TY - JOUR ID - 2481 TI - Iranian Non-native English Speaking Teachers’ Rating Criteria Regarding the Speech Act of Compliment: An Investigation of Teachers’ Variables JO - Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills) JA - TESL LA - en SN - AU - Alemi, Minoo AU - Eslami Rasekh, Zohreh AU - Rezanejad, Atefeh AD - Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Tehran-west Branch, Humanities Faculty AD - Texas A & M University AD - Allameh Tabataba'i University Y1 - 2015 PY - 2015 VL - 33 IS - 3 SP - 21 EP - 49 KW - Interlanguage pragmatics KW - Rating KW - Speech act KW - EFL teachers KW - Compliment DO - 10.22099/jtls.2015.2481 N2 - Among topics in the field of pragmatics, some seem to be in a more rigorous need of investigation. Pragmatic assessment and specifically the issue of pragmatic rating are among issues which deserve more thorough consideration. The purpose of this study was to examine rater criteria and its consistency and variability in the assessment of Iranian EFL learners’ production of compliments based on the teachers’ gender and teaching experience of the Iranian non-native English speaking raters (INNESRs). The data for this study were collected through WDCTs rating questionnaire from sixty Iranian EFL teachers and were later analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-tests and Chi-squares. The results of the study showed that Iranian EFL teachers consider seven macro criteria when rating EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment. The criteria include “politeness”(26.37%), “interlocutors’ characteristics and relationships” (22.83%), “variety and range” (19.68%), “sociopragmatic appropriateness” (14.17%), “sincerity” (10.23%), “complexity” (9.84%), and “linguistic appropriacy” (8.66%). The results of the t-test and chi-squares further showed that whereas there was no significant difference in the teachers’ ratings based on their gender and teaching experience, the difference was significant in the frequency of rating criteria provided by the raters. To conclude, the results of the study reinforces the need for rater training regarding the assessment of pragmatic productions based on pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic norms. UR - https://tesl.shirazu.ac.ir/article_2481.html L1 - https://tesl.shirazu.ac.ir/article_2481_b731ff0a586bb61f319e6915de4e0b9a.pdf ER -