EFL Graduates' Awareness of Utilizing the English Speech Acts of Commiseration in Oral Discourse

Abstract

Commiseration is in fact, part of the positive politeness. Politeness is the lubricant that helps people achieve verbal communication more smoothly and enables speakers strengthen their social relations and gains respect in the community. The main objective of the study is: to discover to what extent EFL graduates are aware of utilizing the expressions related to the speech act of commiseration when speaking English. The study adopted the descriptive analytical method. The data were gathered by using two tools: a diagnostic test for a sample of forty (40) EFL graduates and a questionnaire that was designed for a sample of ten (10) EFL university teachers from University of Gezira, University of Neelain and Alahlia University-Wad Medani. The data were analyzed manually using means and percentages. The findings reached are: Most EFL graduates (56.9%) are not aware of utilizing the social expressions concerning commiseration in oral discourse.