A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Gratitude Strategies between Iranian and Malaysian Postgraduate Students

Abstract

This study describes and compares the gratitude strategies utilized by Iranian EFL and Malaysian ESL learners in facing different situations. Data were cumulated from 20 Iranian and 20 Malaysian postgraduate university students having the same language proficiency through a Discourse Completion Tasks Questionnaire. Social status, size of imposition and gender are contextual and social variables which were investigated for two groups of learners in this study. Results of the study illustrated certain commonalities and differentials in terms of the strategies and type of gratitude used by Iranian and Malaysian students. A detailed analysis of the use of the gratitude strategies revealed significant differences in communicative ways of Iranian and Malaysian postgraduate students reflecting insights into understanding the differences in cultural values and norms in two non-western cultures. The results also illustrated that the two contextual factors and gender affect significantly on the type and frequency of the strategies.