The speech act of thanking in English: differences between native and non-native speakers' behaviour

Abstract

The main purpose of this article involves the analysis of certain aspects of the speech act of thanking in English both as a native and as foreign language. Those aspects include the selection of the strategy used in the expression of gratitude and the use of external modifiers. Expressions of gratitude in Spanish, the mother tongue of the English non-native speakers, were also considered for the sake of comparison. The data for this study were collected by means of a discourse completion test (DCT), which was administered among 225 informants. The main difference between the expressions of gratitude produced by English native speakers and those produced by English non-native speakers was related to the use of colloquial strategies. The results of this study suggest the importance of paying attention to pragmatic aspects in the class of English as foreign language.