A Cross-linguistic Study on Expressions of Gratitude by Native and Non-native English Speakers

Abstract

This paper attempts to investigate whether advanced ESL and EFL learners are able to express gratitude appropriately in different situations and whether there exists any difference in expressing gratitude among speakers from various language and cultural background. The participant in this study were ten 6 native-English speakers who were born and raised in the United States, and ten 10 Filipinos who were ESL learners, and 28 EFL learners with Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, and Japanese background who have lived in the Philippines at least one year. The written data from native and non-native speakers were coded and analyzed. It is concluded by the result of the study that native speakers’ expression of gratitude is appropriately a speech act set. On the other hand, non-native speakers’ data showed that advanced-level non-native learners of English, to some extent, have difficulty in expressing gratitude successfully. The reason of the failure is fully discussed in this study.