The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Ability to Use Speech Acts in MA and Ph.D. Theses Defense

The present study investigates the Iraqi EFL (IEFL) learners’ ability to use Speech Acts (SAs) in MA and Ph.D. theses defense. It aims at analyzing utterances (Us) made by the MA and Ph.D. IEFL learners in terms of SAs, the class to which those SAs belong, the type of tone the learners use, and the errors committed by the learners and their types. It is hypothesized that the learners use the SA of stating more than the other types of SAs in their MA and Ph.D. defence, the learners use directives more than other SA categories, the EFL learners use the falling tone more than the other types of tones. The researchers record the defense of six IEFL learners: four MA and two Ph.D. during the Academic year 2019-2020. They put the recorded data into an orthographic form showing the tone type for each tone unit, and check each recorded utterance (U) for the SA used, the SA category to which the SA belongs, the type of tone used and if any, the types of errors the participants commit. The study concludes that the MA IEFL learners use more SAs than the Ph.D. ones, the most frequently used SA is the SA of asserting, the most frequently used category of SAs is the representative one, and the learners use the falling tone more than the other types of tones.

By Iraqi EFL Learners, it is meant those learners of English in non-English-speaking countries (Dingfang, 1994;as cited in Peng, 2019, p. 2). Similarly, Betti and Al-Jubouri (2015, p. 16) define foreign language as "one which has no internal function in the learner's country". Thus, the EFL learners learn the FL "in order to communicate with native speakers or interlanguage users of the foreign language" (Betti & Al-Jubouri, Ibid).
More specifically, Iraqi EFL learners are those nonnative learners of English whose mother tongue is Iraqi Arabic. "The language is learnt like other subjects in the school curriculum for operational purposes" (Betti & Al-Jubouri, Ibid). Hence, the abbreviation EFL is a shortened form of "English as a Foreign Language", for example, an Iraqi learner of English in Iraq.
By the MA and Ph.D. Theses Defense, it is meant a speech event in which the candidate who is a post-graduate student is examined for the validation of his thesis or dissertation. It takes the form of discussion or argument where the learner answers questions of the committee, and is asked to justify why he writes something or proves his points of view. Viva or "viva voce" is "an oral examination" of candidate's thesis (Smith, 2015, p. 130). The primary aim of Ph.D. assessment "is to determine whether the candidate is competent as an independent researcher in the discipline" (UCoSDA, 1993, p. 3).
Tinkler and Jackson (2004, p. 17) add that viva serves as "a site for authenticating the thesis".

Speech Acts Defined
The theory of speech acts (SAs) is, no doubt, one of the main theories in pragmatics. It is originated in the ideas of J. L. Austin expressed in the series of his lectures "How to Do Things with Words" and then developed by Searle's (1975) and others. Austin's basic idea behind his theory of SAs is that utterances (Us) do not only bear meaning, but rather they do things, i.e., perform actions (Levinson, 2017, p. 199). In Austin's words, "to say something is to do something" (1962).
To perform a SA is "an attempt at doing something purely by speaking" (Trask, 1999, p. 189). Yule (1996, p. 47) defines SAs as "actions performed via utterances"; that is, through the use of language, speakers (Ss) can issue many social functions (actions) such as requesting, offering, asking questions, thanking, welcoming and so on. In the same way, Aitchison (2010, p. 127) states that SAs are sequences of words that behave like actions. By the means of them, Ss try to create some effect on hearers (Hs). For example, when a judge utters [1]: [1] I sentence you to five years imprisonment.
He is not only pronouncing a string of words, but has an effect on the H similar to marching a man in accusation along to a prison (ibid).
The theory of SAs belongs to pragmatics because it requires a S implying (encoding) a message and a hearer (H) inferring (decoding) that message. However, the context or situation plays an important role in the process of inferring the S's intended meaning. Furthermore, without such information, it is impossible to know the S's intended meaning. The U in [2], for example, can serve, according to the 43 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr Education, Language and Sociology Research Vol. 1, No. 2, 2020 context, as an observation about the weather, a request for the H to bring a blanket or be close to a window, a question about the thermostat setting, or an invitation to snuggle up closer-or indeed several of these things at once (Birner, 2013, p.175).
[2] I'm a little cold.

Performatives vs. Constatives
These two terms are first initiated by Austin (1962) when he tries to make a distinction between two types of Us: constatives (constative utterances) and Performatives (performative utterances). By constatives, he means those Us that describe states of affairs, process or some event in the world like in [3], whereas performatives do not; they change the world instead of describing it. In fact, the uttering of them, or part of them, is considered as "the doing of an action", as in [4][5] (Austin, 1962, p. 6): [3] The boy went to school.
[4] I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth.
[5] I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.
In spite of being declarative in form, it is evident that the Us in [4][5] do not state facts or describe actions only, but rather they perform actions; namely that of naming a ship or betting that it will rain (ibid). As a result, Austin states that constatives can be verified (i.e., being either true or false), whereas performatives have felicity conditions (i.e., being either happy or unhappy).
Performatives are defined according to Bach (2006, p. 148) as "utterances whereby we make explicit what we are doing". Hence, they need to have special properties like having the first-person pronoun I subject, present tense, indicative mood and active voice as well as including a PV (Birner, 2013, p. 178).

The Components of a Speech Act
One of the shifts in Austin's theory is that the initial performative/constative distinction is rejected by Austin in favor of the general theory of SAs (Levinson, 1983, p. 235). The theory of SAs indicates that the performance of a SA, in addition to meaning, means the performance of three kinds of acts at once: 1). the locutionary act (LA) "the act of saying something with full sense of 'say'", 2). the illocutionary act (IA) "the act performed in saying something", and 3). the perlocutionary act (PA) "the act performed by or as a result of saying" (Coulthard, 1985, p. 18).

Speech Act Classifications
There are, in fact, many attempts which are made to classify SAs. The first one is made by Austin (1962) who bases his classification on performative verbs (PVs). Austin's classification of IFs is modified, systematized and developed and thus many models emerge like Bach and Harnish (1979); Allan (2001); and Bach (2004). Of all these models, Searle's (1975) taxonomy proves to be the most influential (Huang, 2010, p. 709). Searle's model connects the theory of SAs to "sociology and jurisprudence on the one hand and to linguistics on the other hand" (Huang, 2016, p. 201 (Austin, 1962, p. 152).

Commissives
Commissives are verbs which "commit the speakers to a particular course of action", as in example [9] (Austin, 1962, p. 155).
[9] I promise to be there at 9.  (Austin, 1962, p. 159 proposition" (Crystal, 2008, p. 413). These acts have a word-to-world direction of fit (i.e., the S tries to make his mind or words map into the world) and belief psychological state (Searle, 1976, p. 10), as in [12].
[12] I guess that man's weight is 76 kilo grams.
[13] I invite you to do it.
[14] I suggest that you do it.
[15] I insist that you do it.

Commissives
Commissives are "those illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the speaker to some future course of action" (Searle, 1976, p. 11). This class of SAs has world-to-words direction of fit, intention, sincerity condition and the S does some future action propositional content A (ibid). Though both commissives and directives share the same direction of fit, they differ in what Mey, (1993, p. 121) calls "the locus of obligation". However, for commissives, the speaker is obliged to carry out the specified action, whereas for directives, the hearer is forced to do so. This category include commit, promise, threaten, vow, pledge, swear, accept, consent, refuse, offer, bid, assure, guarantee, warrant, contract, covenant and bet (Searle & Vanderveken, 1985, p.192).

Expressives
Expressives "expresses an inner state of the speaker; the expression is essentially subjective and tells us nothing about the world" (Mey, 1993, p. 121). Allot (2010, p. 74) states that these Us "do not express a proposition," but rather they "have expressive (rather than descriptive) content". Searle (1976, p. 12) states that expressives have no direction of fit. When a S carries out an expressive act, he is not attempting to make the world fit his words nor the words fit the world. He also adds that truth of the propositional content is presupposed. This category include apologize, thank, condole, congratulate, complain, lament, protest, deplore, boast, compliment, praise, greet and welcome (Searle & Vanderveken, 1985, p. 211).

Declarations
Declarations are acts which "bring about immediate changes in how things are". This class of SAs resembles Austin's initial notion of performatives (Allot, 2010, p. 54). Searle (1976, p. 13) states that the essential feature of declarations is that an act is effectively executed, if it exhibits an agreement between the propositional content and reality. For example, when a judge pronounces someone guilty, he is from now guilty because the S in such Us has a special institutional role or authority. Because of this special character, declarations have both words-to-world and world-to-words direction of fit and no sincerity condition (ibid: 15). This category include declare, resign, adjourn, appoint, nominate, approve, confirm, disapprove, endorse, renounce, disclaim, denounce, repudiate, bless, curse, excommunicate, consecrate, christen, abbreviate, name and call (Searle & Vanderveken, 1985, p. 204 ).

Felicity Conditions
Felicity Conditions (FCs) are conditions which must be present so that a SA comes off successfully.
Austin is the first to lay down the FCs on performatives. He says that a SA can only be successfully performed if it follows a pre-determined conventional procedure; otherwise, the "action that the utterance attempts to perform is simply null and void" (Levinson, 1983, p. 229

Austin's Felicity Conditions
The first set of FCs were firstly developed by Austin (1962). Austin says that just like constatives or statements can be true or false, performatives, in the same way, can be felicitous or infelicitous. Thus, Austin prepared a list of six felicities to be obeyed so that an U comes off happily or successfully. They are (Austin, 1962, pp. 14-15).
A: (i) There must exist an accepted conventional procedure having a certain conventional effect, that procedure to include the uttering of certain words by certain persons in certain circumstances, and further, (ii) the particular persons and circumstances in a given case must be appropriate for the invocation of the particular procedure invoked.
B: (i) The procedure must be executed by all participants both correctly and (ii) completely.
C: (i) the procedure is designed for use by persons having certain thoughts, feelings, or intentions and (ii) must actually so conduct themselves subsequently.

Searle's Felicity Conditions
Searle (1969)  (i) The propositional content conditions "is concerned with what the speech act is about" or it deals with the U content or its core. In the case of a promise, it is to expect some future act of the S, but for a request, it is to expect some future act of the receiver (Huang, 2007, p. 113).
(ii) The preparatory Conditions represent the requirements for performing a speech act like the performer of the SA must possess the ability or authority to carry out a specified action or that the circumstances must be appropriate to the IA to be accomplished (Lyons, 1977, p. 733). The preparatory conditions for a request, for example, are that the S is sure that the H is able to do the action requested, and that if the H is not asked, he will not do the action.
(iii) The sincerity conditions are the real intention or a belief of the performer to do an act. So, if he does not do it, the action will be performed insincerely (i.e., abuse, as Austin calls it). An example of this is when someone gives a promise which s/he is sure s/he lacks the ability to perform. In some social occasions, to show politeness, one needs to abate his adherence to sincerity conditions since in compliments one does not have always to tell other people the truth (Lyons, 1977, p. 734) .
(iv) The essential conditions are identification to the act the S is performing in such a way that the S intends to carry out a specific act and that the H is aware of his intention. For example, in a promise, the S obliges himself to do an act, but for a request, the S tries to get the H to do some act.

Indirect Speech Acts
Indirect Speech Acts (ISAs) is one of Searle's contributions to SA theory. An ISA is an utterance that has the form of a certain illocutionary act but it has the meaning of another type (Searle, 1979, p. 30).
For example, the U in [16] may be interpreted literally to ask the H about his ability to carry out action or non-literally to request him to do an action for the benefit of the S.
[16] Can you open the window? Searle (1975, pp. 33-34) states that ISAs pose real problems in communication because it is hard for the hearer to work out the S's intended meaning because it is possible through saying a particular U that the S means the same proposition expressed in the literal meaning of the U which he calls direct or secondary IA, and he can also mean another U not inferred from the literal meaning of the sentence and thus it is the indirect or primary IA. In the following example, Y's U is a rejection of X's proposal, but this rejection is not by the means of Y's statement (secondary IA), rather X infers that having an exam means to study that night and thus precludes the idea of going for watching a movie (primary IA).
[17] Student X: Let's go to the movies tonight.
Student Y: I have to study for an exam.

Speech Acts and Intonation
Intonation is variation in the pitch of our voice to add meaning to Us. It is the music of our speech. It is the study of how Ss vary the pitch of their voice to carry out linguistic and pragmatic meaning (Wells, 2006, p. 1). Similarly, O' Grady et al. (1997, p. 39) define intonation as "pitch movement in spoken utterances that is not related to differences in word meaning". In order to have linguistic significance, variation in pitch should be controlled by the S, be perceptible and be related to a particular meaning or function (Gu, 2009, p. 116;and Roach, 2009, p. 120 The forms of intonation are shown in brief in the following list (Roach, 2009, pp. 147-148;Gut, 2009, pp. 122-124).
[20] I was cycling home from /work │ when I saw this big \bird 3). Fall-rise tone (˅) expresses that something is unpleasant, or uncertainty, doubt, requests, as in [21].
[21] You ˅may be right 49 Stress is "the most familiar prosodic feature which is problematic in that it is difficult to describe its actual nature" (Betti & Ulaiwi, 2018, p. 83). Jones (1972, p. 41) defines stress as "the degree of force that is given to specific syllables when they are pronounced by the addresser". Stress is a property of words and utterances. Scholars refer to the placement of stress within single words as word stress, while the placement of stress in whole utterances as tonic or sentence stress.
In addition, Roach (1991, p. 172) argues that the placement of word stress is independent and prior to the choice of intonation, while the placement of tonic stress is determined by intonation. In addition, the placement of tonic stress on the nucleus of the tone unit has a meaning-distinguishing function; this is, by the means of tonic stress placement in the tone unit, intonation emphasizes the meaning of a certain word in the tone unit (Roach, 1991, p. 173).

Functions of Intonation
Intonation is used in English to convey the following functions.
1). The attitudinal function is to express "the speaker's attitude, at the moment of speaking, to the situation in which he is placed"; that is, to show whether the S is happy, angry, judicial, sad, bored, etc.
2). The grammatical function is that it can be used to identify the grammatical structure of Us (Roach, 1991, p. 175).
3). The discourse function of intonation is related to discourse in two ways. First, the use of intonation is to draw the H's attention to the important aspects of the message that Ss convey. The other function is the regulation of the interlocutor's behaviour during the conversation. Ss utilize intonation to organize turn-taking. 4). The accentual function means the placement of tonic stress within the tone unit is determined by intonation (Roach, 1991, pp. 172-173): 5). The psychological function of intonation is helpful for language users to organize their speech into smaller units that "are easy to perceive, memorize and perform" (Wells, 2006, p. 12

The Tonic Unit
Authors use different names for these tone units such as intonation phrases, tone group or intonation group. Though there is a general tendency to use a separate intonation pattern for each clause, many instances prove the possibility for different chunking (Wells, 2006, pp. 6-7). Gut (2009, p. 106) states that Ss use intonational phrasing or tone units so as to divide their speech into word groups. Doing so, they enable listeners identify which words in an utterance go together (form an intonation phrase).
The essence of a tonic unit is the tonic syllable, which is the syllable which carries the tone. For example, in [23] you is the most prominent syllable in the tone unit. It does not only carry the tone, it also carries a special kind of stress, known as tonic stress.
[23] Is it /you In addition to the tonic syllable which is an obligatory element in the tonic unit, there are other optional elements which are dependent on the length of the tone unit: the pre-head, head and the tail. The pre-head includes all the unstressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable. The head is the part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable. The tail includes the syllables stressed or unstressed that follow the tonic syllable till the end of the tone unit (Roach, 2009, p. 130).

The Relation between Speech Acts and Intonation
Crystal (2007, p. 252) states that pragmatics deals with intonation in a wider range than that of isolated words or phrases, rather it deals with the structuring of utterances sequentially to be a conversation, known as intonational phrasing. Similarly, Taglicht (1998, p. 181) states that intonational analysts distribute speech into portions of information chunks, known as intonational phrases so as to facilitate information processing by interlocutors. Thomas (1995, p. 21) mentions that in order for a S to deliver the force of a specific locution, he sometimes needs to make use of paralinguistic features like intonation or non-linguistic features like gestures. In addition, in spite of the importance of context in the demarcation between types of SAs, some communicative intents cannot be accounted for without resorting to intonation. Moreover, intonation is an essential element of pragmatic meaning. This view is supported by Searle (1969, p. 30) who states that stress (implying intonation) is one of the illocutionary force indicating devices in English. Cresti, (1995, pp. 1-2) concludes that the function of intonation is to signalize the existence of SAs and also their types in the course of speech.

Methodology
This section presents the methodology of the study. It deals with the participants, data collection and instrument and data collection procedure, research design and model of analysis.
The present study is a descriptive qualitative one. The researchers aim at investigating the theses defense of six of Iraqi EFL post-graduate learners in their MA and Ph.D. discussions, in terms of their use of SAs, the tones they use when they perform these SAs as well as the errors they commit. The participants are informed in advance of their being recorded in order for the researchers to take their permission and privacy is granted for all the participants, but the researchers do not reveal the objectives of the study to the informants. The learners put the recording device on the desk in front of them so as to record their speech. because it records voice clearly in distance exceeds ten meters.
In order to find the type of SA most used by Iraqi EFL learners, the researchers analyze the recorded data according to the taxonomy of speech act proposed by Searle (1976) and categorize each single SA according to the definitions of SAs given by Searle and Vanderveken (1985) and they identify the type of tone according to the division given by Roach (2009) and Gut (2009).
The researchers follow the following procedure in carrying out the present study: 1) The researchers select the subjects of the study and use a sensitive voice recorder to record their speech clearly. 52 2) The researchers put all these discussions in orthographic form, showing boundaries of Us, tone unit boundaries and type of tone for each single tone unit.

3) They analyze the participants' Us in terms of SAs showing the class to which each SA belongs, and
investigate whether the tone the subjects use coincides with the SAs they perform.
4) The researchers use a statistical means to find out what common type of SA the IEFL learners often perform and the common type of tone they use.

Data Analysis and Discussion of the MA and Ph.D. Candidates Use of SAs
In this section, the researchers analyze, justify and make a comparison between the MA IEFL learners' defense and the Ph.D. one in terms of use of SAs, categories of SAs, use of tones and errors committed by them. It is clear that the mutual least frequent SA is reminding, while the rest are different. However, such frequencies show that the candidates tend to perform SAs which ensure the examiners of the truthfulness of their points of view via performing assertive SAs.

The MA and Ph.D. Candidates' Use of Categories of SAs
It is found out that there are noticeable differences in the performance of MA and Ph.D. participants in terms of SA categories, as shown in Table 2. Third, the MA candidates perform less directive SAs than the Ph.D. ones: they have 5.3% of their utterances which have the features of directives compared to the Ph.D. ones who have 10.02% due to their wide experience, the Ph.D. candidates pose more questions for the sake of clarification or repetition of the questions in order to fully understand the questions of the examiners and, as a result, they justify the questions they are asked appropriately.
Finally, there is also a difference between the MA and the Ph.D. candidates in terms of the number of expressive SAs they perform. The MA candidates have only 2.6% of their total performance of SAs which are expressive, while the Ph.D. ones have the percentages of 6.5%. This definitely can be related to the degree of interaction between the examiners and the examinees. The Ph.D. candidates are more cooperative and they are given more chances to give their opinions, and in return they thank the examiners more when they are given clarifications and apologize more when they receive correction.

The MA and Ph.D. Candidates' Use of Tones
It is found out that there are not quite huge differences between the MA and Ph.D. debate performance in terms of the IFEL Learners' use of tones. See Table 3:

The Errors Committed by the MA and Ph.D. Iraqi EFL Learners
It is found that there are differences between the MA and Ph.D. Iraqi EFL learners in the type and number of errors they commit (Table 4 below):

Conclusions
This section displays the conclusion that the researchers arrive at as a result of the theoretical and practical aspects of the study, and giving some recommendations and suggestions for further studies.
Based on the results the researchers obtain from data analysis and discussion, the study draws the following conclusions: 1). The MA IEFL learners use more SAs than the Ph.D. ones do.
2). The most frequent SA that the MA and Ph.D. IEFL learners perform in their defence of their theses and dissertations is the SA of asserting.
3 Based on the study theoretical and practical aspects, it is recommended that: 1). Teachers or course designers ought to enrich the curriculum with a sufficient number of SAs through classroom activities in which the students is engaged such as conversations, role-playing, interviews, etc. that motivate the students to perform SAs., and these SAs ought to be given in appropriate contexts. Likewise, students ought to be given ample opportunities to practice SAs.
2). Teachers ought to explain to the students that SAs are language functions and teach them using pragmatic and sociolinguistic exercises. They ought not to be taught in the same way as grammatical structures.
3). University teachers need to pay much attention to teaching intonation, explaining to the students the production and usage of each one of the tones. 4). University students ought to be given enough time to practice the various types of tones. 5). Teachers need to diagnose the weakness points that the learners undergo in performing SAs or pronouncing the types of tone and find solutions for these weaknesses. 6). The MA and Ph.D. IEFL learners ought to juxtapose between SAs and type of tone they use to perform these SAs. 7). Designers of the curriculum of Colleges of Education for Humanities for MA and Ph.D. students ought to pay more attention to interlanguage pragmatics so that the students obtain the necessary competence to effectively perform everyday social functions in the FL.  The following topics are suggested for further studies: 1). A similar study can be conducted to deal with the SAs used by the committee of examiners, SA categories, types of tones used by them and, if any, the errors committed by them.
2). A similar study can also be conducted dealing with the SAs, SA categories, types of tones and the errors committed by a teacher or teachers while they are teaching English in classroom. 3