Abstract:
The purpose of this pragmatic research is to investigate whether Arabic learners of English ‘'Libyan students'' in particular produce native -like speech acts responses in English and whether non-native speakers of English transfer their first language pragmatics in their English pragmatic responses. This study aimed to highlight the relationship between learners' language proficiency and their pragmatic as well as how speech acts is realized by Libyan students. An interview and discourse completion test were established to prove these speculations.
Results and findings showed that Arabic as L1 has some expressions which sometimes transferred to English as L2. This study also indicates that Libyan students transfer some of their L1 pragmatic concepts namely speech acts to L2 because they believe that these aspects are common among all languages rather being language specific. This study also, indicates that Arabic nonnative speaker of English have some misunderstanding about native speakers that affect the way they react to their thanking, apologizing, greeting, requesting. Finally, some recommendations for further studies are given at the end of this research.
