Congratulation Strategies Employed by Jordanians in an Academic Setting: A Socio-Pragmatic Study

Abstract

Congratulation speech is one of the most linguistic aspects that is performed by people in general and among Jordanians in particular. Understanding the Jordanians’ congratulation helps people from different cultures to understand them adequately. This study aims to investigate the congratulation strategies written in the graduation notebooks for undergraduate students at Jerash university. The writers of congratulations, typically the students' friends, classmates, and professors, are requested by the graduated students to pen their congratulations in their graduation notebooks after they completed their bachelor studies at the English language and literature department. To analyze the data, the congratulation strategies will be identified and then classified. A qualitative method involving observations and memos was used to collect data from 10 congratulatory notebooks. The study revealed that the students employed various congratulatory strategies, including congratulatory statements, happiness clauses, compliments, good wishes, and the ability to attach presents. It also suggests a potential area for future research, which could investigate the students’ reactions to the congratulatory text to evaluate the perlocutionary act of the students. Another suggestion for future research is that compering the Jordanians strategies of congratulation with other society strategies of congratulations to shed the light to the similarities and differences between them.