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The data in the present study were collected by means of DCT and role plays. Both DCT and role-play contained four situations called for apologies. Social variables included in both tasks are severity of offence (high/low severity) and gender.

In both DCT and role-play, the relationship between speakers and interlocutors across four scenarios is equal status and acquaintance. On DCT, a description of the given situations was provided which required respondents to write down responses they thought the most appropriate under the context. An example of DCT questions

was given below. The complete set of questionnaire is provided in Appendix A and B.

(3.1) Sample DCT (English version)

Situation 20: Your classmate Sally is a good student. When you talk about the coming quiz, she invites you to her house to study together. Somehow, you were late for nearly 10 minutes.

severity of the situation is ---high---- 5 4 3 2 1 --- low--- the possibility of you apologizing is ---high---- 5 4 3 2 1 --- low---

I would say:

difficulty of the apology for me is ---high---- 5 4 3 2 1 --- low---

likelihood of the apology accepted is ---high---- 5 4 3 2 1 --- low---

(3.2) Sample DCT (Chinese version)

狀況 20: 你的同學莎麗是個好學生，當你請教她一些這次小考的準備方向 時，她居然邀請你到她家一起唸書，但是你居然遲到快十分鐘了。

這個狀況的嚴重程度很---高--- 5 4 3 2 1 ---低--- 你會為此道歉的機率很---高--- 5 4 3 2 1 ---低---

這時你會說：

這種要道歉的情況，對我來說難度很---高--- 5 4 3 2 1 ---低--- 這種情況下，我的道歉被接受的機率很---高--- 5 4 3 2 1

---低---In role plays, both speakers and interlocutors were provided with a role card which specified the setting, and each participant’s role. Then the subjects were asked to role play the situations and provided responses as what they would say in real-life conversations. The following is an example of the description of setting in role plays in present study. A is the apologizer, and B is the offended party. The complete four situations are provided in Appendix C and D:

(3.3) Sample role play situation (English version)

Situation 4

A: You are going to have lunch with your friend today on campus. Since you don’t have a class this morning, you went to do some shopping first. When you arrive at the cafeteria, you were 10 minutes late.

B: You are going to have lunch with one of your friends today on campus.

However, he/she was 10 minutes late.

(3.4) Sample role play situation (Chinese version) 情境四

A: 你和朋友黃福仁約好，今天在學校一起吃中飯，因為你早上都沒課，所 以你先去買東西，當你到學校餐廳的時候，你已經遲到十分鐘了。

B: 你和你朋友約好，今天一起在學校吃中飯，因為早上他都沒課，所以他 先去買點東西，當他到學校餐廳的時候，他已經遲到十分鐘了。

A detailed description of four scenarios and contextual factors, namely, severity of offence, interlocutor gender, social status, and social distance, on both DCT and in role plays is listed in Table 2.

Table 2 Descriptions and contextual factors of four scenarios on DCT and in role plays

Contextual factors concerned Situation Brief descriptions Severity of

offence Interlocutor

gender Social

status Social distance

1 You accidentally broke your

classmate’s new digital camera. + Male = =

2 You were 10 minutes late for

studying with your classmate. - Female = =

3 You lost your classmate’s

wedding ring + Female = =

4 You were ten minutes late for

lunch with your friend. - Male = =

The reason why the four situations were chosen was mainly because it is easy to control the variables. In order to control the subjects’ educational background and age, all informants selected for the study are university students. And in order to collect data which were as natural as possible, participants were asked to play a role which was part of their life. That is, subjects would not perform a role different from themselves, such as a professor, a boss, or a waiter in a restaurant since it has been criticized that forcing respondents to take on a variety of roles would affect the

‘naturlaness’ of their performances (Sasaki, 1998, Trosborg, 1995). In addition, we selected the situations that might occur between friends or classmates (social status:

equal; social distance: equal) in their daily life or university setting. Besides, since previous studies have pointed out that severity of the offence is a crucial factor that affects speakers’ decisions to apologize (Bergman and Kasper, 1993, Blum-Kulka &

Olshtain, 1984a, Cohen, Olshtain, and Rosenstein,1986, Olshtain,1989), in present study two situations which were considered as high severity offence (Situation 1 and 3) and the other two situations which were considered as low severity offence (Situation 2 and 4) were designed to investigate how the factor of severity of the offence influenced subjects’ performance on apology.