Gratitude Strategies as Pragmatic Parameter of Filipino Pre-Service Teachers’ Identity

Abstract

This study investigated the common gratitude strategies in different situations, which permeated indebtedness as a way of shaping pre-service teachers' identity. Using a 15-item Discourse Completion Test (DCT), 22 pre-service teachers in the Province of Cavite, Philippines participated in this study. An informal interview was conducted to validate the gathered data from the instrument used. The analysis was done through the use of Cheng's (2005) taxonomy of gratitude expressions, which include eight (8) strategies: thanking, appreciation, repayment, recognition of imposition, apology, positive feeling, alerter, and other non-taxonomy-based expressions. The results revealed that the respondents highly employed the use of 'simple thanking,' which reflects the simplicity and directness of the Filipino linguistic choice in making responses on various occasions. It was also found out that aside from the taxonomy-based thanking schemes, the respondents also used combined strategies and the 'no-response' strategy. Supported by Woodward’s identity theory, the identified gratitude strategies, as an illocutionary speech act, built the participants’ identities with an implication to their relational and socio-cultural patterns of language.

The act of thanking: A pragmatic study of speech act to speech action transition

“…To sum up, the findings showed that the most frequent strategies were simple thanking and appreciation. These results to some extent are similar to Salayo (2021) who found that the most usable thanking strategies used by teachers were 'simple thanking. Faqe et al (2019) also showed that the most frequently-used thanking expressions by Kurdish EFL learners were 'thanking, state of favor, and appreciation'.…”

“…The findings showed that the most frequently-used thanking expressions by Kurdish EFL learners were 'thanking, state of favor, and appreciation'. Salayo (2021) examined the most common thanking expression strategies used by pre-service teachers and showed how the identified gratitude strategies built their identity. a 15-item Discourse Completion Test (DCT) is used to collect the needed data from 22 pre-service teachers in the Province of Cavite, Philippine.…”

“…Thank you very much/ Thank you for your present, it makes me happy/ Thank you. I will not forget your kindness/ thanks a lot for doing that for me/ thank you, I appreciate that/ thank you, it's great / thank you , I will give it back to you soon Salayo (2021). indicated that although most learners used simple thanking expressions in giving a response, it was not enough without further expressions to express what they felt.…”