Researchers have established that advice-giving is an intrinsically face threatening act in the Anglo-American culture. However, NSs of English and NNSs may view the appropriateness of giving advice differently and use it with different communicative goals. This study focuses on the differences in native speaker and non-native speaker judgments of situations in which giving advice is appropriate and the forms which this advice can take. In a survey based on written role-plays, NNSs and NSs similarly recognized the difference in social distance between a peer acquaintance and an authority figure, but in both contexts, NNSs chose substantially more direct and hedged advice than did NSs. L2 learners are not necessarily aware of the negative politeness impact in L2 of advice- giving, a strategy often viewed positively in several L1s, and they need to be taught conversational strategies more appropriate in L2.
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