A Study on Taiwanese EFL Learners’ Responses to Indirect Complaints

本研究主要在探討台灣的大學裡的英語學習者（EFL）在學習英文到全民英檢中級以上的程度後，面對間接抱怨的語言行為所採取的回應對策狀況。對照同樣情況下，以英文為母語的美國大學生，和以中文為母語的台灣大學生所採取行的行為回應，了解文化是否會在語言學習過程中影響語言學習者的語言行為表現。研究者探索其語言表現，希望提供語言教育者課程設計的參考。研究的三組受試人分別為40位英語學習程度佳的台灣大學生，40位以英語為母語的美國大學生，以及40位以中文為母語且以中文為學習主要媒介的台灣的大學生。蒐集語言資料的工具是語言言談情境問卷（Discourse Completion Task，簡稱DTC），依照收集到的語言資料進行分析。研究結果顯示：三組回應間接報怨的表現習慣有很大的差異，台灣組的表現較為樂觀積極，會營造輕鬆的氣氛並提醒繼續下一個生活步驟。美國組則謹慎小心，較會以了解與提供事實解釋來安慰抱怨者。英語學習者回應的行為看起來好像與美國人的採用的行為對策類似，但受到本身文化的影響，學習者在文字表達，有語用轉移的現象，即語言學習者與台灣組在面對間接抱怨時所採用的用字及表達較為接近。This study investigated Taiwanese university students’ response strategies to indirect complaints in English. The response differences were compared among those of native American English speakers and those of Mandarin Chinese speakers. Participants in the study were 40 learners of English living in Taiwan, 40 native speakers of American English living in the United States and 40 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese living in Taiwan. The learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were with an intermediate to high intermediate English proficiency level. By comparing and contrasting the data collected from native speakers of American English living in the United States and native speakers of Mandarin Chinese living in Taiwan, we found the results informative for English course designers in Taiwan. The instrument used in the study was Discourse Completion Task (DCT). Based on the collected data, the researcher performed both qualitative and quantitative analysis and concluded that the three groups responded significantly differently toward indirect complaints. Taiwanese tended to give advice to their interlocutors and they liked to maintain convivial atmosphere in communication. Americans commiserated their interlocutors mainly based on facts and sympathy. EFL learners were found to bear great similarity with Americans in strategy taking when responding to indirect complaints, but if comparisons were made on the actual wordings used by the three groups, the wordings that the EFL learners used resembled Taiwanese group’s preferences which might be a result of cultural influence