Introduction
This study illustrate the need for pragmatic instruction in the foreign language classroom that deals with specific speech act situations, since the results reveal that L2 students who receive more grammatical instruction become more able to respond as they would in the L1. As seen with the students who received no specific instruction about responding to a compliment in Spanish, certain pragmatic elements do not appear to simply emerge with increased exposure to the L2. In order to acquire native-like and culturally appropriate Compliment behavior in the L2, specific instruction is needed. As seen in the data from native Spanish speakers, compliment responses, such as those which included fixed lexical expressions, differed greatly from the L1 English students.
The eight Compliment response types proved to be a successful way to classify the responses from a wide range of participants from different social and cultural backgrounds. In this section these eight compliment strategy types will be examined separately and the qualities of each will be discussed in terms of which group of participants used them the most, and how these frequencies relate to one another. For each response type, factors regarding which groups utilized said responses and the significance of these similarities will be discussed in the following section.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments were the most commonly used strategy by all groups. The popularity of this response type is not surprising since it has been widely noted that the most common English compliment response is “thank you.” The acknowledgment was not just common with the participants and English speakers. Contrary to some literature that implies that Spanish reject or ignore compliments, this group favored this response type nearly as much as the English and used them more than the English in three of the eight situations. While these acknowledgments included more responses than the iconic “thank you,” the frequency of this response type by the Spanish is worthy of attention.
As in the pilot study and in the present data, acknowledgments were most commonly used by beginning students of Spanish and used incrementally less as the class level increased. In most cases, the participants used acknowledgments far less than the native speakers of English, indicating that their dependence on this form is not due to a desire to mimic the speech act behavior of their L1, but rather it is more likely they are simply relying on a linguistically simple form that usually consists of one word. As the students progress in level, their reliance on this compliment response type decreases. As the students learn more grammar in their Spanish classes, they are able to produce longer utterances instead of simple acknowledgments. Since acknowledgments were least commonly used by the compliment of Spanish, these results could be interpreted as the participants acquiring the complimenting behavior of the target culture as they progress in their classes. However, it is more likely that this similarity is coincidental.
Upgrading
The compliment response of upgrading or expanding a compliment is a quite telling response since it is so carefully avoided in many cultures, yet embraced in others. Compared to response types like acknowledgments and explanations, this compliment response type was less commonly used, yet was still utilized by many speakers. This response type was most commonly used by the native speakers of Spanish and nearly absent in the responses of the English. These results are also in contrast to the commonly held belief that speakers of Spanish are more likely to refuse or ignore a compliment. In contrast, the speakers of Spanish who completed this preferred to upgrade over the other participants. Unlike acknowledgments where the frequency of use decreased as the class level increased, the frequency of this strategy by the participants that were studying Spanish peaked at the intermediate level.
This increase in the variety of strategies by the intermediate level that does not continue as the class level increases could relate to the pragmatic instruction that students of Spanish receive in intermediate classes that they not in previous and subsequent classes. It is often intermediate language students who are most aware of pragmatic differences such as address pronoun distinction based on age or level of power as these students are learning items such as formal and informal imperatives. This spike in variety by the intermediates might be a reflection of this instruction.
Explanations
Explanations were the second most used strategy by all groups, after acknowledgments. Explanations were neutral elaborations on a compliment that did not upgrade nor downgrade the impact of them. In this strategy, the receiver of the compliment often noted the status of the item being complimented (age, place of purchase, etc.) or some other fact that did not embellish or diminish the illocutionary force of the compliment. The English used far more explanations than the of Spanish. In fact, the speakers of English used the most explanations out of all the participants.
Not surprisingly, the students who participated in the study used more explanations as their class level increased. The opposite of this trend was seen with acknowledgments. This increase in use of this strategy is largely due to the increase in grammatical ability because the students are exposed to more complex instruction that was necessary to form the often long utterances that comprised this strategy. It is also of interest that as the students progressed in level, the pragmatic structure of their responses was far more similar to the responses of native speakers of English and not Spanish. This finding lends credibility to the argument that as the students of Spanish acquire more Spanish, they use this ability to mimic what they would like to say in the L1, but perhaps were not able to in earlier levels due to their limited grammatical capacity.
Refusal of Compliment
Appearing boastful is a quality that many societies avoid, and this is seen in the compliment response strategy use. For this reason, the strategies of refusing a compliment, often done to not appear boastful or overly proud, and upgrading were of special interest in this study. Refusals and downgrades were less common than upgrading. This strategy was used with almost the same frequency by both groups of native speakers. Also, with the exception of the beginner who utilized this strategy less than other groups, the intermediate and advanced participants used this strategy in similar numbers, and these frequencies were almost identical to those of both groups.
The usage of this strategy by each group of participants perhaps shows that both groups: native English and Spanish speakers view this strategy similarly. If it is true that English and Spanish speakers have different cultural ideas of how to show deference through compliment response that either reject or accept compliments; it would appear that these two groups show this difference through another strategy (perhaps upgrades) other than this one.
Return of Compliment
Returning a compliment was another common response type. The native speakers of English used this strategy almost twice as much as the native speakers of Spanish. This drastic difference gives cultural insight into the differences between these two language/cultural groups.
As Fong (1998) writes about the Chinese perception of Americans as giving compliments too freely and not genuinely, these results show that native Spanish speakers are far less likely to give a compliment, at least in response to another compliment.
As with upgrades, the usage of this strategy spiked with the intermediate participants. As with all of the strategies besides acknowledgments, the beginner group had the lowest percentage of this strategy. The frequency of use by the intermediates, although not as high as that of the response
English students, was the highest of the three groups comprised of students of Spanish. Interestingly, the group that most approximated the results of the Spanish native speakers was the beginning group participants. These results are enlightening since, as mentioned in the first chapter, the goal of any foreign language classroom is for the students to become users of language that is appropriate both grammatically and culturally. It is not the case with the compliment response strategy of returning a compliment that the students become more likely to respond like compliment of Spanish as they learn more Spanish.
Insults
Insults were an infrequent but interesting response type that was seen in this study. This response type is perhaps more revealing as it relates to the interlocutor than to the group using it. The overwhelming interlocutor who received this response to his/her compliment was the stranger, followed by a close friend. Since these two interlocutors possess different aspects of the variable of familiarity, the connection between insults and familiarity is notable. Not surprisingly, the beginning and intermediate students utilized this form most infrequently, while the advanced, and native Spanish and English groups used it with almost identical frequencies.
Questioning of Compliment
This strategy was used for instances when the person receiving a compliment questioned the reasoning behind the compliment, often with a question such as “you think?” or “really?”
Related to the response of downgrade/refusal, this response type seeks to lessen the force of the compliment. Unlike response types where the two native speaker groups’ responses were similar, the compliment that questioned the compliment of the native speakers of English were drastically different from those of the native speakers of Spanish. No native speaker of English questioned a compliment from any interlocutor. Although not a common strategy, the intermediate and advanced students, as well as the native speakers of Spanish all questioned compliments in far greater numbers than the native speakers of English. Unlike other strategies that seem to refute the grammar-pragmatic connection, the participants in this study were most able to replicate native Spanish compliment behavior as they advanced in Spanish classes.
Change of Topic
A topic change occurred when the compliment seemed unrelated to the compliment itself, such as an invitation or a comment about the weather. This response type was uncommon with both groups of native speakers, but was particularly rarely used by the native speakers of Spanish.
Again, the intermediates used this strategy far more than any group. In fact, the frequency of use of this strategy by the intermediate group was over three times that of the second closest group (advanced). This drastic increase in this strategy by the intermediate group is likely due to the pragmatic focus that many grammatical items that the classes in this group receive. As has been previously mentioned, often the intermediate Spanish classes are those in which the most pragmatic instruction, often in the form of second-person pronoun differentiation, is received.
While exhibiting strategy variety, every group of L2 participants used this strategy far more than either group of participants who were answering in their native languages. This phenomenon could lead one to believe that this strategy, that is common with language learners, though not with native speakers is caused by the students’ limited grammatical abilities and not their approximation of a native cultural behavior. This strategy could emerge from the students’ inter language, or their developing linguistic system. It is possible that this strategy appears out of necessity for the student to produce an utterance, even if these students do not have the lexical and grammatical abilities yet to produce a response that is related to the compliment they just received.
Conclusion
By studying the compliment response of students of Spanish, the complexities of this issue have been exposed and more completely understood. The issue of acquiring compliment response behavior that is appropriate in the target culture, as has been seen, is a complex topic that is not easy to explore fully. The data revealed in this study show various sides of this topic and leave the door open for future study that further establishes the possible connection between grammatical instruction and pragmatic acquisition. In this section, various issues related to the present study and central issues raised within will be discussed. In addition, other activities that could be utilized by language teachers, limitations of this study, and possibilities for future study will be proposed.
References
Al Falasi, H. (2001) Just Say “Thank You”: A Study of Compliment Responses. Linguistics Journal. 2 (1). Bachman, L. F. (1990) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1987). Indirectness and Politeness in Requests: Same or Different? Journal of Pragmatics, 11, 131-146.
Brown, P and S C. Levinson. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in language use. New York: Cambridge.
Chiang, B., F. Pochtrager. (1993). A Pilot Study of Compliment Responses of American-Born English Speakers and Chinese-Born English Speakers.
Coombs, V. M. (1981) Speech Act Theory and Foreign Language Learning. Conference Presentation: the Annual Meeting of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
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