Rhetorical Structure and Politeness Strategies in Complaint Letters Used by International Students in a Thai ELF Context

Making a complaint in any language is not an easy task. The complainer might run the risk of impairing relationship between him/her and hearer. In Thailand, international students use English as medium communication among one another with local people. This lingua franca (ELF) context was considered appropriate to investigate rhetorical structure politeness strategies used letters written by order see their polite factors influencing choices. Forty graduate were asked write two addressees university contexts, person higher status other equal status. Some them also interviewed. Based on Hartford & Mahboob’s framework ( 2004 ), seventeen moves found r hetorical letter s . As strategies, more negative Complaint Request while positive set common ground Introduction, Attention getter, Background choice included social status, distance, pragmatic transfer, L2 input interviews reveal different views complainers complainees effectiveness adopted. Keywords: Complaint; franca; structure;