More than ‘thanks’: Responding to compliments in a second language

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the use of macro and micro strategies used to respond to compliments in a second language. For this aim, advanced level Turkish learners of English as a foreign language were given a written discourse completion task (24 items) and were asked to give metapragmatic judgements of their responses on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 meant not appropriate at all and 5 meant highly appropriate. The study specifically addresses the role of gender on (i) the strategies used to respond to compliments in a foreign language and (ii) metapragmatic judgements of the appropriateness of these responses. The utilized response strategies to the compliments were coded in terms of the categories proposed by Boori (1994). Overall, the findings showed that the female participants tended to accept the compliments whereas the males preferred to reject them as macro level strategies. Micro level strategies such as an appreciation token, a comment and returning the given compliment were used more often by both groups. The findings revealed that females statistically significantly differed from males in their responses to the compliments received on a possession and on their looks. What is more, the perceived pragmatic appropriacy of the responses to the compliments was statistically significantly higher for females than for males when the participants were required to respond to a compliment on their skills. The findings suggest that gender plays a role in compliment responses and their perceived appropriateness.