Realization of politeness strategies in EFL learners and English native speakers’ complaint and request speech acts: focusing on differences by gender and level of education

Abstract

This study aimed to identify EFL learners and English native speakers’ use of politeness strategies in the compliant and request speech acts. To do so, a 50-item questionnaire was developed and given to 108 EFL learners with three different levels of education in both genders, who were selected randomly from Sheikhbahaee University and the University of Isfahan. The EFL learners’ request and complaint emails in three levels of education and English native speakers’ emails in both genders were also gathered. The data were analyzed based on Nogami and Rinnert's (2006), and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) models of complaint and request speech acts. Accordingly, the results of this study indicated that the EFL learners’ perceptions in the use of request and complaints’ politeness strategies were not in line with their actual performance in emails. It was also found that there were significant differences between levels and genders in request and complaint emails: because MA and BA female students and male native speakers expressed their request emails in a direct way, but male EFL students and female native speakers represented their complaints in a direct way.