A variational pragmatic study of compliment responses among Thai and Punjabi speakers of English in Thailand

Abstract

Pragmatic competence has been said to be one of the last skills to be acquired by second language learners and without it learners can lack the communicative competence that is needed in today’s globalized world. This study was designed to investigate the similarities and differences of compliment responses between Thai and Punjabi speakers of English in Thailand. The research aims to study the strategies that are used in CR when the micro-sociolinguistic variables are integrated into the DCT. Moreover, this study also investigates the CR in relation to the empirical study of Politeness theories. The participants were 20 Thai and 20 Punjabi students. The subjects were selected by using the CULI proficiency test in order to eliminate English proficiency as a variable. Results of the study revealed that although there are similarities between the response strategies, there are also marked differences between the two groups of participants. The variables incorporated into the DCT proved to be an important factor in determining the CR strategies of the participants; therefore, it can be concluded that participants take into consideration the politeness and the micro-sociolinguistic cues in responding to a compliment. Findings also show that pragmatic teaching is needed in order to aid Intercultural communications and to increase the communicative competence of English learners.