategies. Also, there was a great extent of consistency between learners' L1 congratulation scheme and their use of L2 congratulation strategies. The findings of this study have pedagogical implications for language teachers, syllabus designers and material developers in that they can deal with congratulation strategies and the possible facilitating or debilitating effects that congratulation schemes between two languages could have when dealing with any certain L2. Keywords: Congratulation strategies; Congratulation schemes; Proficiency levels; Iranian University English students 1. INTRODUCTION Interaction is a complex phenomenon in the process of which not only external factors such as setting, culture and interlocutors but also internal factors such as personality characteristics play a great role in the realization of the communication (Byram & Feng, 2005). This is inevitable since we do not just 'live in cultures' but we also 'live culturally' that is "we are not only influenced and shaped by culture in which we are nurtured, we also actively act on and reconstruct cultural elements while we are present in the social environment in general and in locally shaped communities of practice in particular" (Atkinson, 1999, p. 632). Yet, despite the importance of communication tools and components, the extent to which we as interlocutors are aware of such cultural elements is the question that remains to be investigated empirically. Indeed it is the cultural etiquettes that make social interaction possible by helping within-the-culture interlocutors to see and make