Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.5, No.34, 2014 142 The Use of Apology Strategies in English by Pakistani EFL University Students in Pakistan Tahir Saleem (Corresponding author) The University of Lahore, Gujrat Campus, Pakistan Tahirhallian2@yahoo.com Summiya Azam University of Management and Techonology, Lahore summiyatahir@yahoo.com Aisha Saleem Kinnaired College Lahor aisharizwan@gmail.com Abstract The speech acts of apology are very important for English language learning and speech acts should be included in the teaching material of English to help learners develop pragmatic competence. Pakistani English language learners lack knowledge of the sociolinguistic rules of speaking English. Successful communication is possible when English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners have pragmatic competence which exhibits the ability to use language forms suitable to socio-cultural context. The use of the speech act of apology of university students of English in Pakistan was investigated in this study based on Holmes’ (1990) and Blum-Kulka’s (1989) apology speech act sets. The results of the study reveal that out of 106 almost all the respondents (105) used “explanation or account” (there was terrible traffic) and (97) used “explicit apology” (sorry). “Expressing self-deficiency” (I forgot; I was confused) and “intensifiers of apology” (I’m very sorry; I’m really sorry) are two other apology strategies which majority of the respondents (76 and 64) also used. Interestingly, none of the respondents reports using “recognizing H as deserving apology” (you are right!) and “acknowledgment of responsibility” (oh, I made a mistake). There is no statistically significant difference in use of apology strategies between male and female respondents. The results of this study might be of pedagogical help and important for teachers, policy makers, curriculum developers, material designers, students, and researchers. Keywords: sociolinguistic rules of speaking, pragmatic competence, Pakistani EFL learners, pedagogical help, Pakistan. 1. Introduction In view of the recent shifts from grammatical to communicative competence and pragmatic ability in language teaching and learning, it is not surprising that speech act of apologizing and cross-cultural comparisons of apologies and apology strategies in different languages have been popular among researchers within the field of sociolinguistics, especially pragmatics. Starting with Hymes’ (1974) original idea that learners of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language, there has been great emphasis that learners must acquire not only linguistic rules such as morphology, syntax, phonology, and vocabulary, but they must also acquire sociolinguistics rules of the target language (Anderson, 1990; Olshtain & Cohen, 1981; Wolfson, 1981). The L2 pragmatic transfer studies have shown that despite being linguistically competent in a second language, learners are likely to transfer L1 pragmatic rules in their L2 production (Samaty, 2005) and there has been a great emphasis on developing pragmatic competence of L2 learners in language classrooms.Researchers and practitioners have emphasized the need that EFL learners must not only acquire the correct syntax and phonology of the English language, but also the knowledge and understanding of how language is pragmatically used in the target culture in order to increase their intercultural communicative competence in English (Lee, 2002). Learners should be taught communicative strategies and the pragmatic differences in the target language. In view of all this, it is surprising that this is not an important consideration as far as English language teaching in Pakistan is concerned. Though Pakistani EFL learners achieve advance level of L2 competence in grammar but they lack mastery in using sociolinguistic rules of speaking English. Students in Pakistan start learning English from first grade and continue to study it as a compulsory subject till graduation (14 years of education). They have constant contact with English language through social, electronic, and print media but they do not achieve the desired higher level functional proficiency in English, especially pragmatic competence. In addition to the factors which are responsible for the unsatisfactory situation of teaching and learning English, identified by some Pakistani researchers, one of the main reasons for the limited or low English proficiency of students in Pakistan is the lack of understanding on the part of teachers, researchers, curriculum designers and material developers about the