Pragmatic flexibility in Australian learners’ Korean apology strategies

This study explores the pragmatic competence of Australian learners of Korean as a foreign language (KFL) by analysing their apology strategies across varying settings. While previous studies have examined Korean learners’ use of honorifics, few have focused on how L2 learners from non-honorific language backgrounds, such as Australian learners, pragmatically interpret and apply the Korean honorific system in context-specific speech acts like apologies. The current research focuses on KFL learners’ comprehension and expression of politeness in Korean by examining how they utilise honorifics and speech levels in the act of apologies for different interlocutors in the provided setting of role-plays. Findings indicate that learners tend to accommodate elevated speech levels and deferential first-person pronouns when apologising, even in contexts in which native speakers would only use the casual speech level and plain first-person pronoun. It suggests that L2 Korean learners understand the Korean honorific system as an extended and flexible pragmatic resource they can apply across contexts to achieve interpersonal goals, deviating from the sociopragmatic norms of native Korean speakers where honorific levels are strictly and invariably determined by interlocutors’ social relationships based on relative ages between speakers. By investigating how Australian KFL learners negotiate the use of honorifics according to their interpretation of politeness in Korean, this study aims to provide insights into the development of pragmatic competence and sociopragmatic awareness in L2 Korean learning and teaching within the Australian context.