AN ANALYSIS OF COMPLIMENT RESPONSE STRATEGIES IN
CONSULTATIONS BETWEEN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Tiur Mangkuling Suketi
INTRODUCTION
In Indonesia, giving and responding compliment is one of common activities that usually
done in daily life. Compliments are usually given for commenting on personality, appearance, or
sometimes on possession. Indonesian people were likely to give compliment in informal
situation although compliment can also be done in formal situation. Sometimes, Indonesian
people give compliment just for greeting conventionally, to show that they are respecting each
other. Many researchers already conducted studies on compliment and also compliment response
strategy, but most of them tend to conduct the study about compliment in informal situation.
Such phenomenon brings the researcher to conduct the study on compliment and compliment
response in formal situation especially in academic field.
Compliment and compliment response are part of pragmatic competence. Pragmatic
competence is the ability to communicate effectively and involves knowledge beyond the level
of grammar (Thomas cited in Chung, 2010). As a part of pragmatic competence, responding to a
compliment is the most frequently acts that happen in our daily life, whether in daily interaction
or in teaching learning process. Chen in Chung (2010) states that among speech acts, making
compliments and responding compliments are the most frequently occurring acts in our daily
activities like the phenomenon that happened in Indonesia. For example, in some occasion
people will give comment on their friends’ appearance, ability and etc. Not just in informal
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situation, compliments also happen in formal situation, for example in a company, school,
institution, and so on.
Although compliment can happen in formal and informal situation, this study concerns
about compliment responses in formal situation, especially in educational formal situation. This
study is conducted because the previous study or researches focused more on appearance,
interaction in informal situation, and etc, and the researcher think that compliment response is
also important in education. Holmes (1986) stated that the majority of compliments occur in just
a few topics such as appearance and ability. Then, the previous study also focused more on
comparing the compliment respond strategies between country A and country B in the daily
interaction, in which the compliment response strategies are influenced by cultural differences.
Chen in Chung (2010) studied that Chinese prefer not to accept the compliments, but Americans
tend to accept it. It can be said that the way we respond the compliment is culture specific. In
other words, compliment responses are influenced by cultural background. Seeing this
phenomenon about compliment response strategies in formal situation that is rarely done by
other researchers, this study is interested to analyze the compliment response in educational or
formal situation.
Based on some studies above, this study aimed to analyze what kind of compliment
response strategies used by university students and how they respond to the compliment given in
academic consultation. Hence, this present study could be used as a reference and comparator for
the next researcher who wants to conduct the study on compliment response strategies in formal
situation. This can also be used for student teachers as information about how to give and
respond compliment whenever they become a teacher. In analyzing the kind of compliment
response strategies used by English Department students and also how university students
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respond the compliment given in a consultation, ED students of Satya Wacana Christian
University are selected to be the participants of this study since the researcher was focusing her
study in the context of university students and also the researcher is the member of English
Department student as well.
Tajeddin (2011) conducted a study about the effect of instruction in pragmatic on
compliment and compliment responses with the participant of 40 female students studying at
police women academy. He used MAQ (Metapragmatic Assessment Questionnaire) to address
his research question and the result is proved that gender effect has a significant role in
compliment response studies. In line with Tajeddin’s study, Yousefvand (2010) also conducted a
study on compliment speech act realization patterns across gender in Persian. The aim of the
study is to examine compliment responses across gender among Persian speakers. The result of
this study reveals that there is a significant effect of gender on compliment responses. It shows
that the result of Tajeddin and also Yousefvand studies are supporting each other.
Related to Tajeddin and Yousefvand studies, Fukusima in Katsuta (2012) also conducted
the study on the effect of formality, gender, and also compliment topic to 52(26 female, 26 male)
tourist from Japan as the participant. The study revealed that formal compliments were denied
often than the informal one. Following Tajeddin, Yousevfand, and also Fukusima, the study
conducting by Mohajernia (2013) about different strategies of compliment responses used by
Iranian EFL students and Australian English speakers. The findings found that some strategies of
responding to compliments are unique and others are nearly universal.
Another study on compliment response is conducted by Phoocharoensil (2012). He
conducted a study about Compliment response used by Thai EFL learners. His study aimed at
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examining the compliment response used by Thai EFL learners and also wants to compare the
result to Tran’s (2007) study. Surprisingly, the findings is different from what Tran (2007) had
already done. The finding evidently bear out the Compliment Response Continuum Hypothesis
which claim that compliment response strategies tend to be transferred towards the end of the
acceptance to denial continuum. Herbert and Straight in Phoocharoensil (2012) took a
comparative study on American and South African compliment responses used by university
students. The findings reveal that Americans display a high frequency of compliment expression
and a low frequency of compliment acceptance. However, South Africans give relatively lower
number of compliments than Americans but accept compliments with higher frequency. The
differences between the two groups are ascribed to their respective socio-cultural background.
Responding to Hebert and Straight study, Phoocharoensil (2012) adds that English learners
differing in first languages respond to English compliment in a different style.
Sorahi (2013) also did a comparative study on compliment response between Australian
English and Iranian Persian culture in regard to the production of compliment response speech
act. The DCT was use to collect the data and the study revealed that Australian English speakers
tend to accept compliments that they get more than Iranian Persian speakers. It shows that in
Iranian culture accepting compliments is not considered as polite as Australian culture. Based on
the previous study on compliment response, this study aimed to analyze what kind of
compliment response strategies used by university student which is English Department student
of Satya Wacana Christian University and how they respond to the compliment given in
academic consultation.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Compliment
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Compliment is something that people commonly found in their daily life as Chen cited in
Chung (2010). Yousefvand (2010) adds that compliment is positive speech acts that express
friendship and increase rapport among people. According to Holmes in Al-Azzawi (2011),
complimenting is a complex sociolinguistic skill, and she adds that giving a compliment may
consider a face threatening act because it leads to the complimenter’s debt. Complimenter’s debt
is the condition where the receivers may feel obliged to return the compliment. She also define
that compliment is a speech act which explicitly or implicitly attributes to someone other than
the speaker, which is positively valued by the speaker and also the hearer. Like what has been
stated by Manes in Chung (2010), compliments were formulaic expression like some other
speech act. When giving a compliment, people must have the sequence of conversation because
it is involves two or more people. It’s just the same with Ravetto’s idea. According to Ravetto
(2012), compliments are examined in conversational sequences as speech acts normally
involving two or more turns. However, Yousefvand (2010) states that different value systems are
reflected in speech act – different interpretation of a certain speech act may cause
misunderstanding of the speakers’ intention.
Liu in Falasi (2007) stated that a compliment is one form of speech acts and it can be
defined as “an utterance containing a positive evaluation by the speakers to the addressee”. In
other word, compliment can be defined as good comments for others. Comments that are usually
given are related to appearance, what have done by the people, education, and etc. This is also
very common or usually occurs in informal situation such as in the family, dinner, gathering, and
etc. Phoocharoensil (2012) also states that compliment has other function which is supported by
Wolson’s idea. According to them, compliment can be used to strengthen and also replace other
speech act such as apologizing, thanking, and also greeting. In addition, compliment may also
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serves as a criticism softener whenever it is followed by though criticism. Sorahi (2013) also add
that Compliment responses as one type of speech acts are worth to be studied because they can
perform different functions. Sometimes using an appropriate compliment and response can help
the communication to be successful. On the other hand, giving a compliment or responding to a
compliment without being aware of the community's cultural conventions and compliment
norms, can be threatening the interaction.
According to Chung (2010), from the previous study on compliment, researcher noted
that compliments are comprised of limited topic and often occur between people with different
social status. Holmes in Chung (2010) adds that the majority of compliments occur in just a few
topics which are appearance and ability. Then, on the study compliment responses in Italian and
German, Ravetto (2012) divided the topic of compliment into four parts which are physical
appearance, owned object, character, and also ability. However, Manes & Wolfson’ in Mustapha
(2012) asserts that the structure of compliments is formulaic, that the speakers use a small
number of adjectives. Adjectives that are used to give a compliment should be the good one. For
example when a person meets with their friend who cut their hair and he or she will say, “What a
nice hair!”, “you look so gorgeous!” and so on.
On the other hand, Herbert (1986) demonstrates that compliments are used to “negotiate
solidarity with the addressee”. Their aim is to make the addressee feel good and their formulaic
nature minimizes the chance that they will be misinterpreted by the addressee. Grossi (2009) also
noted that compliments could be used to soften a potentially face-threatening act such as
criticism. Actually, the use of compliment on the formal or informal situation is similar or the
same purpose. Both of those findings are trying to reduce the negative effect about the comment
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that the speakers gave to the addressee, so that it will not threaten the communication that the
speakers try to build.
Compliment Response and Compliment Response Strategies
Hebert in Tran (2007) states that compliment response is an interesting object for study
since there is relatively strong agreement within the speech community as to what form
constitutes a “correct response”. The previous study about compliment response was first studied
by Pomerantz as cited in Chung (2010). Pomerantz proposed two constrain system as a guide of
compliment response which are supportive action and self-praises avoidance. Grossi (2009) adds
that in his study pomerantz created taxonomy on compliment response, but many researchers
found the dilemma or difficulty in responding the compliment because there are many different
learning context. This dilemma has been explained further by Urano in Falasi (2007) and to
mediate this conflict, there are three solutions to resolve this conflict which are acceptance,
rejection, and self-praise avoidance. Falasi (2007) also explained that Hebert revised
Pomerantz’s taxonomy by doing the study about American English Speaker’ Compliment
Response. He conducts the study by adding thousand sample of compliment response from
American college students in three years project. His study results in three category and twelvetype taxonomy of compliment responses. Holmes and Brown further developed this study. As
cited in Grossi (2009), Holmes and Brown developed three broad categories of addressee’s
responses to compliments. Those three categories are accept, reject, and deflect or evade.
After Hebert’s study on compliment response, there are many contrastive studies that
have been conducted to compare compliment responses in different language and language
varieties (Falasi, 2007). Urano in Falasi (2007) stated that speaker of Asian language were likely
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to reject compliments. Then, another study conducted by Holmes (1995), a compliment response
strategy is also influenced by gender. The responses to compliment by different gender are also
different. Holmes in Grossi (2009) stated that a man prefers to reduce the force of compliment,
while a woman prefers a structure that increased its force. The influence of gender and social
status and topic on compliment response is also revealed in several studies (Chung, 2010). The
example of this study is conducted by Chung. On his study on the effect of status on compliment
response strategies by Taiwanese EFL young learners and its pedagogical implication, Chung
modified the coding scheme on compliment responses strategies from Yu into four strategies and
fifteen sub-strategies. Chung feels that the taxonomy that has been developed from Pomerantz by
Yu is more applicable to be used in many different contexts.
Here is the coding scheme on compliment response strategies, modified from Yu as cited
in Chung (2010) that will be used by the researcher to analyze compliment response strategies
used by ED students. This study just focused on four big strategies, so that the study will show
the clear differences of compliment response strategies used by ED students.
Table 1 Coding scheme on Compliment Response Strategies modified from Yu by Chung (2010)
Strategies
Sub- Strategies
1. Appreciation token: words showing
gratitude.
2. Agreement:
agree
with
the
compliment
Acceptance strategies : the remark is
recognized as a compliment
3. Pleasure: show the complimentee is
pleased.
4. Association: more than one of the
acceptance strategies above.
1. Return: reciprocate the compliment
by offering praise.
Amendment Strategies: the speaker tries
2. Downgrade:
scale
down
the
to amend its complimentary force.
compliment.
3. Upgrade: increase the force of the
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compliment.
4. Question: question the sincerity or
appropriateness.
5. Comment: do not take credit for it but
impersonalize the force of the
compliment.
6. Transfer: switch the force or the focus
back to the complimenter.
7. Association: include two or more of
the amendment sub strategies.
1. Disagreement: disagree with the
assertion of the compliment.
2. Qualification: do not accept the
compliment by questioning the
Non acceptance Strategies: deny, question,
quality that is praised.
or joke about the content of the
compliment.
3. Diverge: question the compliment by
suggesting other intended acts.
4. Association: include more than one of
the non acceptance sub strategies.
Combination Strategies: the addressee’s responses combine two or more of the three
main strategies.
There are four big strategies that will be used to analyzed compliment response by
English Department student. The first strategy is acceptance strategy. Acceptance strategy is
divided into four sub strategies which are appreciation token, agreement, pleasure, and
association. Here is one of example of acceptance strategy.
Example 1:
A: “wow, your new hair looks so gorgeous.”
B: “Thank you”
The following strategy is amendment strategy in which the speakers try to amend its
complimentary force. Amendment strategy is divided into seven sub strategies which are return,
downgrade, upgrade, question, comment, transfer, and association.
Example 2:
A: “I already read your paper and I think your paper is great because you
can provide other articles or journals to support your ideas.”
B: “oh, it’s all because of your guidance during this project.”
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The next strategy is non acceptance strategy. Non acceptance strategy is the strategy in
which the hearer deny, question, and also joke the compliment. The hearers tend to reject the
compliment given by the complimenters. There is a same strategy between those three main
strategies which is association. Actually those three sub strategies are same but the difference is
in the combination that is used.
Example 3:
A: “oh, I love your new hair style. You look so beautiful.”
B: “oh really? I think you are more beautiful than me.”
The last strategy is combination strategy. Combination strategy is the strategy in which
the hearer or complimentee combine two or more main strategies to respond to a compliment
given. The combination can be acceptance with amendment or amendment with non acceptance
strategy.
Example 4:
A: “oh, your paper is really great. I hope that your friends could write the
paper as you are.”
B: “Did you really read my paper? Is there any part that I should add
more? Anyway, thank you.
This study focuses on compliment response strategies between teacher and students in
consultation, both individual or classroom consultation. It aims at analyzing the kind of
compliment response strategies used by university students, in this case is English Department
students of Satya Wacana Christian University. Since there are still not many researchers who
conducted the compliment response strategies in formal situation especially in education field,
the researcher hope that this study can be helpful for the students’ teacher who want to conduct
the same study and it can also be used as a comparator whenever there are other researcher who
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want to take a contrastive study on compliment response in formal situation among university
students.
THE STUDY
Context of the study
The study was done in the context of University students. English Department of Satya
Wacana Christian Universitywas selected to be the participant of this study since the researcher
is the member of English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University as well. The study
analyzed the kind of compliment response strategies used by ED students and also how
university students (especially ED students) respond the compliment given in a consultation both
individual or classroom consultation.
Topics on compliments were limited. People usually give compliment on appearance,
skill/ability/talent,
performance/achievement,
possessions/belongings,
and
personality.
Compliment also happens in informal situation. However, this study analyzed the compliment
responses given in formal situation with ability as the object of compliment. The ability that will
be analyzed was the ability in writing a proposal, journal, academic paper and how they present
their idea through presentation. Ability in writing is chosen to be complimented because there
would be many consultation in writing a journal both individual and also classroom consultation
since it’s not easy to produce good paper or journal. Consultation was chosen as the medium to
respond compliment because consultation involves two or more people and considered as formal
condition. The other reason was because the occurrence of consultation in ED of SWCU is very
often. However, this study is not natural observation because during this study the consultation is
rarely done by the participants. In attempt to get the data, the researcher used Discourse
Completion Test which consist of five common situation faced by the participant.
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Participant
The participants of this study are 110 ED students (from batch 2010 and batch 2011) who
have already taken academic writing course. The reason why the researcher chose ED students as
her participant is because the researcher used convenience sampling method to collect the data
since she is familiar with ED of SWCU and the researcher is an ED student as well. Moreover, it
is assumed that students from Batch 2010 and 2011 already had a good ability in English since
they are on the third and also last year of their study in learning English.
Data collection instrument
The data collection instrument of this study was questionnaire. The questionnaire was in
form of Discourse Completion Test and will be distributed to 110 students. The DCT was
modified from Jernigan (2007) and Morales (2011) that consist of five situations which are
related to classroom condition or consultation between students and teacher that should be
respond by the participants just like in an actual conversation (produce compliment response).
The situations presented in DCT were the common situations that the participants of this study
usually face in their learning process in English Department. DCT is selected because this type
of data collection reflects the content of oral data despite the written form of the data
(Mohajernia, 2013). The participants of this study also can write what they would do in
responding the compliments and also the reason whenever they prefer to keep silent.
Data collection procedure
Before spreading the questionnaire which is Discourse Compliment Test, the researcher
asked permission for teachers in the certain classes. After the permission was granted, the DCT
was spread for them after the class or at the end of the class. Participants were asked to respond
to a compliment given in Discourse Completion Test Questionnaire. The questionnaires consist
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of five different situations which are usually faced by university students. The participants were
asked to respond the compliment as they would in the real conversation. They could also write
what they would do if they preferred to keep silent in responding the compliment.
Data analysis procedure
After receiving back the completed DCT from the participants, the compliment responses
from ED students were categorized into four big strategies which are acceptance, amendment,
non acceptance, and also combination. The categorization was done by analyzing their written
responses. The data in this study was coded using the coding scheme on compliment responses
strategies that have been modified from Yu as cited in Chung (2010), but this study only
investigated four big strategies since the participants of this present study are limited. The
categorization was based on the responses or expressions that they wrote in the DCT. The result
of the data categorization was presented in the form of table and description (quantitative
descriptive). The descriptive analysis is used to elaborate how ED students respond the
compliment.
DISCUSSION
This study aims at analyzing what kind of compliment response strategies used by
university student which is English Department Students of Satya Wacana Christian University
and how they respond the compliment given in academic consultation. In attempt to answer the
research questions, the compliment response strategy and how they applied the strategy in
responding to compliments are discussed.
EFL students’ Compliment Response Strategy
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There are four big strategies modified from Yu by Chung (2010) that is used to analyze
compliment response strategy used by English Department Students. From the five situations
that presented on DCT questionnaire, the participants should respond and their written response
are analyzed and coded based on compliment response strategies modified from Yu (Chung,
2010). The result was presented in figure 1.
figure 1
The Result of the Data
Non
Accepta
nce
3%
Amand
ment
8%
Combin
ation
17%
Accepta
nce
72%
By looking or analyzing the pie chart on figure 1, it can be seen that all of compliment
response strategies are employed by the participants to respond the compliment given. However,
the most appeared strategy is acceptance strategy (72%). It is followed by combination strategy
(17%), then amendment strategy (8%), and the least appeared strategy is non acceptance strategy
(3%).
Acceptance strategy is the strategy in which the receivers agree with the compliment.
Acceptance strategy reached 72%, followed by combination strategy. Although it is followed by
combination strategy, the comparison between them was so far because it was just around 17%.
They way the participants respond to compliment are the use of “Thank you”. Most of them use
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“thank you” as the word or phrase to show gratitude in accepting the compliment (see CR 1). In
addition to using “thank you”, they used gesture to express their acceptances as written in their
DCT (see CR 2). Actually, they prefer to keep silent, but they thought that it may not appreciate
the complimentary, so they decided to use gesture. The kinds of gesture, which is written in the
DCT and used by them in the real situations are nodding their head and smiling. Nod and smile
are used as the way to express their acceptance in a softer way. They did not want others thought
that they are arrogant people. The use of gesture belongs to agreement strategy — which is the
sub-strategy of acceptance as the coding scheme on compliment response strategies modified
from Yu (Chung, 2010).
Situation 1 : You came to your supervisor room to consult about your paper. You gave
the hard copy of your paper to your supervisor and he/she read your paper for a while.
After reading your paper, your supervisor said that your paper is really good and they
way you write the conclusion is also good. Your supervisor also hopes that your friends
could also write a paper just like yours.
CR 1: Thank You
CR 2: It's very motivating.
Following acceptance strategy is combination strategy, which reaches 17% of use in the
data. Combination strategy is the combination between two or more of the three main strategies
which are used at the same time by the participants. The most common combination in this study
is between acceptance and amendment strategy. For example, “Oh really? Yeah, I always check
my work many times because I consult you or submitted to you.” (see CR 3 in responding
situation 1) Participants used gesture and also some comment to scale down the compliment or
gave some comment to scale down the compliment followed by “thank you”. For example, they
say “I don’t think that it’s good enough. Thank you.” or “Really? Thank you”. It also means that
by combining the strategies, the participants get assurance for what the lecture or teacher gave to
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them and after they got the assurance, they are brave enough to accept the compliment given.
(see CR 4 in responding situation 1)
CR 3: Are you sure? Thank you (with smiling)
CR 4: Thank You, But I think I'm not that good.
In addition to acceptance and combination strategy, amendment strategy is also employed
by the participants, but it only occurs 8 %. Amendment strategy is the strategy which the speaker
tries to amend its complimentary force. There are three sub-strategies used by participants to
amend the compliment which are downgrade, question, and also comment. Sometimes, they
combined those three sub strategies at the same time. (see CR 5 in responding situation 1)
CR 5: “Oh really? It’s all because of your guidance.” or “Really? What should I do
next?”
Actually, it is assumed that non acceptance strategies is frequently used by the participant
because the previous study by Urano in Falasi (2007) about compliment response strategies in
Asian speakers revealed that Asian speakers tend to reject the compliment given. It can happen
because of several factors, one of them is the use of language in responding the compliment, they
use English language to response the compliment and they may follow the rule or the culture of
responding the compliment in English language.
The least used strategy is non acceptance strategy (only 3% of occurrence). Non
acceptance strategy is the strategy which the speaker tends to deny, question, or joke about the
content of the compliment. Participants usually use disagreement and qualification sub strategies
to express that they are not accepting the compliment. While in disagreement sub strategy
participants directly disagree or deny the compliment, a compliment can also be denied by
questioning the quality of the one that is praised. (see CR 6 in responding situation 1)
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CR 6: “Did you really read my paper? I thought that there are some parts that need to be
revised.” or “Are you sure? I think it’s not that good.”
Participants reject the compliment given because they are not really sure about their ability in
academic field and also they still view themselves as the university students who are not that
perfect yet in doing the task or assignment from their lecture. On the other hand, the participants
who reject the compliment wrote in the DCT that they are shy person, so they tend to question
the compliment and also feel inconfidence with themselves.
The finding in this study reveals that most of ED students tend to accept the compliment
given by the complimentary. Whenever the complimenter gave them some compliment, they
agree with and receive it. It seems that the findings of this study is opposing Urano’s findings. It
is assumed that Indonesian speakers rarely using “thank you” in accepting the compliment.
According to Urano’s study, Indonesian speaker tend to deny the compliment given even though
they want to accept the compliment. However the way the participants accept the compliment is
not so different with his idea. They accept the compliment although they did not orally express it.
Then, when participants deny complements, they did not automatically disagree with the
compliment given for them because of the cultural background.
When the participants agree with the compliment given, but they are ashamed to express
that, they prefer to use combination strategy. The combination are varied, it can be acceptance
and also amendment, even amendment with non acceptance strategy. However, the researcher
found the different finding or result from Urano’s study. Urano in Falasi (2007) stated that
speaker of Asian language were likely to reject compliments. In line with Urano’s idea,
Yousefvand (2010) stated that there are some differences existing in the compliment because the
differences of cultural backgrounds and also social values. However this study shows that most
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of them were likely to accept the compliment. This interesting phenomenon brings the researcher
to think about other factors that influence the way the participants respond to the compliment.
For example whenever the participant use combination strategy, even the combination is
amendment and also not acceptance strategy, but they do accept the compliment. At first the
participants question the compliment given, but then they accept it in a different way which is
using amendment strategy.
The participant of this study are the third and also the last year students in English
Department, so the researcher believes that they already learnt a lot of things related to English
language, including its culture. When they are given the compliment in English language, they
will also respond the compliments in English way. It may because they have adapted to the
culture and to what they have already learnt. It’s just like what Phoocharoensil (2012) has written
about American speech behavior. They tend to emphasize the importance of compliment
acceptance by saying “thank you”. It can be seen that most of the participants of this study use
“thank you” to accept the compliments given. Although the participants were not Americans, but
they already learnt American English for three up to four years, so they may try to adapt the
culture of American English during the teaching and learning process. It may be also because
they are speaking English everyday and they have to speak English in teaching and also learning
process.
The interesting phenomenon from the result is the most used strategy by them which is
acceptance strategy. Acceptance strategy is used by ED student to response the compliment
given with the use of “Thank You”. At first, it is assumed that they will reject the compliment
like what Urano in Falasi (2007) stated that Asian speaker tend to reject the compliment given
because the participants are Indonesian and Indonesian belongs to Asian speaker. However from
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the result of the data, most of them accept the compliment given. It is related with Yuhuan’s
studies (unpublished dissertation) on different responses to compliments in Chinese and English.
From the result of Yuhuan’s study, it is revealed that the participants have the opportunity to
experience the English Culture directly which is often known as acculturation through English
Language Learning.
Similarly, seeing the length of the participant studying English Language, it is assumed
that they already learnt and received a lot of material related to English language. Such condition
shows that the participant already understand English culture, so that they tend to follow the
culture and accept the compliment given. They way they accept the compliment given is same as
what American speaker did. It is prove that the participant directly learn about the English
language culture.
CONCLUSION
This study investigates the compliment response strategy used by university students of
Satya Wacana Christian University and how they respond to a compliment. By analyzing the
result of the questionnaire which is Discourse Completion Test, and code it into four main
strategies which are acceptance, amendment, non acceptance, and also combination strategy, the
researcher comes to the following conclusions which are all of the compliment response
strategies are employed by the participants, but most of them tend to use acceptance strategy. In
accepting the compliment, the participants tend to use “Thank You” in order to say “yes, I
agree”.
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In addition to using thank you to respond the compliment given, the participants also use
gesture such as smiling, nodding their head, even just silent. Here, the researcher noticed that
“thank you” in this context is used to accept the compliment and not to show gratitude because
somebody else did a favor for us. The unique thing is the result of this study opposing Urano’s
study on compliment response in Asian speaker. Uranos’s finding revealed that Asian speaker
tend to deny or reject the compliment, but the result of this study revealed that the participant
were likely to accept the compliment given. This may happen because of some factors such as
time to conduct the study, subject or field, and etc.
Since this study just conducted in a limited time and just to analyze the compliment
response in one language, the researcher suggest that it is good for other researchers who have
interest on the same field, to conduct a study on contrastive analysis or study between
compliment response strategies in Indonesian and English Language. It is also good for other
researchers to consider other factors which influence the compliment response strategies such as
cultural background, gender, educational background, and etc.
Furthermore, the researcher hope that this study can be used as a reference and
comparator for the next researcher who wants to conduct the study on compliment response
strategies in formal situation. Hopefully, by knowing the result of this study, it can also be used
for student teachers as information about how to give and respond compliment whenever they
become a teacher.
REFERENCES
Al-Azzawi, J N. (2011). Compliments and Positive Politeness Strategy. IRAQI Academic
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111-126.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of my Jesus, my almighty God,
In this occasion, with great humility, I would like to thank to God for his blessing and
guidance until this Thesis can be properly finished. I also never forget to thank to my thesis
supervisor and examiner for their guidance in helping me to finish this thesis. I would also like to
thank to my parents who always support me in prayer and also for my friends that I cannot
mention their name one by one for their prayer and support for me.
The last but not least, I hope that this paper will be useful not only for me but also for
other readers. Once again, I want to say thank you.
24
APPENDIX
Discourse Completion Test
Please respond to each following situations as you would in real conversation.
1. You are presenting the topic about your next thesis in front of your friends and
supervisor. After you finished, your supervisor said that your topic is good and very
doable to be done for research.
What would you say?
If you keep silent, why?
2. You submitted a paper to your teacher in his/her room. Your teacher read your paper
quickly and said that your paper is really good because you were able to answer all of the
questions briefly and clearly.
What would you say?
If you keep silent, why?
3. You presented your proposal and report writing in front of your second reader,
supervisor, and also friends. Actually you were nervous and not ready to present, but
nervous or not you should present your proposal and report writing. Surprisingly, after
you have completed your presentation, your supervisor and second reader gave you a
standing ovation and said that you have done a really good work and your presentation is
very impressing.
What would you say?
If you keep silent, why?
4. You came to your supervisor room to consult about your paper. You gave the hard copy
of your paper to your supervisor and he/she read your paper for a while. After reading
your paper, your supervisor said that your paper is really good and they way you write
the conclusion is also good. Your supervisor also hopes that your friends could also write
a paper just like yours.
What would you say?
25
If you keep silent, why?
5. You shared the idea about your writing to your supervisor in his/her room. You explained
some ideas about your writing to your supervisor. Your supervisor said that what you
have just explained is very brilliant idea and he/she also wanted to conduct the study
related to your idea.
What would you say?
If you keep silent, why?
26