Thanking Strategies of Gratitude Expressions in English Produced by Americans and Chinese Indonesians in Surabaya: Now and Then

There has been a strong assumption and a number of research indicating that Americans are more generous and direct than Asians in producing gratitude expression (Apte, 1994, cited in Cheng, 2005, and Kuntjara, 2003). However, as English has penetrated almost all layers of society, it is very possible for this phenomenon to change. This research focuses on the thanking strategies of gratitude expression in English produced by five native speakers of English (Americans) and five nonnative speakers of English (Chinese-Indonesians) in Surabaya. The data was collected from role plays adapted from Eisestein and Bodman (1983), Cheng (2005), and the researchers’ in order to cover more various settings. The researchers used Haverkate’s theory (1984, cited in Aijmer, 1996, p.37) on the eight strategies of gratitude expression to analyze the data. The finding reveals that both Americans and Chinese Indonesians mostly used the explicit strategy in expressing gratitude. Interestingly, the Americans used the explicit strategies less frequently than the Chinese Indonesians. This research signifies that ethnicity is not the only factor affecting gratitude expression as other potential factors namely language exposure and attitudes toward both cultures also play important roles.