Functional analysis of Iranian learners’ L2: Complimenting in written discourse

This research was undertaken to study one functional aspect of L2 performance, i.e., Iranian learner's complimenting in L2 (English). In other words, the study aimed to discover if Farsi speakers carry over their Farsi potentiality to their L2. 65 senior university students majoring in English and taking the specialized course called "essay writing" participated in the study. First, they were taught how to write reviews on their classmates' essays and then their reviews were analyzed on the basis of the framework provided by Johnson and Roen (1992), and Chafe and Danielwicz (1987). The results indicated that Iranian learners (female and male) did not differ in the use of complimenting formulae and strategies. With regard to the gender of the addressees, the use of formulae and strategies of complimenting were not statistically different either. The results indicated that learners did not transfer their L1 potentiality into L2, showing that classroom teaching provides a condition for learning pragmatic issues which is different from L1 and yet uniform.