The Study Of Compliment Response Strategies Of Chinese Learners Of English

This thesis studies compliment response (CR) strategies of Chinese Learners of English (CLE). Compliment and CR are universal language phenomena in interpersonal communication. Compliments express positive concern to the interlocutor and the obvious function they serve is to oil the social wheel. Compliment and CR are adjacency pairs. Making appropriate CRs has great significance in maintaining and developing personal relationship. CR strategies are influenced by culture profoundly, people with different culture background adopt different CR strategies and thus it is more challenging when CRs take place in intercultural circumstance.Discourse Completion Task (DCT) is used to collect data in this thesis. Four groups of subjects are required to make CRs to four different situations: appearance, possession, performance and personality. Group one consist of non-English majors who represent CLE with comparatively low English level. Group two are English majors in China, and they represent CLE with higher English level. Subjects in group three have been studying or working in America over one year. Comparing with group one and group two, group three have more direct contact with American culture. Group four are American Native English Speakers, and data of this group are used as reference for comparing the difference of CR strategies of CLE. Through Chi-square test of SPSS the collected data are analyzed. Data analysis indicates that CR strategies of group one and group four have the greatest difference, and the CR strategy difference between group two and group four is also significant. However, in adopting CR strategies, group three and group four have no significant difference.After analyzing difference in CR strategies, this thesis explains the CR strategy difference from the perspective of cultural difference, especially different understanding of'face'and politeness in American and Chinese cultures. From this thesis we know English learning environment influences the employing of CR strategies. We clear about that cultural transfer is universal phenomenon in CRs, and it affects CR strategies of CLE. This thesis also proves that CR strategies vary with compliment situation. CLE prefer to accept compliments to appearance and performance rather than accept compliments to possession and personality. AENSs are willing to accept compliment to appearance, performance as well as possession, but when responding to compliment to personality, they use less accept strategy than other situations. The research and analysis of this study reveal the similarities and differences in CR strategies of CLE. It is helpful in enhancing the research on language and culture difference in specific contexts, and it is significant in improving ICC and guiding English teaching in China.