Exploring Pragmatic Competence in Formal Communicative Contexts: The case of thanking by native and non-native speakers of Greek

The aim of the current preliminary study is to explore the speech act of thanking in formal communicative contexts.More specifically, it investigates the possible differences in the expression of thanking by native and non-native speakers of Greek.Participants were thirty-one (N=31) learners of Greek as a SecondLanguage (L2) at five different proficiency levels (from A2 to C2)enrolled in a summer intensive course of Greek in Athens, Greece. In addition, a group of native speakers of Greek (N=30) was recruited as a baseline. Oral data were elicited through a series of open role plays which represented three formal communicative situations with different social parameters. A retrospective verbal protocol was also used with the L2 learner group. The analyses focused on the type and the amount of strategies used by the two groups. Results showed a difference in the type and number of strategies that these two groups employed. Findings also seem to indicate that social setting and direction of imposition were crucial factors for the performance of thanking by both groups. L2 learners’ performance was also affected by their familiarity with each situation