A Study of Gratitude Strategies of Indonesian EFL Students

This study is a small scale study investigating the gratitude strategies used by Indonesian EFL learners in responding to certain situations. The aim of the study is to find out the gratitude strategies used by EFL learners and the pattern of the strategy in responding to each of the different situations. Data were taken using a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) questionnaire from twelve students of English department and five teachers who have had the experience of living in English speaking countries for more than one year. The study revealed that the students’ pragmatics use of the English language is in the development stage, and that thanking is the most extensive strategy in respond to all situations that necessitate the use of gratitude. The use of apology in some situations hints that there is some influence in the form of cultural transfer from L1. The pattern of strategy in response to specific situations is not much different from those to general data on the strategy; repayment and positive feeling strategies are the most used in situation where high indebtedness is present.


Introduction
Learning a foreign language often concerns with how the grammatical and lexical rules work and how to apply those rules in producing correct language (dePablos-Ortega, 2010). Most of the time and effort are put into this, whereas there are other important factors to learning a new language such as the pragmatics and social factors of the language use. It is as important to produce a correct language as using appropriate expressions in many different occasions where the language is spoken. Failure to respond or utter in an 2 appropriate context may lead to misunderstanding of the certain cultural elements that are embedded in the language Gratitude is one of the realization of speech acts native speakers of the language use which is taken for granted. To them, these expressions are some of the conventional expressions (Bardovi-Harlig et al, 2008) that are part of their culturally made agreement among members of their society, which Coulmas (1981, in Bardovi-Harlig et al, 2008 termed it as "tacit agreement"; unconscious agreement shared by every member of the community in daily situational contacts.
Expressing gratitude in interpersonal interaction is an important act of maintaining good relationship. Although the expression of 'thank you' may have different function in different culture, for example for the British this expression is one of the formal markers while for the Americans it is an expression of gratitude. However, for EFL learners learning how English is used socially appropriate is as important as learning how an utterance is grammatically correct.
Inter-language pragmatic and the development of pragmatic competence among English learners as a foreign language are not extensively researched. Cheng (2005:1) asserts that research on developmental pragmatics is relatively few. In fact, the result of the study is important in understanding the relationship between second/foreign language learning and inter-language pragmatics. With the inclusion of communicative competence approach in the teaching methods in Indonesian English classrooms, pragmatic strategy should be one of the focuses in competency training. It is also logical to assert that the development of this

Theoretical Framework
Understanding and producing speech act appropriately in given situations are important aspects in pragmatic competence (Cheng, 2005). This has important impact on the second/foreign language learning, which determines the development of the learners' knowledge and skills in producing the language. The development of skills and knowledge of appropriate language use in the second/foreign language is the domain of inter language pragmatics.
Inter language pragmatics focuses on how learners develop ability to communicate in the second/foreign language (L2) successfully within their limited linguistic and socio-pragmatic conditions of the L2. In this condition, to be able to interact in L2 learners need not only to have linguistic proficiency but also the norms of communicating pragmatic meaning (LoCastro, 2012:113). The study on inter language pragmatics therefore focuses on the investigation of speech acts, conversational structure and conversational implicature (Soler & Martinez-Flor, 2008). The theoretical bases for the study of interlanguage pragmatics are the combination between the theory of pragmatics, including speech acts and conversational implicature, and the theory of second language acquisition (Huang, 2010). Some issues concerning this area are in this cross section which relate to development of second language which may be similar to that of the first language (L1) and the possibility of influence from L1 to the learning of L2 (Kasper & Schmidt, 1996). The latter has been the concern which continues until recently; LoCastro (2012:113) reported that although it is not yet clearly understood; the evidence from some studies show that there is transfer from L1 to L2 in cross-cultural and inter-language pragmatics. In other words, there might be influence or transfer from L1 in L2 speech act realization.
Studies on speech acts have been carried out on its realization and most of them are cross cultural studies comparing and contrasting between English and other languages (Pishgadam & Zarei, 2012). This is also what has been the focus of some studies on the speech act of gratitude. Farnia  Ahar & Eslami-Rasekh (2011) studied Persian natives, Persian EFL learners and English native speakers. They reported that the native speakers used thanking more extensively than the other respondent while the Persians were more sensitive to the social status difference and the size of imposition, they changed responses according to these such as expressing thank for big favour and not for smaller ones. This study also reported inappropriateness to the English social norms of the use of thanking strategy in some situation. Cui (2012) in her study reported that the use of more strategies after the main strategy of simple thanking is the characteristics of English native speakers producing what she termed as a speech act set of gratitude expressions.
In the Indonesia context, the study on pragmatics concern mostly on speech acts, eg. Amarien (1997) studied inter language pragmatics of refusal strategies made by Indonesian English speakers. The study found that these English speakers' refuse to offers was intercultural, and that the refuse strategy they used were not influenced by L1 patterns although not yet the characteristics of L2. Another study is Kartomiharjo (1990in Amarien, 1997, who studied refusal strategy used by East Javanese. The finding indicated a cultural influence in using the strategy, such as indirect refusal of hinting in refusing to offers or invitation and that politeness in refusing is used to the interlocuters who had higher status. The present study may contribute, although in a small scale format, to the preliminary study of the gratitude speech act of the Indonesian EFL learners.

Methods
The subjects of this study are 13 students studying English at Politeknik Negeri Bandung (Bandung State Polytechnic), and five of their lecturers. The student participants are from two different levels, nine students from semester 4, and four students from semester 6.

Design
The underlying conceptual framework in this study is the inter-language pragmatics which concerns the development of strategies in the use of second language (Kasper & Schmidt, 1996). The studies on developmental pragmatics by Cheng (2005) and Ozdemir and Rezvani (2010) are used as the bases in developing the design of the present study with some modification to the breadth of the study and the instruments used. Both studies investigated the developmental strategies of EFL learners in the speech act realization of gratitude. The present study, which is a small scale research, focuses on finding out the strategy of Indonesian EFL learners in the situations that necessitates the performance of gratitude, as well as the pattern in responding to certain different situations. 6

Instruments
The instrument used to get the data is a Discourse Completion Task (DCT), in which eight situations are included. DCT is used traditionally to elicit participants' performances in certain speech act. By using a DCT the researcher is able to examine what the speakers would say in certain context controlled by factors such as the interlocutors relationship or the size of the imposition that the gratitude is expressed (Schauer & Adolphs, 2006). The DCT developed for this study is a modification from those used by Schauer & Adolphs (2006) and Ozdemir and Rezvani (2010). It contains eight situations which are different in the size of imposition and the relationship or the social distance between the interlocutors (Ahar & Eslami-Rasekh, 2011). The factors that controlled the situations are the power and social distance between the interlocutors determined by age and status, and familiarity or closeness; and the size of imposition which is determined by big favour that requires hard work and considerable time, money, and physical burden for the hearer and the small favour that involve momentary action less expense in the part of the hearer, such as returning a pen. Table 1 shows the controlling factors for the eight situations used in this study. Borrowing a book from a nice lecturer + + 4 Borrowing a book from a difficult lecturer + + 5 Birthday present + -6 Paid for lunch + + 7 Computer repair = + 8 Scattered paper = -

Framework for Data Analysis
The data analysis was carried out utilizing the eight categories of gratitude strategy developed by Cheng (2005). Each category consists of several sub categories which enable to include many possible responses. The following

Data Analysis
The respondents' responses are coded according to the categories presented in Table 2, and its subsequent subcategories and are included into their appropriate categories. The occurrence of the strategies under each situation is counted for its frequency; the data are then analyzed using the qualitative descriptive analysis approach. The coding is the basis for the analysis, which is shown in the box below as an example. 8

Results and Discussion
The following part presents and discusses the result of the study in relation to the research questions

Gratitude Strategies used by Indonesian EFL learners
The results of the data analysis are presented in the following table, in which frequency of gratitude strategy demonstrated by the students is also presented as percentages.  The most used strategies are thanking, the expressions of positive feelings, and alerter to respond to all situations that necessitate expressions of gratitude. In these situations students also used repayment strategy more than the apology and appreciations. Recognition of imposition is not the common strategy; it is only used by one student. Other strategies such as small talk, joking, leave taking and others are never used in all situations.
This general description of gratitude strategies used by the students means that thanking is the most natural strategies when they face situations that

Gratitude Strategies in Different Situations
The general description of the gratitude strategies used does not give clearer picture on what specific strategies used in respond to certain situations.
The specific description gives an understanding of the pattern of strategies used relative to the situation with specific controlling factors of social distance and sizes of imposition. The following table shows distribution of gratitude strategies in each situation.   Influence such as transfer from L1 is agreed as possible to be present in the pragmatic use of interlanguage condition (LoCastro, 2012;Kasper & Schmidt, 1996).
The use of apology by the students might be an influence from L1 culture of Bahasa Indonesia. The imposition of the favour in this situation is not high, it is of medium level as the relationship between the interlocutors is equal (classmates), however, the friend needs to make an effort to come to the participants' house. The strategies shown by the lecturers are simple, which seems that it is appropriate for the situation. The strategy pattern in this situation is thanking followed by expressions of positive feelings and apology.

Situation 2 -Explanation from lecturer
In the situation where students need to ask a favour from the lecturer they, on the other hand, use more strategies in responding. Besides thanking as the most strategies used, the students also use the strategies of positive feelings, apologizing, repayment and alerter. They use simple thanking of 'thank you', 'thank you very much' or thanking followed by statement of the favour such as 'thank you for your

Situation 3 -Borrowing a book from a nice lecturer
All of the students use thanking strategy in this situation; mostly just stating the simple 'thank you' or 'thank you so much', some others state thank you followed by This situation is similar to situation 3, only the lecturer is a difficult person who is not too popular among the students. This puts more size on the imposition to the favour giver and the relationship; the imposition is higher and the relationship is more distant as the lecturer in the situation is not too popular among the students. The strategies used by these students show that the awareness of this farther distance is realized in the use of alerter strategy of addressing. The strategy pattern for this situation is as follows, thanking strategy followed by statement of the favor and the use of alerter strategy in the form of formal addressing; expressions of positive feeling; apology; and repayment.

Situation 5 -Birthday present
All of the students use the strategy of thanking by expressing 'thank you', 'thanks a lot' or 'thank you so much' followed by statement of the favour such as 'thank you for the present' or 'thank you for remember my birthday'. The second most used strategy is positive feeling as well as alerter. The positive feelings include expression of positive reaction to the favour giver such as 'you're the best', positive reaction to the object of the favour such as 'that's a sweet surprise' or 'this gift is great, I like the wrap', and the positive reaction to the outcome of the favour such as 'I really happy'.
The alerter that they use is the attention getter such as 'Oh cool!', 'Wow!, or 'Oh my The controlling factor in this situation in terms of size of imposition is not too high, besides the social relationship is equal, between close friends. The pattern of strategies starts with thanking followed by positive feeling and alerter in the form of attention getter.

Situation 6 -Paid for lunch
All of the students use thanking strategies in the form of simple thanking such as 'thank you very much' or thanks; and thanking followed by statement of the favour

Situation 7 -Computer repair
The most strategy used by the students is thanking followed by the second most used strategy of repayment. The thanking strategy is in the form simple thanking such as 'thank you a lot' or 'thank you so much', and thanking followed by statement of the favour such as 'Thanks for your help' or 'thank you so much for fixing my computer, you're so nice'. The repayment strategy is in the form of offering some service, money or food such as 'What would you like for dinner? I will treat you' or 'and 'here's some money'. The students also use apologizing strategy in the form of apology followed by the recognition of imposition caused by the favour such as 'I'm sorry for causing fuss for you' or 'and I'm sorry to make difficulties for you'. The least strategy used is alerter in the form of attention getter such as 'really'.
In this situation, the size of imposition is high yet the relationship is distant.
The strategies used by the students relate to a deep indebtedness shown by the use of repayment strategy after the thanking strategy, followed by giving apology.

Situation 8 -Scattered paper
All students use thanking strategies such as 'thank you ' or 'thank you so much', and thanking followed by statement of the favour such as 'thank you for helping collect the paper ' or 'thanks for helping'. The other strategy used is positive feeling in the form of expressing positive reaction to the favour giver such as 'that's very kind of you' or 'you will be my friend'. Apology is also used in the form of simple apology such as 'Oh, sorry' or 'I'm sorry', and apology followed by statement of imposition caused by the favour such as 'sorry for bothering you'. The least used strategy is alerter in the form of title of addressing 'guys!'.
The controlling factor in terms of size of imposition in this situation is not high, besides the relationship is distant. The strategies used by the students besides thanking is apology. The pattern of strategy in this situation starts with thanking followed by statement of the favour; apology and alerter in the form of casual calling of names.

Conclusion
This study is a small contribution to the rare study of interlanguage pragmatics and the realization of the gratitude speech act. The students in this study have been learning English for more than six years throughout their schooling; the data shows that the years of learning English have resulted in some development in the awareness of pragmatics use of the language despite some inappropriateness which is the characteristics of interlanguage condition (LoCastro, 2012).
Thanking is the most extensive strategy used by Indonesian EFL learners in respond to all situations that necessitate the use of gratitude. Some influence in the form of cultural transfer is present in the use of some strategy of using apology in some number of situations.
The pattern of strategy in response to specific situation is not much different from the general data on the strategy; however, repayment and positive feeling strategies are obviously the most used in situation where high indebtedness is present.