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Abstract Abstract: Previous studies of direct complaints have focused on the comparison between interlanguage and mother tongue or between interlanguage and target language. Few studies have examined the pragmatic competence development of language learners. The present study investigated the development of Chinese English learners’ direct complaining pragmatic competence, with the data elicited from a Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT), questionnaire and a retrospective interview. The complaining samples elicited were analyzed in terms of directness levels, adjuncts to head act, and internal modifiers (including upgraders and downgraders). The results show that the increased proficiency (1) facilitated the learners’ directness levels, with more “explicit complaint” and fewer “immediate threat”; (2) resulted in more adjuncts to head act; and (3) increased upgraders, but decreased occurrences of most downgraders. The study may offer some implications on second language pragmatic teaching, learning and acquisition.
Key Words: linguistic proficiency; pragmatic competence development; the speech act of complaining
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