Negotiating Dissatisfaction in Academic Contexts: A Pragmatic Study of Complaint Strategies in Student Interactions

This study examines the pragmatic realization of complaint strategies in academic discourse, with a particular focus on how university students express dissatisfaction in interactions with peers and instructors. Drawing on naturally occurring data and elicited responses from students at universities in North Macedonia, the analysis adopts a speech act framework informed by politeness theory and an established taxonomy of complaints.

The study investigates the linguistic forms, mitigation strategies, and face-saving devices used by students when formulating complaints in both formal and semi-formal academic contexts. The findings indicate a clear preference for indirect, hedged, and positively polite complaint realizations, particularly in situations involving power asymmetry, such as communication with academic staff. In contrast, peer-to-peer interactions display greater variability, including more direct forms that are often softened through humor or expressions of solidarity.

These results underscore the influence of cultural norms, interpersonal relationships, and institutional context on complaint behavior. Moreover, the study addresses a gap in the existing literature by focusing on university students in North Macedonia, with special attention to interethnic and intercultural dimensions within educational settings. By analyzing both naturally occurring and elicited interactions, the research sheds light on the pragmatic competence of students and the culturally shaped communicative norms that guide complaint production and mitigation.

Overall, the study contributes to the field of intercultural pragmatics by illustrating how students negotiate the tension between expressing dissatisfaction and maintaining social harmony in multilingual academic environments.

Keywords: Pragmatics, complaint strategies, academic discourse, politeness theory, intercultural communication.