Teachers and Students Learning about Compliments

Abstract

Paying appropriate compliments and identifying them accurately is an aspect of communicative competence which may differ in a variety of ways from one culture to another. This article provides examples of misunderstandings in compliment exchanges in different cultural contexts and analyzes them as instances of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic failure. An analysis of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic norms of complimenting behavior in two English-speaking communities forms the basis of a set of exercises designed to assist learners in developing the ability to recognize and use compliments appropriately.