A Study On Request Strategiesin Business English Letters Of Complaints

As a main type of speech acts, request is very common in the social activities,and it is even more frequent in business activities. In fact, the effective use of requests will directly influence the effect of business communication. Based on speech act theory, Searle(1969, 1975) defined requests as the speech act by which the speaker asks the hearer to perform certain act, which is usually for the exclusive benefit of the speaker. The realization of any requests will not be achieved without certain request strategies, and different requests usually have their corresponding strategies. Previous studies on request strategies were mainly confined in daily communication, while studies on request strategies in specific communication fields, like scientific or business field, were quite limited.A letter of complaints is one of the most common and perhaps the most difficult type of letter to deal with among business English letters; and request is the indispensable part in a letter of complaints. Generally, requesting the receiver to carry out remedial or compensating action is the main theme for letters of complaints. Thus,the effective use of requests and request strategies not only influences the effect of business communication, but also influences the effect for the final solution of business complaints.By selecting 90 Business English letters of complaints written by students from Business English majors and International Trade majors respectively, the thesis made a quantitative analysis on requests strategies. The thesis analyzed the most commonly used request strategy in business English letters of complaints. Also, the thesis compared the letters of complaints written by the two groups of students, attempting to examine whether they have different preference for request strategies; lastly, the thesis compared the request strategies in letters of complaints written by students with different business English proficiency level from the two groups of students(higher level proficiency, inter-mediate level proficiency and lower level proficiency) to see whether different business English proficiency will lead to different choice for request strategy. Additional verbal report questions were designed for further analysis.Through systematic analysis, the thesis found that direct requests and direct request strategies are mostly used in business English letters of complaints. Students in business English prefer to be more direct when requesting compared with students in international trade major. Besides, students with higher business English proficiency are more direct when requesting compared with students with lower business English proficiency. Moreover, by analyzing the verbal report answers, the researcher found that the weakness in business English vocabulary and expressing ability resulted in students’ difference for request strategies. Lastly, through the research, the researcher has found a new request strategy and tentatively proposed a new type of request strategy based on the categorization of Trosborg and Blum Kulka:strategy N( showing hope, wishes, appreciation or advice).