This paper investigates the use of request across different social relations governing the Iraqi and Australian academic setting. It aims to examine the use of the main request strategies in relation to the five social categories formulating the Iraqi and Australian academic setting. Using WDCT questionnaire, quantitative data was collected from 65 Iraqi non-native and 30 Australian native speakers of English. Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) taxonomy of request was adopted to analyse data quantitatively using SPSS statistical analysis. The findings revealed that the Australian native speakers were frequently more indirect than the Iraqi non-native speakers in the social category where speakers are of lower power and solidarity.