A Comparative Study of Pragmatic Strategies in Compliment Responding Strategies between South Korean and South African International Students in China: Cross-Cultural Variations and Implications

Abstract

Compliment is one of the essential speech acts of daily communication (Holmes, 1988). This study aimed to investigate the similarities and differences in the compliment responding strategies used by South Korean and South African international students in China. Data was collected using a discourse completion task questionnaire written in English (Blum-Kulka et al., 1989), covering four domains: appearance, personality, ability, and possessions. A total of 40 South Korean and South African international students participated in the survey. The results showed significant differences in the compliment response strategies employed by the two groups of students. Overall, both groups used the “Accept” strategy most frequently and the “Reject” strategy least frequently. However, South African students used the “Accept” strategy much more often than their South Korean counterparts while South Korean students relied on the “Evade” strategy to a much greater extent than South African students. Additionally, South African students utilized “Combination” strategies more frequently than South Korean students. Across the four discourse scenarios, the two groups exhibited similar compliment response strategies only for ability-based compliments. For the other three scenarios, their compliment response strategies differed significantly. These differences can be largely attributed to the distinct linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the two student groups, as both unconsciously transferred aspects of their native language and culture into their use of English. Overall, the compliment response patterns of South African students were more closely aligned with those of native English speakers. This is likely due to the status of English as an official second language in South Africa, which provides South African students with more extensive exposure to and familiarity with English language and cultural conventions, compared to the South Korean students for whom English is a foreign language.