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Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 34:1 (2024) ► pp.1–27

Responses to English compliments on language ability

A cross‑generational study of Saudi Arabian university female students and lecturers

| Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia
ORCID logo | Auckland University of Technology

Employing a cross-generational perspective, this study attempts to deepen our understanding of the politeness strategies Saudi females use when responding to compliments in English from an English speaker. The study investigated how Saudi females from two generations respond to compliments in an educational setting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Participants included sixty-two female undergraduate students and sixty-four female lecturers from one university in the KSA. Following a mixed methods approach, the study included two primary sources of data: a quantitative Discourse Completion Task questionnaire for eliciting compliment responses (CRs) from the two generations; and qualitative semi-structured interviews with six participants from each group. Findings indicate that participants from both groups tended to accept compliments although there was a tendency to question the sincerity of the compliments.

Keywords: Saudi females, compliment responses, compliment acceptance, English language ability
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1CRs on written language ability
    • 4.2CRs on spoken language ability
    • 4.3Summary of differences in CRs on language ability
    • 4.4Lecturers’ responses to compliments on written language ability
    • 4.5Lecturers’ responses to compliments on spoken language ability
    • 4.6Students’ response to compliments on written language ability
    • 4.7Students’ reservations on accepting compliments on written language ability
    • 4.8Students’ responses to compliments on their spoken language ability
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21013.alh
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