Filipino and Thai Responses to Compliments in English

Abstract

Cross-cultural differences in the content of compliment responses (CRs) have been extensively investigated, particularly in
comparing CRs between the native and non-native speakers of English. However, research investigating the speech acts performed
by non-native speakers of various linguistic and cultural backgrounds seems scarce. This study investigated CRs of Filipinos and Thais.
The data were collected through the use of written discourse completion tasks (DCTs), with four situational settings (appearance,
character, ability and possession). A total of 60 subjects participated in this study. There were 30 subjects in each group, one was
Thai and the other was Filipino. All subjects were required to respond to the compliments in English. The overall findings of this study
revealed significant differences between Filipino and Thai speakers. That is, Filipinos employed ‘Accept’ strategies more often than
Thais while Thais tended to employ the ‘Combination’ strategies more than Filipinos. This study highlights that people from different
cultural backgrounds have different sets of CRs. The findings also suggest the implications for language teaching so as to raise
students’ awareness of conducting CRs in English.