Investigating EFL speakers’ gratitude strategies: Interlanguage pragmatics

Abstract

Gratitude strategies used by EFL speakers have always been the focus of interest by researchers who observed the presence of pragmatic transfer strategies by which speakers express their gratitude. We have seen that several adapted versions of Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) by Eisenstein and Bodman (1986) are constructed based on the original version and largely applied to the participants from various backgrounds. A similar methodology is used in this study and we investigated the gratitude strategies of participants, including 80 EFL learners in Turkey and 70 non-native European speakers of English at tertiary-level. We also interviewed with 44 Turkish speaking participants and used two sampling methodologies to identify the participants that could promote the data obtained from the DCTs. Our research entailed quantitative and qualitative data examined through content analysis. Primary findings indicated strong divergences and weak similarities between both speaker groups who resorted to the speech act of thanking compared to non-native European speakers who also differed in thanking strategies. Finally, we have been provided with valuable indications for the constituent parts of the language teaching that neglect the instructional side on the pragmatic use of language for gratitude and other speech acts.

Keywords

• Gratitude
• EFL
• tertiary, speech act of thanking, thanking strategies

Kaynakça

1. Ahn, S.J. (2007). Korean ESL learners’ pragmatic competence: Motivation, amount of contact, and length of residence. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Texas A&M University, United States of America.
2. Araz, A. & Erdugan, C. (2017). Developing a scale for measuring the expression of gratitude. Nesne Psikoloji Dergisi, 5 (11), 404-425.
3. Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1996). Pragmatics and language teaching: Bringing pragmatics and pedagogy together. In L. F. Bouton (Ed.), Pragmatics and Language Learning (pp. 21-39). https: //files.eric.ed.gov (14.10.2018).
4. Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1999). Exploring the interlanguage of interlanguage pragmatics: A research agenda for acquisitional pragmatic. Language Learning, 49 (4), 677-713.
5. Bialystok, E. (1993). Symbolic representation and attentional control in pragmatic competence. In G. Kasper & S. Blum – Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 43-59). Oxford University Press. New York.
6. Bodman, J. & Eisenstein, E. M. (1988). May God increase your bounty: The expressions of gratitude in English by native and non-native speakers. Cross Currents, 15 (1), 1-21.
7. Brown, P. & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
8. Buján Sánchez, L. (2016). Pragmatic competence in Spanish students of EFL: Making requests and apologies. (Unpublished master dissertation). University of A Coruña, Spain.

9. Chang, C.Y. (2008). An interlanguage study of Chinese EFL students’ expression of gratitude.
10. (Unpublished M.A. dissertation). National Sun Yat-Sen University:Guangzhou, China
11. Cheng, S. W. (2005). An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development of expressions of gratitude by Chinese learners of English. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Iowa, United States of America.
12. Coulmas, F. (1981). ‘Poison to your soul’: Thanks and apologies contrastively viewed. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine (pp. 69-91). Mouton: Hague.
13. Dogancay-Aktuna, S. & Kamisli, S. (1997). Pragmatic transfer in interlanguage development: A case study of advanced EFL learners. https: //files.eric.ed.gov (29.09.2018)
14. Eisenstein, M. & Bodman, J. (1986). I very appreciate: Expressions of gratitude by native and nonnative speakers of American English. Applied Linguistics, 7 (2), 167-432.
15. Eisenstein, M. & Bodman, J. (1993). Expressing gratitude in American English. In G. Kasper and S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 64-81). Oxford University Press. New York.
16. Elwood, K. (2010). An analysis of expressing gratitude in Irish English and New Zealand English. Cultural Theory, 36, 110-153.
17. Falasi, H. A. (2007). Just say 'thank you': A study of compliment responses. The Linguistic Journal, 2 (1), 28-42. https: //www.linguistics-journal.com (14.10.2018).
18. Farnia, M. & Suleiman, R. (2009). An interlanguage pragmatic study of expressions of gratitude by Iranian EFL learners – A pilot study. Malaysian Journal Of ELT Research, 5, 108-140.
19. Han, T. & Tanrıöver, A. S. (2015). The factors that affect pragmatic competence and Turkish EFL research context. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 08 (07), 515-523.
20. Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pp. 269-293). London: Penguin.
21. Intachakra, S. (2004). Contrastive pragmatics and language teaching: Apologies and thanks in English and Thai, RELC, 35 (1), 37-62. https: //www.researchgate.net/publication (16.11.2018).
22. Karatepe, Ç. (2001). Pragmalinguistic awareness in EFL teacher training. Language Awareness, 10 (2-3), 178-188. https: //www.researchgate.net/publication (16.11.2018).
23. Kashdan, Tod B. et al. (2009). Gender differences in gratitude: Examining appraisals, narratives, the willingness to express emotions, and changes in psychological needs. Journal of Personality, 77 (3), 691-730. https: //www.researchgate.net/publication (21.10.2018).
24. Kasper, G. (1992). Pragmatic transfer. Second Language Research, 8 (3), 203-231. https: //www.researchgate.net/publication (14.10.2018).
25. Lamb, C. (2005). Misunderstandings – A sociolinguistic view on meaning. Letras de Hoje, 40 (1), 231-241.
26. Li, Rui et al. (2015). An investigation into Chinese EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 15 (2), 101-118.
27. Meiramova, S. & Kulzhanova, A. (2015). The peculiarities of gratitude expression use in the foreign language (on the example of English). Open Journal of Social Sciences, 3 (6), 15-20. https: //www.researchgate.net/publication (24.11.2018).
28. Özdemir, Ç. & Rezvani, S. A. (2010). Interlanguage pragmatics in action: Use of expressions of gratitude. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 3, 194–202.
29. Pishghadam, R. & Zarei, S. (2011). Expressions of gratitude: A case of EFL learners. Review of European Studies, 3 (2), 140-149. http: //www.ccsenet.org (21.10.2018).
30. Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
31. Takkaç Tulgar, A. (2016). The role of pragmatic competence in foreign language education. Turkish Online Journal of English Language Teaching (TOJELT), 1 (1), 10-19.
32. Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4 (2), 91-112.
33. Wang, X. & Choe, M.-H. (2015). Pragmatic development in expressing gratitude by Chinese and Korean learners of English as a foreign language. The Journal of Humanities, 41, 119-148.
34. Wolfson, N. (1989). The social dynamics of native and non-native variation in complimenting. In M. R. Eisenstein (Ed.), The dynamic interlanguage (pp. 219-236). Boston: Springer.