The speech act of compliment in student-teacher interaction: A case study of Emirati university students’ attitudes

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Abstract

For effective communication, interlocutors must be cognizant of lingua-cultural aspects in context-dependent situations. Among others, they include culturally and linguistically diverse university settings where students are tempted to complain about grades to teachers and request grade changes. To reduce the negative impact of these speech acts, students may resort to compliments whose utilization varies from culture to culture. This study investigated the attitudes of 146 undergraduate Emirati students towards complimenting an instructor from a different lingua-cultural background before negotiating a grade at a university in the United Arab Emirates that uses English as the medium of instruction. Data were collected using a survey and a discourse completion task. Results show that 49% of the respondents thought that it would be appropriate to use a compliment prior to a complaint about a grade or a request for regrading. Students primarily complimented their teacher’s teaching skills and effort in teaching. The syntactic structures of their compliments mainly included You+V+NP (You+Verb+Noun Phrase). Results highlight the significance of considering interlocutors’ lingua-cultural backgrounds and the potential impacts of an ulterior motive behind a compliment in deciding whether or not to produce one. If it is used, topics (i.e., what is complimented upon) to include in the compliment must be chosen delicately, considering the cross-cultural nature of the context and social status of the interlocutors.

About the authors

Tanju Deveci

Khalifa University

Author for correspondence.
Email: tanjudeveci@yahoo.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5905-9793

Associate Professor of English in the English Department of Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He taught English for academic purposes at Bilkent and Sabanci Universities in Turkey. Since 2012, he has been teaching English and communication skills at Khalifa University. He has published research and teaching articles on a variety of topics including andragogy, learning styles and pragmatics.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Jessica Midraj

Khalifa University

Email: jmidraj@outlook.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9575-538X

Ph.D., is a faculty member in the English Department at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She has extensive experience as an instructor, mentor, teacher-trainer, researcher, and administrator. Her research interests include applied linguistics, quality assurance, student and teacher self-efficacy, language issues in STEM education, as well as curriculum and assessment.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Wael Samir El-Sokkary

Khalifa University

Email: welsokkary@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3445-7143

Lecturer of English in the English Department of Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He has been teaching English and related courses since 1992. Since 2006, he has been teaching English, Engineering Design and Linguistics at Khalifa University. His research interests include applied linguistics, language acquisition and engineering education.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

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