Korean Learners' Strategies and Decision-Making Processes in English Compliment Response Behavior

초록

The aim of this paper was to examine Korean learners’ pragmatic competence in the speech act of compliment response. A study was conducted in which four language groups participated as subjects, and data were collected by means of open-role play, interview and DCT. The results of the study indicated that Korean learners of both EFL and ESL were able to respond to L2 praise in a way similar to English native speakers by using acceptance strategies most of the time while some of them still applied their L1 social norms into L2 use by using non-acceptance strategies. Korean learners were also shown to talk more than native speakers in response to L2 praise, and this talking-much behavior was seen as one type of pragmatic errors. In addition, the learners were found to pass through a variety of mental, decision-making processes while responding to L2 praise. Some suggestions were offered to help them to respond to L2 praise in pragmatically appropriate manners.

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