This study aimed to investigate Chinese EFL interlanguage complaint behaviors in terms of production collected by role play and DCT. Four contextual factors were involved: social distance, social status, gender and obligation. A total of 320 role plays were elicited from 80 college students, including 20 native speakers of English, 20 native speakers of Chinese, 20 EFL-low proficiency learners and 20 EFL-high proficiency learners. Additionally, the DCT data were elicited by 180 participants, including 60 native speakers of Chinese, 60 native speakers of English, 30 EFL-high proficiency learners and 30 EFL-low proficiency learners. Three aspects of complaints were examined: complaint strategies, complaint modifications and the effect of language proficiency. Results showed that no matter in role play or on DCT, participants tended to use more indirect strategies to avoid conflicts with others. Below the level of Reproach was the main complaint strategy they used. Besides, the complaint strategies used by the four groups were quite similar in role play. However, they differed in the frequency of strategy use, the preference orders, and modifications used in making their complaints. On the other hand, participants performed quite differently on DCT. They differed in strategy use, but there were no significant difference in frequency use, preference orders, and the use of modifications. Furthermore, NS-E tended to use more direct strategies than EFL learners. This result echoed Olshtain and Weinbach¡¦s (1993) findings that learners would use less severe strategies than native speakers because learners would try to ¡§¡Kavoid straightforward face-threatening interactions at all costs¡¨ (p. 115). Besides, proficiency effect is found in EFL learners¡¦ interlanguage complaints production. It is more difficult for EFL-L learners to make complaints because of their low L2 proficiency. For future studies, gathering natural occurring data to compare the differences between role play is suggested. Besides, due to time limitation, the issue of interlocutor gender differences is not discussed and future work could include this matter to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the speech at of complaints.

A small but important set of studies on complaint speech acts have been focused on certain aspects of native speaker (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) complaints such as strategy use and native speaker judgment, (Du, 1995; House & Kasper, 1981; Morrow, 1995; Murphy & Neu, 1996; Olshtein & Weinbach, 1987; Trosborg, 1995). However, few researchers have comprehensively researched complaint interactions. Complaining to the person responsible for the complainable (as opposed to complaining about a third party or situation) is a particularly face-threatening speech act, with social norms that vary from culture to culture. This study was an investigation of how Japanese and Americans express their dissatisfaction to those who caused it in their native language and in the target language (Japanese or English). The data analyzed are from the role-play performances of four situations by ten dyads in each of four groups (native speakers of Japanese speaking Japanese to a Japanese (JJJ), native speakers of English speaking English to an American (EEE), native speakers of Japanese speaking English to a native speaker of English (JEE), and native speakers of English speaking Japanese to a native speaker of Japanese (EJJ). The complaint categories used in this study represent a pared-down version of Trosborg's (1995) categories based on two criteria: (a) hinting or mentioning complainable and (b) negative assessment of the complainer's action or of the complainer as a person. The following characteristics of the complaint interactions were analyzed: (a) the length of interactions in terms of the number of turns, (b) complaint strategies used by complainers, (c) initial complaint strategies used by complainers, (d) the comparison of S1Hint and S2Cmpl as the initial position, (e) interaction flow in terms of complaint severity levels, 6) strategies employed by complainees, and (f) flow of complaint interactions between complainers and complainees. The results indicate some differences between the groups of native speakers of English and Japanese in the length of their interactions and the use of strategies by complainers and complainees. In general, complaint sequences in English were shorter, and the complaint strategies used by the JJJ group were less indirect than those used by the EEE group. Several prototypical complaint sequences are described. Concerning the use of strategies, the JEE and EJJ groups used strategies more in line with those employed by target language speakers, rather than by speakers of their own language. An attempt is made to account for the different characteristics of English and Japanese complaints in terms of linguistic resources. Pedagogical implications are also highlighted. / CITE/Language Arts