Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context

Making a complaint in any language is not an easy task. The complainer might run the risk of impairing the relationship between him/her and the hearer. In Thailand, international students use English as a medium of communication among one another and with local people. This English as a lingua franc...

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Main Authors: Nham, Ngoc Thi, Xirui Cai,, Anchalee Wannaruk,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21274/1/TE%205.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21274/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/index
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spelling my-ukm.journal.212742023-03-07T03:09:57Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21274/ Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context Nham, Ngoc Thi Xirui Cai, Anchalee Wannaruk, Making a complaint in any language is not an easy task. The complainer might run the risk of impairing the relationship between him/her and the hearer. In Thailand, international students use English as a medium of communication among one another and with local people. This English as a lingua franca (ELF) context was considered appropriate to investigate the rhetorical structure and politeness strategies used in complaint letters written by the international students in order to see their use of polite strategies and the factors influencing their choices. Forty graduate international students were asked to write two complaint letters to local addressees in the university contexts, one to a person of a higher status and the other to a person of equal status. Some of them were also interviewed. Based on Hartford & Mahboob’s framework (2004), seventeen moves were found in the rhetorical structure of the complaint letters. As to politeness strategies, more negative strategies were used in the moves of Complaint and Request while more positive strategies were found to set a common ground in Introduction, Attention getter, and Background. The factors influencing the choice of politeness strategies included social status, social distance, pragmatic transfer, and L2 input. The interviews reveal different views between the complainers and the complainees on the effectiveness of politeness strategies adopted. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21274/1/TE%205.pdf Nham, Ngoc Thi and Xirui Cai, and Anchalee Wannaruk, (2022) Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context. 3L; Language ,Linguistics and Literature, 28 (4). pp. 67-81. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/index
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Making a complaint in any language is not an easy task. The complainer might run the risk of impairing the relationship between him/her and the hearer. In Thailand, international students use English as a medium of communication among one another and with local people. This English as a lingua franca (ELF) context was considered appropriate to investigate the rhetorical structure and politeness strategies used in complaint letters written by the international students in order to see their use of polite strategies and the factors influencing their choices. Forty graduate international students were asked to write two complaint letters to local addressees in the university contexts, one to a person of a higher status and the other to a person of equal status. Some of them were also interviewed. Based on Hartford & Mahboob’s framework (2004), seventeen moves were found in the rhetorical structure of the complaint letters. As to politeness strategies, more negative strategies were used in the moves of Complaint and Request while more positive strategies were found to set a common ground in Introduction, Attention getter, and Background. The factors influencing the choice of politeness strategies included social status, social distance, pragmatic transfer, and L2 input. The interviews reveal different views between the complainers and the complainees on the effectiveness of politeness strategies adopted.
format Article
author Nham, Ngoc Thi
Xirui Cai,
Anchalee Wannaruk,
spellingShingle Nham, Ngoc Thi
Xirui Cai,
Anchalee Wannaruk,
Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context
author_facet Nham, Ngoc Thi
Xirui Cai,
Anchalee Wannaruk,
author_sort Nham, Ngoc Thi
title Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context
title_short Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context
title_full Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context
title_fullStr Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context
title_full_unstemmed Rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a Thai ELF context
title_sort rhetorical structure and politeness strategies in complaint letters used by international students in a thai elf context
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2022
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21274/1/TE%205.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21274/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/index
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score 13.211869