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Thai and English responsesto compliments in English

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Thai and American Responses toCompliments in English Author Payung Cedar Naresuan University, Thailand Bio Data Payung Cedar holds four degrees in English andLinguistics, including a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics fromBoston University, MA, USA. She has been working in thefield for 12 years. Currently, she is teaching in the EnglishDivision of the Humanities Faculty at Naresuan University,Phitsanulok, Thailand.

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Abstract Compliments and Compliment Responses Thecauses of misunderstanding andcommunication breakdown include differentnorms of complimenting and responding tocompliments.

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What is a compliment ? For any culture, a compliment must expressapproval of something that both parties,speakers and addressees, regard positively(Manes, 1983), and it must be valued by theculture indicated (Holmes, 1987; Manes, 1983).Yet, the ways in which people compliment andrespond to the compliment vary culturally.

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The function of complimentsAmerican English maintaining social harmony sustaining social interaction showing gratitude, open or close a conversation softening a criticism or request establishing and reinforcing solidarity between thespeaker and the addressee serving as expression of praise and admiration

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The function of complimentsThai culture Thai culture values humility and modesty a compliment in Thai is a carefully controlled speech actwith a much more restricted purpose than a complimentin American English.

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The major research questions 1. What are the differences betweencompliment responses of Thai-speaking learnersof English and those of native speakers ofAmerican English ?  2. Does gender difference affect thecompliment response patterns of Thais andAmericans?

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SubjectsThe subjects in this study were divided into 2 groups: Thais and Americans.Thai group 6 males and 6 females in ESL Program in Boston University Stayed in the US. for 6 months - 1.2 years obtained a TOEFL score in the range of 450 - 501American group 6 males and 6 females Native speakers of English enrolled in graduate programs at Boston University

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Procedure The data was collected from individual interviews. an adult female American English native speaker wasasked to interview all subjects This was to elicit compliment responses that werespontaneous and subconscious

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Data Analysis 1. Acceptance: ritual "thank you", i.e., agreement with no furtherelaboration, e.g. "Thank you"; "I think so, too"; "Im glad you like it.” 2. Positive Elaboration: account, history, positive comment, efforts, returnof compliment, e.g. "I bought it at Macys"; "Red is my favorite color"; "Iworked hard on the project"; "I like yours, too.” 3. Neutral Elaboration: seeking conformation or shift of credit, e.g."Really?"; "Do you think so?"; "My assistant selected them.” 4. Negative Elaboration: downgrading, duty or responsibility, need forimprovement, e.g. "The house is a bit too small for us"; "I still need a lot ofimprovement"; "Its my responsibility.” 5. Denial: no or negative opinion, e.g. "No, not all"; "No, my baby is ugly.” 6. Smiling (laughing): non-verbal expression of embarrassment without anyovert verbal response 7. No Response: no indication of having heard of the compliment

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Research Question 1: What are the differencesbetween compliment responses used by Thaispeakers of English and by native speakers ofAmerican English? 4/5 of the American responses fall into the categories ofacceptance and positive elaboration.8/10 Americans respond positively to the compliments,whereas only about half of the Thai subjects do so. only 5% of the Thai responses are found in the categoryof positive elaboration, in contrast to 30% of theAmerican responses. 2 types of compliment response, namely, "smiling(laughing)" and "no response" were used by the Thaisubjects in this study but they did not exist in Americansubjects responses.

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3 interesting observations call for presentation The first, as mentioned before, is that smiles have differentfunctions in each culture. The second observation is that the Thai and Americansubjects interpreted the purpose of complimentsdifferently The last interesting observation in this study is that someAmerican subjects tended to "return" the complimentsright after being complimented, whereas none of theThai subjects did

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Research Question 2: Does gender differenceaffect the compliment response patterns ofmale and female subjects?Thai Females vs. Males, and American Females vs. Males6 major differences are descriptively reported as follows. American females use acceptance as a response type far more often thanAmerican males (57:37), Thai males use acceptance responses slightly more frequently than Thaifemales (50:45). for positive elaboration, Thai females use many positive elaborationresponses, while males use none (10:0). On the contrary, American males use many more positive elaborationresponses than females do (37:24). Thai males tend to use neutral elaboration and negative elaboration moreoften than Thai females do (18:10 and 14:5, respectively). American females who use negative elaboration more often than Americanmales do (14:6).

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3 interesting observations call for presentation Thai males give no positive elaboration but many denialresponses, while Thai females give no denial but several positiveelaboration responses. a noticeable difference in denial responses between femalesand males. None of the Thai or American females used denialresponse to the compliments, while 14% of Thai malesresponses and 10% of American males responses fall into thiscategory. Thai females use the non-verbal response (smile), while theAmerican females do not. Additionally, only the Thai femalesgive no response. 1/4 of the total responses by Thai females areclassified as smiling without any verbal elaboration, whereasonly 4% of responses by Thai males fall into this category.

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Conclusions The first is a question of whether non-native speakersshould follow the proverb "When in Rome do as theRomans do", and leave their traditions or habits behind,or whether they should strongly hold on to their ethnicidentity. The second is a question of whether the majoritysawareness of the cultural differences is awakened. EFL teachers should show the learners how toappropriately respond to an English compliment.