Comparison of How Arabic and English Foreign Language Learners Compliment and Respond to Praises

Kamsinah Kamsinah; Yuliyanah Sain; Nurazizah Aliah; Nurasia Natsir

doi:10.31849/reila.v4i2.9909

Kamsinah Kamsinah Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia
Yuliyanah Sain Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari, Kendari, Indonesia
Nurazizah Aliah Universitas Terbuka, Makassar, Indonesia
Nurasia Natsir Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Administrasi Yappi Makassar, Makassar, Indonesia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31849/reila.v4i2.9909

Keywords: Pragmatics, failure, English students, Arabic students

Abstract

Researching the speech acts performed between Arabic and English speakers is one of the popular trends in pragmatic research. However, the majority of previous studies have only obtained data from native Arabic and English speakers, or Arabic natives who are learning English as a foreign language. This study intends to fill the research gap of comparing the speech acts of giving praise and responding to praise made by students who are studying both English and Arabic as their foreign languages. This descriptive study used two instruments, namely a discourse completion task questionnaire consisting of twelve scenarios and an interview, involving 70 English learners and 70 Arabic learners from UIN Alauddin Makassar which is the only university in Indonesia that offers the unique Foreign Language Intensification Development (PIBA) program. Results have determined that the dominant praise strategies of Arabic learners are awe and congratulating, while English learners tend to use surprise and congratulating strategies. Both language learners dominantly use the strategies of giving appreciation and reassigning praises as their praise response strategies. This study concluded that Arabic foreign language learners tend to have a small repertoire of praise and praise response strategies, while English foreign language learners’ arsenal of strategies is much more diverse.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Kamsinah Kamsinah, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia

Kamsinah is a senior lecturer at Hasanuddin University Makassar. Actively conducting research and publishing articles in the field of education and linguistics, Sociolinguistics and pragmatics. Kamsinah hold a Doctoral degree from Hasanuddin University, Makassar in the field of linguistics.

Yuliyanah Sain, Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari, Kendari, Indonesia

Yuliyanah Sain is a senior lecturer at the Muhammadiyah University of Kendari who actively conducts research and publications. Her current research and teaching activities are in the areas of sociolinguistics and anthropolinguistics. Yuliyanah gained her Doctoral degree from Hasanuddin University Makassar in the field of Linguistics.

Nurazizah Aliah, Universitas Terbuka, Makassar, Indonesia

Nuraziza Aliah is a lecturer at the Universitas Terbuka who actively conducts research and publications in the field of Education and Linguistics. She hold a Doctoral degree from Hasanuddin University.

Nurasia Natsir, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Administrasi Yappi Makassar, Makassar, Indonesia

Nurasia Natsir is a senior lecturer at the Yappi Makassar College of Administrative Sciences actively conducts research and publications in the fields of education and linguistics. Nurasia hold a Doctoral degree in Linguistics from Hasanuddin University Makassar.

References

Al Kayed, M., & Al-Ghoweri, H. (2019). A sociopragmatic study of speech act of criticism in Jordanian Arabic. European Journal of Scientific Research, 153(1), 105-117.

Al-Ghamdi, N., & Alrefaee, Y. (2020). The role of social status in the realization of refusal speech act: A cross-cultural study. The Asian ESP Journal. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3570553

Al-Ghamdi, N., Almansoob, N., & Alrefaee, Y. (2019). Pragmatic Failure in the Realization of the Speech act of Responding to Compliments among Yemeni EFL Undergraduates. 3L, Language, Linguistics, Literature, 25(4). 1-14 http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2019-2504-14

Alghazo, S., Zemmour, S., Al Salem, M. N., & Alrashdan, I. (2021). A cross-cultural analysis of the speech act of congratulating in Kabyle and Jordanian Arabic. Ampersand, 8, 100075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2021.100075

Al-Khateeb, S. M. I. (2009). The speech act of thanking as a compliment response as used by the Arab speakers of English a comparative intercultural study. [Unpublished MA Thesis], An Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.

Almahameed, Y. S. & Al-Ajalein, M. M. (2019). Pragmatic Failure Committed by Jordanian Undergraduate EFL Learners. International Journal, 7(1), 54-60. https://doi.org/10.15640/ijll.v7n1a7

Almansoob, N., Patil, K. S., & Alrefaee, Y. (2019). A Cross-cultural study of the speech act of compliments in American English and Yemeni Arabic. LANGKAWI Journal, 5(1), 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.31332/lkw.v5i1.1271

Almegren, R. (2018). The speech act of apology for Saudi EFL students. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 7(4), 144-157. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.4p.144

Alrefaee, Y. Alghamdi, N. (2019). Refusals among Yemeni EFL Learners: A Study of Negative Pragmatic Transfer and Its Relation to Proficiency. Asian EFL Journal, 25(5), 191-214.

Alsalem, N. K. (2015). Compliment responses: A comparison of Saudi English learners and native speakers of American English in an academic environment. [Master’s Thesis, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. https://www.proquest.com/openview/85ee90738c63810ce251c50606e3a6fc/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750

Ameur, M. S. H., Meziane, F., & Guessoum, A. (2020). Arabic machine translation: A survey of the latest trends and challenges. Computer Science Review, 38, 100305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2020.100305

Bakhov, I., Byrkovych, T., Makarchuk, O., Varyvonchyk, A., Turchak, L., & Soichuk, R. (2021). Enhancing cross-cultural competence of students under conditions of limited social communication. Ad Alta: Journal of interdisciplinary research, 11(1), 51-56.

Blum-Kulka, S. (1982). Learning How to Say What You Mean in a Second Language: A Study of Speech Act Performance of Learners of Hebrew as a Second Language. Applied Linguistics, 3, 29-59.

Chikhi, M., & Chebli, B. (2021). A Socio-Pragmatic Study of Speech Act of Criticism In Algerian Arabic [Doctoral dissertation, Université Ibn Khaldoun-Tiaret]. Tiaret University Respository. http://bibdspace.univ-tiaret.dz:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/1452

Ebadi, S. & Salan, A. R. (2015). Using compliment responses in Arabic and English: Focusing on male and female EFL learners in Iraq. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2(7), 157-178

Enssaif, Z. (2005). Compliment behavior: Strategies and realizations in English and Arabic: A case study of female students of the English department, King Saud University. [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. King Saud University, KSA.

Hamuddin, B., Rahman, F., Pammu, A., Baso, Y. S., & Derin, T. (2020). Cyberbullying among EFL Students' Blogging Activities: Motives and Proposed Solutions. Teaching English with Technology, 20(2), 3-20.

Herbert, R. K. (1986). Say “Thank You” – or Something. American Speech, 61(1), 76-88.

Herdi, H., & Handayani , T. (2020). Taking a Look into the Culture Shock Experienced by Foreigners at Rumbai, Pekanbaru. Elsya : Journal of English Language Studies, 2(3), 77-81. https://doi.org/10.31849/elsya.v2i3.4939

Hosni, H. R. (2020). Advice giving in Egyptian Arabic and American English: A cross-linguistic, cross-cultural study. Journal of Pragmatics, 155, 193-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.11.001

Israwati, I. (2017). Students’ Perception toward Intensive Program of Foreign Language (PIBA) Roles in Developing Speaking Ability of Third Semester Student of Third Semester of Adab and Humanity Faculty. [Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar]. Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar Research Repository. http://repositori.uin-alauddin.ac.id/4937/1/Israwati.pdf

Luo, M., & Zhang, X. (2021). Research status about influence factors of international students’ cross-cultural adaptation with different models. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 9(6), 51-63. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2021.96006

McGee, P. (2019). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Training, Language and Culture, 3(1), 73-84. https://doi.org/10.29366/2019tlc.3.1.5

Ogiermann, E. (2018). Discourse completion tasks. Methods in pragmatics, 10, 229-255. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110424928-009

Rasman, R. (2018). To translanguage or not to translanguage? The multilingual practice in an Indonesian EFL classroom. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(3), 687-694. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i3.9819

Rusydi, M., & Musgamy, A. (2021, December). 20 years of Arabic learning in the scientific tradition of UIN Alauddin Makassar: anthropolinguistic perspective from 2001 to 2021. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Social and Islamic Studies (SIS) 2021.

Sahadevan, P., & Sumangala, M. (2021). Effective cross-cultural communication for international business. Shanlax International Journal of Management, 8(4), 24-33. http://https//doi.org/10.34293/management.v8i4.3813

Sembiring, E., & Sianturi , S. (2019). Politeness Strategies in EFL Classroom Context: Avoiding Future Conflict and Maintain the Harmony of Diversity. Utamax : Journal of Ultimate Research and Trends in Education, 1(3), 105-111. https://doi.org/10.31849/utamax.v1i3.6257

Shadiev, R., Wang, X., & Huang, Y. M. (2021). Cross-cultural learning in virtual reality environment: facilitating cross-cultural understanding, trait emotional intelligence, and sense of presence. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69(5), 2917-2936. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-10044-1

Shaheeb, M., & Jibreen, K. (2008). The speech act of compliment: A theoretical view. Journal of Al-Qadisiya University, 11(4), 7-20.

Solodka, A., & Perea, L. (2018). The Speech Act of Complimenting as Part of the Ukrainian, Russian and English-Speaking Communities: Ukraine and the USA. Arab World English Journal, 9(4), 39-55. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol9no4.3