The Understandable English Conversational Implicatures by Yemeni EFL University Learners

Abstract

English, as a communication tool, is playing an extremely significant role in cross-cultural communication. While it is true that language users can mean exactly what they mean in their utterances, it is also true that they can have their utterances mean much more than what they say.  Speakers of English choose to speak indirectly, and that using conversational implicatures is a way to be indirect. This research paper examined the perception of English conversational implicatures among Yemeni EFL university learners. It followed an empirical analytical-descriptive method consisting of a test and an interview. The study subjects were 62 Yemeni EFL university learners. A multiple-choice discourse completion test and an interview were used for collecting the study data. The test contains six types of conversational implicature: Stating, Tautology, Rhetorical Question, Understatement, Indirect Refusal and Indirect Request. All the implicatures included in the test were adapted from the study related literature, whereas most of the test scenarios containing these implicatures were ready-made ones that the researcher came across throughout her reading. The results revealed that these implicatures were found easy by Yemeni EFL university learners to understand.