Abstract:
This paper aims to investigate to what extent EFL learners consider social distance, status and context of
formality when addressing their colleagues and professors. The population of the study consists of 182
fourth-yearlevel students at the Universities of Al Fashir, Nyala and Zalingei. The data were collected by
using open-ended Discourse Completion Test (DCT), then, the subjects’ responses were analyzed
according to their appropriateness with reference to the aforementioned social variables. The results were
presented in terms of frequencies and percentages by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS). The study concluded that EFL learners at Sudanese Universities are pragmatically incompetent
and accordingly, their performance with reference to the social distance, status and context of formality
has been proved to be inappropriate compared with the conventional English speech acts under the
investigation. The results also showed that respondents tended to be more direct in addressing distant
colleagues and professors and were unable to distinguish between formal and informal social contexts.
Moreover, an apparent influence of Arabic and Sudanese culture has been reflected in their responses to
some situations.
