Responses to compliments in online English chat: a comparison between Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study is to uncover responding patterns to compliments among Iranian learners of English (EFL learners) and native English speakers observed through online video chats on Skype. This study’s participants were 40 Iranian EFL learners and 40 English speakers. The findings revealed that the compliment responses (CRs) of EFL learners were similar to those of English speakers with regard to global strategies (both accepted the compliments largely). However, it was revealed that EFL learners’ CRs were to some degree under the influence of Iranian cultural values such as sha’n (dignity), shekasteh-nafsi (modesty), tarof (insincere offer), and adab-va-ehteram (courtesy and respect). These cultural values act as a moderator variable that Persianised the English responses that EFL learners provided. The findings revealed that the responding patterns of participants do not change when the medium of communication (e.g. face-to-face vs. online interactions) changes. This study also shows that for those who speak English as a foreign language, pragmatic competence may be greatly regulated by L1 conventions, the ramification of which is cross-cultural miscommunication and pragmatic failure manifested in L2. This study contributes to learning and teaching pragmatics in the EFL context.

KEYWORDS:

• Compliment responses
• cultural concepts
• EFL learners
• pragmatics
• Skype

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Mostafa Morady Moghaddam is an Assistant Professor at Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran. Mostafa does research on discourse analysis, pragmatics and cultural linguistics as related to different settings and contexts, including language classrooms. His most recent articles are accepted/published in ‘Lingua’, ‘Pragmatics’, and ‘Language and Dialogue’. His recent monograph regarding ‘indirect reports’ is under production by Springer.

Notes

1 Skype is a free telecommunication application software product that specialises in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, etc.

2 Emoji icons are ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages and web pages.

3 All the CR exchanges in the Results section are extracted from the transcripts of the current study.

4 Sharifian argues that taarof or tarof is conceptualised in the form of ‘ostensible invitations, repeated rejection of offers, insisting on making offers, hesitation in making requests, giving frequent compliments, hesitation in making complaints, etc.’ (2010, 446).

5 This response is under the influence of L1 interference. The English response is a literal translation of ‘cheshat ghashang mibine’ in Persian [pronounced as tʃeʃɒːt qæʃæng miːbiːne]. The English counterpart is ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’.

6 This is another case of L1 transfer observed among Iranian EFL learners. ‘You can have it’ is a literal translation of ‘ghabel nadare’ [pronounced as qɒːbel nædɒːre].