Complaint Strategies among Moroccan Business English Students: Exploring the Roles of Social Status and Gender

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the complaint strategies used by Moroccan EFL learners, with a particular focus on two key variables: social status (high, equal, and low) and gender. To collect data, the study used discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and a multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ), each designed to reflect different social-status contexts. The responses were analysed using Trosborg's (1995) classification of complaint strategies, while cross-tabulation and chi-square tests were applied to explore statistical relationships. The participants consisted of 60 M.A. students enrolled at the Faculty of Economics and Management in Tangier, whose English proficiency ranged between B1 and B2. The results indicated that learners generally used fewer direct complaint strategies when addressing interlocutors of higher social status, but tended to adopt more direct strategies in low- and equal-status interactions. Additionally, a statistically significant association between gender and complaint strategy choice was observed in the high-status situation; however, this finding should be interpreted cautiously given the unequal gender distribution and the expected-frequency limitations of the chi-square analysis. These findings provide exploratory implications for EFL pedagogy and pragmatic research in higher education contexts