Empirical Research On English Proficiency And Gender Difference In Pragmatic Backward Transfer On Compliment Responses

Compliments,having been called as “social lubricants”,are an important constituent of daily life,and thus,compliment responses have become a focus of language research.Pomerantz(1978)claims that accepting a compliment graciously is the implicit ideal in American culture while Yu(2003)holds that in China,modesty is highly valued and it is an important constituent of their self-image.Therefore,Chinese people would be more willing to use amendment strategy and also combination strategy to respond to compliments.This thesis attempts to figure out how English learners with varied English proficiency and gender difference perform compliment responses from the perspective of backward transfer with Cook's(2003)multi-competence theory and Leech's(1983)Politeness Principle as the theoretical foundation.The empirical research tries to answer two questions:(1)How is pragmatic backward transfer on compliment responses different on varied English levels?(2)How does gender difference manifest pragmatic backward transfer on the compliment responses? This thesis takes use of a questionnaire to collect data,and analyzes data via SPSS 22.Two groups of informants consist of advanced English proficiency group and low English proficiency group,with 40 males and 40 females in each group.Through Chi-square analysis,it reveals that:(1)Significant difference exists on compliment responses between advanced English proficiency group and low English proficiency group.The advanced group tends to use acceptance strategy more often than the low group although two groups' first choice is amendment strategy.According to Cook's multi-competence theory,forward transfer(transfer from L1 to L2)is more obvious in the beginning stage of foreign language learning while backward transfer(transfer from L2 to L1)is more salient on advanced proficiency learners.Besides,from Leech's Politeness Principle,the advanced English group tends to obey Agreement Maxim while the low English group follows Modesty Maxim;(2)The gender difference could also affect compliment responses.Regardless of the informants' English proficiency,the male group tends to use the refusal strategy(including non-acceptance strategy and no acknowledgment strategy)more often than the female group who uses acceptance strategy and combination strategy more frequently than the male group.The possible reasons behind gender difference might be attributed to traditional disparity of social status,the different social requirements and expectations and the varied social functions of different genders' compliments and compliment responses.The findings of this thesis could help people have a better understanding of pragmatic transfer,and at the same time,attract language workers to pay more attention to the relationship between language and culture during language teaching,and at last,the findings of this thesis could help people notice the gender difference during their communication and thus lead to a successful communication.