Korean Learners' Strategies and Decision-Making Processes in English Compliment Response Behavior

Suh, Jaesuk (서재석)

doi:10.18095/meeso.2018.19.1.01

Korean Learners' Strategies and Decision-Making Processes in English Compliment Response Behavior

Modern English Education
Abbr : MEESO
2018, 19(1), pp.1~15
DOI : 10.18095/meeso.2018.19.1.01
Publisher : The Modern English Education Society
Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Language Teaching
Published : February 28, 2018

Suh, Jaesuk ¹

¹인하대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper was to examine Korean learners’ pragmatic competence in the speech act of compliment response. A study was conducted in which four language groups participated as subjects, and data were collected by means of open-role play, interview and DCT. The results of the study indicated that Korean learners of both EFL and ESL were able to respond to L2 praise in a way similar to English native speakers by using acceptance strategies most of the time while some of them still applied their L1 social norms into L2 use by using non-acceptance strategies. Korean learners were also shown to talk more than native speakers in response to L2 praise, and this talking-much behavior was seen as one type of pragmatic errors. In addition, the learners were found to pass through a variety of mental, decision-making processes while responding to L2 praise. Some suggestions were offered to help them to respond to L2 praise in pragmatically appropriate manners.

KEYWORDS

compliment response, pragmatic competence, speech acts

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.

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