Troubles talk and complaints in teacher-student interactions: Affiliative and disaffiliative reactions

Abstract

Expressions of dissatisfaction are made either through troubles talk or complaints (Haugh, 2016). Against this backdrop, through the analysis of naturally occurring data in classroom interactions, this paper explores Iranian university students’ troubles talk and complaints, and how teachers reacted to them. The study’s findings reveal that female students generated more cases of troubles talk, whereas male students complained more in their interactions with teachers. In reaction to troubles talk, female teachers’ affiliative responses drastically outnumbered male ones, whereas in reaction to complaints, male teachers’ disaffiliative responses largely outnumbered female ones. The conclusion is that gender differences and the appraisal of the expression of dissatisfaction as troubles talk or a complaint play a pivotal role in teachers’ responses. In this study’s institutional context, complaints were not welcomed by the teachers, in that they linked students’ expressions of dissatisfaction to low self-efficacy or subjective judgment of teachers’ performance. This study highlights the importance of local contexts and practices in understanding the nature of complicated speech acts such as complaints.