2.2 Semantics versus pragmatics……………………………………………………………… 14 2.3 Pragmatic competence versus pragmatic failure……………………………………. 15 2 4.Pragmatic Awareness………………………………………………………………………… 16 2.5 Cross-cultural pragmatics………………………………………………………………….. 18 2.6 Factors Influencing L2 Learners, pragmatic Acquisition…………………………. 18 2.6.1 Linguistic competence. 18 2.6.2 Length of Residence in a target Country……………………………………………. 20 2.7 Speech acts. 20 2.8 On heretical frameworks related to L2 pragmatic development 22 2.9 On teachability of pragmatic knowledge. 23 2.10 Factors Influencing L2 Learners’ Pragmatic Acquisition. 25 2.11 On how EFL learners produce refusals………………………………………………. 26

3. 3. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………… 36

3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….. 36 3.2 Participants………………………………………………………………………………………. 36 3.3 Instrument 37 3.4 Procedure………………………………………………………………………………………… 37 3.5 Data analysis. 39

4. 4. Results and discussion………………………………………………………………………… 41

4.1 Overview.. 41 4.2 Demographic statistics………………………………………………………………………. 41 4.2.1 Demographic statistics of participants according to gender 41 4.2.2 Demographic statistics of participants according to age. 42 4.3 Descriptive Statistics. 43 4.4 Checking the assumptions of covariance analysis…………………………………. 44 4.5 The findings of the hypothesis of the study. 45 4.6 Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………. 46

5. 5. Discussion and conclusion. 54

5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….. 54 5.2. Summary……………………………………………………………………………………….. 54 5.3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………… 55 5.4. Implications……………………………………………………………………………………. 56 5.5. Suggestions for further research. 57 5.6 Limitations of the study…………………………………………………………………….. 58 References. 60 64 list of Table Table 4.1 The Frequency and Percentage of Participants According to Gender 42 Table 4.2 Frequency and Percentage of Participants According to Age………….. 42 Table 4.3 Descriptive statistics of learners’ polite refusal in English for experimental and control groups. 43 Table 4.4. The test results of normality of variable distribution in the participants  44 Table 4.5. The results of homogeneity of the variances using Levene’s test 44 Table 4.6. The results of analyzing the homogeneity of the regression slopes in the variable of the study………………………………………………………………………………. 45 Table 4.7. The ANCOVA results of the posttest mean scores of “polite refusal” 46 list of Figure