A Comparative Study of Cross-cultural Gratitude Strategies among Hausa , the Case of Arab and Chinese Students

The research investigated the thanking/gratitude strategies of three distinct cultures; Hausa, Chinese and Arabic languages with the aim of finding out the different strategies used by them and how different they are in their use of such strategies. The study employs Cheng (2005) Taxonomy of gratitude strategies in analyzing the data which was obtained from 15 participants among the Hausa, Chinese and Arabic students in UPM through the use of DCT (discourse completion Task) which were translated by the researchers into the three languages respectively before retranslated in to English language for analysis. The findings show a significant relationship in the use of “Simple Thanking strategy” among the three cultures as this strategy is utilized in 71.60% of the responses in the Hausa version of the DCT, 62% of the Arabian responses in the Arabic version of their DCT and 63.75% of the responses in the Chinese version of the DCT and were all found to be in the “thanking alone and thanking followed by the favor strategies” consistently. While the least used strategy is the “recognition of imposition” which was only realized by Arabian students and none was found among the Hausa and the Chinese students.


Introduction
According to Crystal (1999) "Pragmatics is the study of language from the point of view of the user especially of the choices they make, the constraint they encounter in using language in social interaction and the effects of their use of language on other participants in the act of communication" As an aspect of Pragmatics, speech acts can be seen as one of the most fundamental in the study of pragmatics and discourse analysis in general.For that fact, Searle (1976) see it as "a basic unit of discourse analysis" just like the sentences and other linguistic units are to the grammar.Austin (1962) defines speech act "as actions performed by saying something".
Man in his desire to express himself in the real world does not merely make utterances with any grammatical or lexical functions but also makes some acts through the utterances.E.g. the act of saying: Flourishing Creativity & Literacy "thank you, apologizing refusing or complaining" According to Bodman and Eisenstien (1988), the strategies of saying "thank you" is not onlydifficult to the second language users of the language but also to the native speakers with eachemploying his/ her peculiar strategies when saying "thank you" depending on the situation.This study will examine and compare the thanking strategies used by the Hausa, Chinese and Arabian students in UPM.The data for the study is going to be collected using DCT (discourse completion Task) which the students will complete.In order to compare the participants' "thanking strategies", the participants will complete the same version of DCT questionnaire adopted from Bodman and Eisenstein (1988) which will be translated into the different languages of the participants and later in to English for the analysis.
There have been quite a number of weaknesses in relation to the use of the DCT and one among which is that, the data obtained from DCT is unnatural and it does not capture the true responsive situation of the participants.As far as the study is concern, the use of DCT is considered as most suitable as it simplifies the task of the researchers (The task of observing the natural occurrences of such strategies in a natural situation) and also it saves time and cost.Therefore, the data elicited from such way will be consistent with the naturally occurring data in most aspects or situations.

Research Objectives
The aims of the study are: 1.To investigate and analyze the thanking/gratitude strategies used by Nigerian, Chinese and Iraqi students in UPM. 2. To examine if Nigerians, Chinese and Arabians differ in expressing gratitude to people of different ages.

Research Questions
1. What are the common thanking/gratitude expressions used by Nigerian, Chinese and Iraqi male and female speakers?2. How do Nigerian, Chinese and Iraqi speakers differ in expressing thanks/gratitude to their age-peers, old men and young subordinates?

Participants
This research will use 15 participants 5 from Hausa (a Nigerian tribe considered the most populous in the country and here in UPM), 5 from Chinese (from china and not Malaysian Chinese but living in Malaysia) and 5 from Iraqis (who are also living in Malaysia) Their ages can range from 18-60 because our study will see whether age is a determining factor in using some thanking strategies.(Among the 5 participants for each language, 3 males and 2 females will be employed with each participant given a number identification).

Instrument of data collection
This research will use DCT (discourse completion test) which the participants will be asked to complete some open ended questionnaires which will be adopted from a modified version of DCT designed by Eisenstein and Bodman (1993) the questionnaires will be translated in to the three languages in question into Hausa, Chinese and Arabic before issuing to the participants.The reason for the translation is to get an objective data that is unaffected by the second language influence.The questionnaire will be modified to contain sixteen separate question-paragraphs describing various situations that are close to reality.The participants will be asked to give their responses for each situation described in the blank space that is going to be provided to them after every scenario question.These sixteen scenarios varied on the contextual factors of interlocutor's familiarity, social status, gender and age.After the data is collected, the data will be translated back to English for the analysis.

Data Analysis
This study will adopt Cheng's (2005) strategies of thanking and gratitude.After the data is collected, it will be identified, interpreted and explained based on the 8 thanking/ gratitude taxonomies adopted from Cheng (2005).The data will further be analyzed using descriptive statistics for a frequency count.

Sampling
Quota sampling technique will be adopted in selecting the population for the study.This sampling technique suggests that only a portion of the population that fulfills certain requirements or features will be selected to serve as the representative of the whole larger population (Black 1999) in this study, the researchers intend to use the postgraduate/ undergraduate students of University Putra Malaysia for sourcing the data.

The Context of the Study
In order to place the work in its relevant context, the researchers adopted Hyme's SPEAKING model which according to Inayah (2009)

Setting
The setting or scene according to Hymes (1971) is the time, place and psychological setting of a conversation.The time when the study was conducted was during the period of one week, but the application of the DCT to the participants and the collection of it by the researchers were in a period of one day.For the place setting, the study was conducted in a laboratory situation, where the participants were given the DCT questionnaires to respond in convenient places such as the library and the graduate students study room which are all within the larger setting of the University and Malaysia.Psychologically, the participants assume themselves as the major agents of different situations within the DCT and as such, they find themselves in the houses, on the bus, or in a shopping store etc.

Participants
The participants here include both the researchers and the respondents or listeners.Five researchers took part in the present study, among them are: one Nigerian, a Chinese, and three Arabians.On the other hand, 15 participants are chosen from the three languages of the participants to take part in the study.

Ends
The ends which are purposes or the desired expected outcomes of the study are: To analyze the thanking strategies used by Nigerian, Chinese and Arabian Students and to also compare if they differ in expressing gratitude to their male and female counterparts.Or to the interlocutors of different ages (e.g. the Old and the young)

Act
The act here is the form and order of the event.First, the participants were issued with a 3-page DCT in their native languages.The DCT includes the instruction, background information and paragraphs of 16 situational questions which require the participants to place themselves in the different situations and answer the questions.The respondents were given enough time to fill in their responses.In that process, they made use of many illocutionary speech acts of gratitude/ thanking and locutionary acts which are the statements they used.And as the DCT prompts the participants to write their own responses, the perlocutionary act was also used.

Key
It is the overall manner of speech, the mood or the spirit of the discourse according to Hymes (1971).The discourse that prompted the participant's responses was in some way semi-formal and neither in a serious mood or spirit nor in jocular spirit.It gives them a "light and open feeling" by placing the participants in everyday normal situation.

Instrument
It is the form and style of the speech.The form and style of this discourse is "written and face-to face" as the researchers were there to assist the participants.Therefore, the written Hausa, Arabic and Chinese DCTs are the main instruments available.

Norm
The rule governing this study was for the respondents to read each situation and place themselves in each situation which will afterwards warrant them to answer some questions using gratitude strategies they deemed fit for the situation.Similarly, the researchers did not lead or give the responses to their participants and so they maintain the rule of only talking when asked to do so by the respondents.

Genre
Because the research is a cross-cultural pragmatic study, the genre used was predominantly a written informal traditional genre of gratitude among different cultures which according to Hymes (1971) is transcribed or written in different genre.Generally, it belongs to the genre of pragmatic tests (Testing).

Thanking Alone
Thanking Alone 28 responses made by the participants portray "thanking alone" strategy.They use "thank you" alone in situations where the favor done is very little and usual.

E.g. Nagode Thank you
Thanking by stating the favor done/ Moral attachment 90% of the Hausa speakers are predominantly Muslims.Out of the 30 responses of the participants using this strategy, 17 tend to attach strong moral religious values after saying thank you.E.g.

Nagode, Allah ya saka da alkhairi Thank you, may god shower on you his blessings.
While 13 responses were made stating the favour done after the use of "Thank You" e.g.Nagode dayimin taimakonnan Thank you for helping me.

Using the word appreciate alone
None of the participants used the word "I appreciate alone", and this is because according to the culture, it sounds impolite and ungrateful to the other party.

Using the word "appreciate" and mentioning the imposition caused by the favor
Nayi murna kwarai, dajin haka kuma nagode I really appreciate for hearing this and thank you ALLS 7(6):137-156, 2016 141

Feeling Indebted
Only 1 participant made use of this thanking strategy in his response.Only participant No. 3 made use of this strategy when he was offered a loan of $500 by his friend.E.g.

Promising Future Self-improvement
Here, only participant No.3 made use of future self-improvement when being added salary.E.g.
Naji dadi kwarai, zan kara zage damtse I appreciate it, I will add more effort.

Recognition Oof Imposition
None of the respondents used this strategy.

Using Apology by stating the Favor
Only participant no.1 made use of this strategy in one response and this is because Hausa culture doesn't use apology so often where a favor is made.E.g Nagode, kayi hakuri da wannan wahalar dana sakaka aciki Thank you, I am sorry for putting you through this.

Expressing Embarrassment
Participant no.2 decided not to say thank you to the elderly driver as he said: He was embarrassed for showing his impatience (naji kunyane na nuna rashin hakuri na)

Expressing Positive Feeling
Participant no. 3 and no. 2 made use of this strategy in their five responses towards the favor done to them.E.g Da kyau, aikinka yayi kyau kwarai that's good, your work is awesome

Leave taking
Among the strategies for expressing "thank you" here, only the Leave taking strategies are used by participant no 2.
And no.4 in 3 responses, this according to the Hausa culture shows that the participants are not attached personally to the interlocutors.e.g., in the shopping stores, when he was about to leave, participant no. 2 said this to the salesman.

Conclusion
From the table above, one can fathom that the most used gratitude strategy is the "thanking strategy" with 71% of the participant's responses including it, followed by Appreciation which is close to saying "thank you" in Hausa with 7.41%.The next most used strategy according to the data is "Expressing positive feeling" with 6.17% next after that is the use of "attention getters" within another structure with 6.17%.Finally, "repayment" and "Apology" strategy for gratitude are the least used strategies among the Hausa Graduate students of UPM with only 2.47% each.

Thanking Strategy a) Thanking alone
Since "thanking alone" strategy comprises utterances made up of thanking words such as 'thank you' or 'thanks'.There were 32 that were made using thanking alone strategy among the participants.

E.g. 'Shukran' thank you b) Thanking by stating the favor done
Out of (50) thanking responses.18 responses have been utilized to display thanking and stating the Favor as a strategy to express gratitude.

E.g. Shukran li ahtimamk, ant falan sadiq wafi
Thanks for your interest; you are absolutely a best friend.

Appreciation a) Using the word "appreciate alone"
Only one of the participants used this strategy, since using the word appreciate alone doesn't bear a heavy gratitude in its meaning.

E.g. Ana oqder laka ha`a I appreciate it b) Using the word "appreciate" and mentioning the imposition caused by the favor
Four participants in their responses employed the word "appreciate" and mentioning the imposition caused by the favor.This reveals to what extend that the people used to utilize such expressions among them.
Appreciate it.That is so nice of you, I wish you all success in your life.Only one participant "acknowledged the imposition" in his response to the action which expresses a kind of modesty I a given situation E.g. ana uaked lak ina telka al ziyada fi ratbi stjaaalni akther mthabra.

Repayment
I admit this increase in my salary will push me to be more persistent.

Using Apology by stating the Favor
This strategy was used by only one participant, although this strategy has a broader use in Arabic conversation.It could be attributed to the type of questions that is included in the DCT which elicits an apology strategy.
You did a great job and I am sorry for not helping you.

Expressing Positive Feeling
Five Arab respondents made use of this strategy in framing 19 responses over the total no of 80 responses.
You are doing a great job, thank you my friend.

Others
None of the participants used this strategy.

Attention Getter a) Attention getter
Only in two situations that two responses out of all responses demonstrated the use of "attention getter".E.g. ma asedek saraha areed ahethnak alaa ali sawetah.
Wow! I really want to hug you for what you did, thank you so much.7. The Thanking strategies Among Chinese speakers

Thanking Alone
Thanking Alone 17 responses were found to include "thanking alone" strategy.They use of "thank you" alone is usually made based on the Chinese culture in situations where the favor done is very little and when they received messages from a common friend.

E.g. 谢谢你。 (Thank you in Chinese)
Thanking by stating the favor done/ Moral attachment 51 responses were made to include the favour done to the participants after the use of "Thank You".This tend to show the degree and extent to which they show how grateful they are.This usually comes before or after saying "Thank you" E.g. 非常谢谢你，我真的很喜欢这个礼物。 (Thank you very much, i really like this present)

Using the word appreciate alone
None of the participants used the word "I appreciate alone", and this is because Chinese people do not have the habit to use the word I appreciate alone.

Using the word "appreciate" and mentioning the imposition caused by the favor
6 participants made use of this strategy in their 6 responses.This shows the respect to the other person.

Repayment
There are 17 responses that made use of repayment strategy.Among them, only 10 responses used repayment strategy to show "offering service".
E.g. 谢谢你，下次我请你吃饭。(Thank you .Next time is my turn to pay for dinner.) The rest of 7 responses are "Promising Future Self-improvement" by using repayment strategy.
E.g. 谢谢你，我下次会做的很好。(Thank you.I will do even better next time.)

Recognition of Imposition
None of the respondents used this strategy.

Using Apology by stating the Favor
Only participant no.5 made use of this strategy for once in responding to getting off the car.

Expressing Embarrassment
Only Participant no.3 used the apology strategy instead of "thank you" to decrease embarrassment between him and his friend.

Conclusion
From the information above, we can conclude that the mostly used gratitude strategy is "thanking strategy" with 63.75%, followed by Repayment strategy with 21.25%.The next is "appreciation" strategy with 7.5% which we can see all from the chart above.Among all the strategies, "apology", "positive feeling", and "other" (small talk) are all realized with only 1.25%.Finally, both "recognition of imposition" and "attention getter" have 0%.

Findings and Conclusion
Chart 4. Frequency and percentage of overall strategy use among the three Language It can be fathomed according to the findings that, there is a strong relationship between the three cultures (Hausa, Chinese and Arabic) in their use of "Simple Thanking" strategy as 71.60% of the responses in the Hausa version of the DCT, 62% of the Arabian responses in the Arabic version of their DCT and 63.75% of the responses in the Chinese version of the DCT among the participants in UPM all were found to be in the "thanking alone and thanking followed by the favor strategies" consistently.This finding is in conformity with that of Fariba and Sanaz (2014) whose research in the use of thanking strategies among the Iranians shows 80% of their intermediate subjects using "simple thanking" strategy in their English sample of their DCT.
For "Appreciation strategy", 7.41% responses among the Hausa participants, 6.25% responses among the Arabians and 7.5% responses among the Chinese respondents have been made using "appreciation" strategy.This shows that in the use of appreciation strategy, there is no any significant difference between the three cultures.
However, in the use of "Repayment strategy", a significant difference was seen between the responses of the Chinese participants which was 21.25% and the other two cultures who only recorded 2.47% for Hausa and 2.50% for Arabic participants which made the researchers to conclude that there is a significant relation between the Hausa and Arabic cultures in their use of "repayment strategy".
Only 2.47% responses use "apology strategy" for Hausa, 1.25% among the Arabian and the Chinese responses consistently.This indicates that there is also a strong correlation among the two cultures in the use of "apology strategy".
There wasn't any use of "recognition of imposition" strategy among the Hausa and Chinese culture while Arabic only recorded 1.25% use.
For "Positive feeling" strategy, 6.17% among the responses in the Hausa version of the DCT made use of this strategy while Chinese recorded only 1.25% but Arabic recorded up to 23.75% making a significant difference between their use of "positive feelings" as compared to Hausa and Chinese.
Finally, in their use of "other strategies" only 3.70% of the responses were recorded in the Hausa version of the DCT while 2.5% was recorded in the Arabic Version and 0% in the Chinese version of the DCT

Conclusion
One can conclude therefore that, the most frequently used strategy among the three cultures is the "simple thanking" and this is in conformity with several researches done in the same field.While the least used strategy is the "recognition of imposition" which was not found to be used in the Hausa and Chinese versions of the DCT and with only 1.25% in the Arabic version of the DCT.There is no any significant difference in the use of Gratitude strategies in addressing either females/males or young/old interlocutors among the three cultures.

Sample of the DCT adopted from a modified version of DCT designed by Eisenstein and Bodman (1993)
Dear participant, Thank you for participating in this survey.This study is intended to explore cross cultural speech behavior.The information you provide below will be used for this study only and will remain confidential.In the following section, please fill in the blank spaces with the correct information.

CHINESE
a) Offering or promising service Participants no. 5 and no. 1 have used this strategy in their responses towards the favor of Offering or promising service.E.g.Ana aml an yakun dawri fi al mara al qadima, ba al faal ant tamtalk qalb kabeer.I hope to turn it back to you at a nearest time.You absolutely have a good heart.

Table 2 .
Frequency and percentage of overall strategy use among Hausa students Frequency and percentage of overall strategy use among the Hausa participants E.g. sai anjima later 5.8 Attention Getter 5 responses by three participants used five exclamatory attention getters.Participant no. 2, after returning from work and finding the house clean made use of an attention getter.E.g Kai! Abu yayi kyau, Allah yasaka Wow! Everything looks good, may god bless.

Table 3 .
Frequency and percentage of overall strategy use among the Arabian participants Figure andTable illustrate that the thanking strategy with (62.50%) is the most frequently used strategy.The second most commonly used strategy by the Arab participants was positive feeling with (23.75%).Appreciation takes the third most frequently used strategy with the percentage of (6.25%).The fourth most frequently used strategy with (2.50%) is Attention getter.Finally, Arab speakers use of Repayment strategy is only (2.50%), and Apology together with Recognition of imposition with only (1.25%) consistently.
Chart 2. Frequency and percentage of overall strategy use among the Arabian participants

is a male) You would say: You would say nothing because: 2
You will find the following scenarios involve being placed in a situation where you may feel, to different degrees, obliged or grateful to someone who has done something for or requested of/from you.Please imagine yourself in each situation and respond accordingly based on your immediate reaction.If you feel that a specified situation does not warrant a response, please provide an explanation.1.It is Friday.You look into your wallet and notice that you only have $2.00.your good friend at work notices this and hears you say,' I'll have to go to the bank.'Your friend asks if you need money, and you say that you forgot to go to the bank.Your friend says, 'I have plenty.How much do you need?'You say, 'Could you lend me $5.00?I'll pay you back on Monday.'Your friend says, 'Sure.Are you sure you don't need more than that?'You say you don't.Your friend gives you the $5.00.(Your friend .You board a bus, pay your money and take a seat near the front of the bus.Just before you stop, you guess that the driver is not going to stop.You move to the front, and ask the driver to stop and he stops.(The driver

is an old man) You would say: You would say nothing because
You work for a large company, which is usually very busy.You send your manager a request for some days off.The vice-president of personnel calls you into his office.He tells you to sit down.You feel a little nervous, because you have only been working there for six months.The vice-president says, "You're doing a good job.In fact, we are so pleased with you that I am going to give you a raise".(Your boss : 3. It is your birthday, and you're having a few people over for dinner.A friend brings you a present.You unwrap it and find a blue sweater that you wish to have.(Your friend is a female) You would say: You would say nothing because: 4.

is younger than you and a female) You would say: You would say nothing because:
Today is your birthday.X sends you a text, wishing you a happy birthday 5.In the supermarket, you ask the cashier to bag your groceries.He does this, and then turns to begin serving the next costumer.You pay and pick up your bags to leave.(The cashier

is an old man) You would say: You would say nothing because: 6
. At the table in a restaurant a friend says, you have something on your face.'You ask where.Your friend tells you.You rub your face and ask,' Is it off?' your friend says that it is.(your friend

is young and male) You would say: You would say nothing because: 7
. You find yourself in sudden need of money--$500.You mention this to a friend.Your friend immediately offers to lend it to you.At first you say, 'Oh no, I didn't mean it as a request.I couldn't take it.'Your friend says,' really, it's all right.What are friends for?'Your friend insists again, and you take the check.(Your friend

is a male) You would say: You would say nothing because 8
. You are studying in another city.Both you and your roommate work.You come home late from work and find that your roommate has done some work around the house that you had promised to do, but had not had a chance to do.
(Your roommate is old and a male) You would say: You would say nothing because: 9.Your friend suggests going out to lunch.You say that you'd like to go, but you only have $2.Your friend says.'Ah, don't worry.I'll treat you today.'Your friend takes you to a very nice restaurant -a much more expensive one than you usually go to.You have a wonderful meal.Your friend pays, and you get up to leave.(Your

friend is older and a female) You would say: You would say nothing because: 10
. You have just gotten an admission from a foreign university.A close friend in the university tells you she has organized a farewell party for you.

You would say: You would say nothing because: 11
. You have just gotten your hair cut in a new style, and you like it better than the old one.Your friend sees it and you ask him what he thinks.He says, 'Hey, you've got a new haircut.It looks nice.'You

would say: You would say nothing because: 12
. You share an apartment with a friend.You're both sitting and relaxing in the living room.You ask your friend to hand you the newspaper which is nearby.Your friend gives you the newspaper.(Your friend

is a male and younger) You would say: Thanks. You would say nothing because: 13
. You enter a parking garage.As the parking attendant gives you the parking voucher, You hand him the money and ask him about the empty space.(He is

middle age and older than you) You would say: You would say nothing because
Today is your birthday.X sends you a text, wishing you a happy birthday.(X is : 14.You have been invited to the home of a rather new friend.You have dinner with him and his family and a few other friends of theirs.The food was great, and you really enjoyed the evening.As you leave, your hosts accompany you to the door.(He is same as your age) You would say: You would say nothing because: 15.

a male) You would say: You would say nothing because: 16.
You have just got a job offering from a company.X knows about it and X congratulates you.(X is