A Cross-Cultural Study of Iranians' and Malays' Expressions of Gratitude

In: Intercultural communication, Band 15, Heft 1, S. 1-15

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to examine how Iranian international students in Malaysia and Malay university students express gratitude. To this end, the data were collected from Iranian and Malay university students in Malaysia through an open-ended questionnaire in the form of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and a follow-up semi-structured interview. Data were then analyzed based on a modified version of Cheng's (2005) classification of expressions of gratitude. The findings showed that the two groups used thanking as the most frequent strategy. However, there were differences in the use of strategies such as positive feelings, apology, and alertersbetween Malay and Iranian respondents. Finally, the present study emphasizes the importance of understanding of the communicative needs of the learner and teaching the cultural aspects of language.