Speech Act of Complaining: Socio-Pragmatic study of Complaint by Moroccan EFL Learners

Abstract

Complaining as a speech act can occur in every conversation even unintentionally. The use of this speech act is culture specific. The expressions and strategies used to issue a complaint vary according to context, interlocutors and to other socio-cultural variables. The present study investigates the complaint strategies of Moroccan higher education institutions’ EFL students. Data for the current study are collected from 37 second and third year students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) representing a population in Moroccan Higher Education embodied in Moulay Ismail University, Meknes and who have managed to answer a discourse completion test composed of five situational prompts. A quantitative design is used for the collection, the analysis and the interpretation of data. The data gathered are described and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that Moroccan EFL students use specific linguistic forms to make complaints regarding different social variables such as social distance, ranking and social power. They also imply that Moroccan EFL learners tend to use more indirect strategies in issuing their complaints along with some intimacy expressions that mark the specificity of the Moroccan culture as a positive politeness culture, par excellence.