| In this paper, DCT was used to determine the compliment responses’ strategies inMandarin used by the Malaysian English and Chinese Bilingual speakers. The influencefrom English on their mother tongue Chinese was obvious and hence “PragmaticsBackward Transfer†was proven.The findings of this paper show that the subjects with three proficiency levels ofEnglish in its Chinese compliment responses have generally accepted compliments, andcollege tends to be an important turning point whereby Pragmatics Backward Transferoccurs. This paper argues that Malaysia’s unique multi-lingual environment, especiallythe influence of English is the main reason for the Malaysian Chinese prefer adoptingacceptance strategies.Another finding from the paper is there is a significant difference between theChinese paper and English paper amongst the highest proficiency subjects, hence, thetypical “Intercultural Style†did not exist. On the other hand, we identified that thesubjects’ English CR contain signs of migration from their Chinese tradition, is indeed anegative transfer from Chinese to English. This also proved that bi-directional of transferexists, therefore we concluded that, Malaysian English and Chinese Bilingual speakers’intercultural-style is in the progress of formation. |
