A comparative study of formal complaints by native speakers and Turkish learners of English

The aim of this study is to investigate the pragmatic language behavior of Turkish learners of English in formal complaint situations through the comparison of their speech act performances to those of native speakers. By exploring Turkish EFL learners? speech production in English, and comparing it to the data provided by native speakers, this study aimed to (1) identify linguistic and pragmatic differences between Turkish and native speakers of English in complaining; (2) account for factors such as ?age?, ?gender?, ?proficiency? and ?length of stay in the target culture? that govern the communicative choices made by Turkish speakers of English in formal complaints, and (3) explain what pragmatic choices native speakers and Turkish learner make in their formal complaining attempts in English in terms of directness and indirectness. The data was collected from a total of 276 participants, 132 Native Speakers (NSs) and 144 Turkish Learners (TLs) of English. Three different data collection methods were used: a) a Discourse Evaluation Task (DET); b) video-recorded role plays; and c) open-ended oral interviews. The data was both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed.The results indicate that native English speakers? and Turkish learners? production of complaints reflects a significant difference with respect to the linguistic components and the pragmatic choices made in complaining. According to the results, TLs are more reserved and indirect in their complaining behavior compared to NSs. What is more, the pragmatic preferences made by Turkish learners differ significantly different from those of native speakers with regard to ?age? and ?gender?, which suggests that the learners transfer pragmatic features from their own cultural etiquette. Finally, Turkish learners differed within the group with regards to ?proficiency levels?; that is, the higher the proficiency level of learners is, the more they perceive the indirect complaining strategies as socially more appropriate, which suggests that the learners are more affected by their own culture and corresponding pragmatic elements as they get more proficient in comprehension and use of the target language. Consequently, the findings of the study can be used as an opportunity by teachers and syllabus designers to explain situations in which Turkish learners of English may fail linguistically and pragmatically; and in turn, to develop materials in order to find more effective ways of promoting pragmatic competence among Turkish EFL learners.