Compliments in American English

Practical Ideas & Resources

Resources in this section curated by: Miranda Burrows, Niki García-Holmes, Ailsa Li, Ryane Sergent

Podcasts (such as ‘Happier’ and ‘Wonderful’)

Any podcast hosted by American English speakers could be a place where one might hear compliments used "in the wild." Language learners can listen on Apple, Stitcher, Audible, etc. The following are two podcasts that discuss the bright side of life - and where one will be more likely to hear compliment language in American English.

While investigating the compliment language used by the hosts and building their own lexica, language learners should also make comparisons with languages and cultures they know. They might also consider broader cultural questions like: Are the podcasts discussed above examples of a helpful brand of American optimism? Or do they reflect a culture rife with toxic positivity? Learners who want to explore this even further might read Derek Thompson's piece for The Atlantic, The Dark Side of American Optimism (And the Bright Side of Rising Pessimism About the American Dream).

TikTok as Teacher (A Collection of 7 Compliment Videos)

TikTok is an excellent resource for exploring written and spoken American English compliment culture in digital spaces, especially for young adult and teen language learners. Like case studies, individual TikTok posts won't always contain generalizable cultural or pragmatic information, but very often, trends can be seen and general inferences about American English culture can be made, especially when viewing videos in the aggregate. Exploring the hashtag #compliment is a good place to start.

What Americans Actually Mean (blog post)

Yerin Kim's listicle in Seventeen Magazine, How to Flirt Like a Pro, gives suggestions for complimenting and flattering romantic interests using emoji. The fire and chili pepper emoji are used to indicate that the receiver is good looking, while the drooling face implies that the receiver of the message is as wonderful as a meal that would make one salivate.

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In Natalie Cortes's blog post Catcalling is Not a Compliment, written for The National Organization for Women, the author considers the boundary between catcalls (comments, whistles, or other unwanted attention, typically directed at female-identifying people on public streets) and compliments. The resource explores the issues at play when men, who are typically in +power positions, direct unwanted compliment language at strangers- typically women and girls who are then imposed upon to respond or react. 

The resource will help learners distinguish between catcalls and compliments, consider gender as it relates to power and imposition, and recognize that not all "complimentary language" is welcome. Per the image, American English learners should take note: telling a woman you don't know to "smile" (usually followed by some form of "because you're beautiful") could be considered catcall language.

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RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

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RESOURCES FOR LEARNERS

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EXPERT SPEAKER RESOURCES

Greetings in English (with a focus on Chinese EFL)

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Elaine Sun, Lily Li

Apologizing in English

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Dustin Robson

Small Talk in English

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by:  Ellie Collins and Holly Shao

MASTERING SMALL TALK

APPROPRIATE TOPICS

SPECIFIC CONTEXTS

HUMOR IN SMALL TALK

FOR TEACHERS

Activities

Refusals in English

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Jaidan McLean

Academic Resources on Making Compliments in English

Resources in this section curated by: Miranda Burrows, Niki García-Holmes, Ailsa Li, Ryane Sergent

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 The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 25(4), 227–240. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2019-2504-14 

The authors of this article explored cultural aspects of first language (L1) transfer to a speaker’s pragmatic functions in the second language (L2). They compared and contrasted different types of compliment responses Yemeni EFL undergraduates gave. One of the most interesting parts of the results was that Arab study participants employed a deeply cultural deferral to their deity, i.e., the 'Fearing Devil Eye' strategy that would be unfamiliar in English-speaking norms. However, the rest of the compliment strategies used were deemed universal across all study participants, indicating there was a common cultural thread. This article supports the argument that explicit grammar instruction is instrumental to understanding cultural elements of compliments and compliment responses to mitigate potential miscommunications.

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Alsuhaibani, Z. (2020). Developing EFL students ' pragmatic competence: The case of compliment responses. Language Teaching Research, 26(5), 847-866. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820913539 

Compliments, which are an important part of pragmatic competence and one of the cornerstones for successful communication, can be tricky to language learners when they are not taught. The major problem is that compliments and responses are linked to culture. Two types of responses to compliments are discussed - agreeing with the compliment and avoiding self-praise. Americans frequently use direct responses which either accept or reject the compliment. In contrast, Saudis prefer to evade compliments. Additionally, the common compliment in Arabic “I am ashamed” is inappropriate in the English context. Cultural differences can cause EFL learners to have conflicts.

This study implemented corpus-based instruction that gathered authentic compliments and responses as the teaching material. Students searched for words such as nice and great job in authentic texts and investigated how they are used in magazines, newspapers, and by expert speakers. By the end of the experiment, participants who used the corpus data as pragmatic learning material performed better on a test. Thus, using corpora gives learners an advantage and helps eliminate inauthenticity of textbook phrases. It can also raise learners' self-awareness about the pragmatics of English.

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Cheng, D. (2011). New insights on compliment responses: A comparison between native English speakers and Chinese L2 speakers. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(8), 2204-2214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.02.003 

English learners study general compliment words and phrases such as thanks and you are so nice through class instruction. However, often there is not enough opportunity to communicate in the targeted context, leading to difficulties utilizing the compliment and response strategies. This study explored compliment responses produced by Chinese ESL (English as a second language) learners, EFL (English as a foreign language) learners, and native speakers of American English in oral communicative contexts through a naturalistic role-play task. 

Results indicated that most English learners successfully responded to any compliment with thanks, but they lacked personalized responses and did not provide further comments. In the English-speaking context, this can be considered as inappropriate and can put interlocutors into an embarrassing situation. At the same time, participants in the ESL context had more opportunities to communicate with English native speakers and immerse themselves in authentic contexts, hence they were able to provide more natural compliments than the EFL group.

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Cohen, A., & Ishihara, N. (2015). Teaching and learning pragmatics: Where language and culture meet. Routledge, pp. 3-20.

This chapter discusses speech acts and speech act sets, among other topics. Speech acts define the functions of language, such as apologizing, requesting, and complimenting. Often, learners may translate pragmatic functions from their first language into the second, but this may not always translate well. Implementing instruction of pragmatics in the language classroom can give learners other tools that will help them more accurately assess their situations and avoid pragmatic failure.

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Costa, A. & Kallick, B. (2015). Five Strategies for Questioning with Intention. Questioning for Learning, 73(1). http://68.77.48.18/randd/Educational%20Leadership/Five%20Strategies%20for%20Questioning%20with%20Intention%20-%20Costa.pdf 

While this resource is not specific to complimenting or pragmatics, the ideas expressed by the authors can be used to formulate good guiding questions. The authors remind teachers to design questions that stimulate curiosity. They suggest ways teachers can guide learners to operate at increasingly complex levels of thinking, whether through the use of Bloom's Taxonomy, Costa's own "Levels of Questioning" framework, or other frameworks. Costa and Kallick promote strategies for "building habits of mind," which enable learners to think critically beyond classroom walls. There are 16 habits listed.

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Cutshall, S. (2012). More Than a Decade of Standards: Integrating “Cultures” in Your Language Instruction. ACTFL’s The Language Educator, April, 32–37. https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/publications/standards/Cultures.pdf 

Cutshall's work for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) centers on cultural competence - a feature deeply intertwined with pragmatic competence. And though Cutshall doesn't use the word pragmatics in the article, she does delineate definitions and descriptions of ACTFL's "3 Ps" - the products, practices, and perspectives that form the worldview of a cultural group. An understanding of perspectives, in particular, will help learners recognize nuanced meanings, attitudes, values, and ideas that lie beneath the surface knowledge of compliment words and phrases. This competency will help learners say what they mean, mean what they say, and effectively interpret and respond to compliments in the target language.

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Danziger. (2020). The pragmatics of flattery: The strategic use of solidarity-oriented actions. Journal of Pragmatics, 170, 413–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.027 

The authors of this paper tried to define and dissect the nature of flattery by looking at first language (L1) speakers of Hebrew in Israel. They collected two corpora: anecdotes people recounted about flattery they had personally experienced and information about flattery "events" gathered from an online database. An interesting feature of this research is how the authors categorize flattery (in general - independent of the Israeli community studied) into three elements: insincere praise or compliments, the perception that flattery is manipulative, and participation roles in framing an action as flattery. The latter point is particularly interesting, as the authors argue observers play a key role in flattery events by "judging the worthiness of the addressee." It's unclear whether that is applicable across contexts and cultures, but it is interesting to consider.

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DeCapua, A. (2018). Culture myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9558044 

DeCapua's book challenges teachers to be more culturally and pragmatically aware by examining their own and others' worldviews, customs, presuppositions, and attitudes. Her book is full of "sample mini scenarios" (instances of pragmatic failure) for teachers to consider and/or present to learners in classroom settings. The author examines everything from different turn-taking styles to cultural perceptions of time; from leave-taking styles across languages and cultures to which countries do/do not partake in "small talk." 

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Grossi, V. (2009). Teaching pragmatic competence: Compliments and compliment responses in the ESL classroom. Prospect, 24(2), 53-62. https://researchers.mq.edu.au/files/17063916/mq-9435-Publisher%20version%20(open%20access).pdf 

This paper discusses how teaching compliments and compliment responses could be approached in the adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. A review of the literature suggests that explicit instruction has some positive effects on the acquisition of these speech acts. Naturally occurring oral examples of compliments and compliment responses by speakers of different ages and types of relationships were collected in different settings, including the workplace and the home. These examples formed the basis of a teaching resource, which was used in an intermediate/advanced immigrant English class in Australia. It is suggested that using naturally occurring data as examples to explain the workings of these speech acts could be used to teach at all levels in the adult ESL setting.

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Herbert, R. K. (1986). Say “Thank You” - Or Something. American Speech, 61(1), 76–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/454710 

This research is noteworthy for its identification of 12 categories of compliment response types. One category is Praise Upgrade, commonly used by joking adults as well as young children. This strategy shows hearty agreement. Reassignment (of the compliment) is another category, an example of which is "Oh, thanks, but Karen actually gave me this scarf!" 

One notable finding from this article was that American-English-speaking college students accept compliments less often than speakers of other varieties of English, such as South African English. The author hypothesizes that this results from the notion that equality is a core American value. Herbert proffers that addressees, in not accepting compliments, are effectively saying, "I recognize that the compliment was designed to make me feel good. I choose to avoid self-praise because we are equal." It is interesting that Herbert, writing in 1986, called the American valuing of equality a notion, given current social justice movements and political discussions centered on the idea that America does not truly value equality (and never has). The author suggests that other American English linguistic behaviors and patterns are linked to American values.

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Hinkel, E. (2014). Culture and pragmatics in language teaching and learning. In Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D.M., & Snow, M.A. (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 394-408). Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning. Retrieved from http://ww.elihinkel.org/downloads/Culture_and_Pragmatics.pdf 

Hinkel discusses the importance of giving learners the tools they need to become cognizant of the sociolinguistic norms reflected in how the target community speaks. He says teachers must help learners heighten their awareness of the sociopragmatic elements that make up interactions, so that they can in turn make informed choices. This is aligned with the subjectivity quadrant of the IPIC model that underscores the role choice plays in pragmatic competence. Learners should understand norms and potential consequences of deviating from them, and then make their own informed language choices.

Hinkel laments that socio-cultural variables are not often addressed in classroom instruction, and says that teachers must help learners identify contexts where language is used, plus check for the intentions of the speaker or writer. Like LoCastro (2011) and Schmidt (1995), this author asserts the importance of "noticing" (noticing the details of interactions such as the who, the how and the why, etc.). 

Hinkel suggests several classroom activities for helping learners develop pragmatic and cultural competence that may be of interest to teachers. One idea, for example, includes having learners create interview questions centering the invisible aspects of language and culture. Learners then conduct interviews with expert speakers of the target language, and present interview data to the class or members of the community (pp. 24-25).

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Holmes, J., & Brown, D. F. (1987). Teachers and students learning about compliments. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 523–546. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586501 

Paying appropriate compliments and identifying them accurately is an aspect of communicative competence which may differ in a variety of ways from one culture to another. This article provides examples of misunderstandings in compliment exchanges in different cultural contexts and analyzes them as instances of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic failure. An analysis of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic norms of complimenting behavior in two English-speaking communities forms the basis of a set of exercises designed to assist learners in developing the ability to recognize and use compliments appropriately.

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Karimnia, A., & Afghari, A. (2010). On the Applicability of Cultural Scripts in Teaching L2 Compliments. English Language Teaching, 3(3), 71-80. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v3n3p71 

Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) was used in this study to complete a comparative analysis. Results indicated that speakers of a given culture generally have mutually shared expectations about what the appropriate behavior and its social meanings are in different contexts. 

According to the authors, American culture practices places special emphasis on agreement in discourse activities and that is often how English speakers respond to compliments. However, the practice in Persian society attaches a high value to relative power and modesty in spoken interactions and some compliments can be seen as face-saving or face-threatening. A compliment can have the unintended effect of being perceived as a challenge by Persian speakers. 

Knowing these nuances about socio-cultural norms could make the difference between avoiding potentially embarrassing missteps and supports the view that without taking the time to acquire knowledge of your interlocutor's culture, you could have serious miscommunications when giving and receiving compliments.

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Kim, H. (2016). An investigation into EFL learners’ perception towards L2 pragmatic instruction. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(3), 452. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0603.02 

The study participants evaluated in the article were intermediate and low proficiency level university students in South Korea. They were asked to watch video clips and write reflection journal entries while they received explicit pragmatics instruction in English. The researchers focused on four speech acts: complimenting, apologizing, requesting, and refusing. They implemented a pedagogical treatment of nine weeks and their results indicated that explicit pragmatic instruction improved learners' motivation and confidence with productive skills. 

The researchers suggested that "different approaches and methods of language teaching designed for EFL learners should be practiced in consideration of the deficiency of EFL learners' communicative opportunities." This article supports the stance that explicit pragmatics instruction is the best way for learners to understand how the cultural norms of compliments and other functions differ across cultures and languages.

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LoCastro, V. (2011). Pragmatics for language educators: A sociolinguistic perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.

Throughout this book, LoCastro makes a strong argument in favor of teaching pragmatic competence to language learners for reasons beyond simple attainment of L2 proficiency. She asserts that pragmatic competence provides learners with access to L2 communities. Importantly, LoCastro notes that classroom teachers have a central role in providing pragmatic instruction because learners are unlikely to get it elsewhere. Learners don't just "pick up" pragmatic competence, and expert speakers rarely take time to teach pragmatics to learners.

Chapter 10, in particular, may interest those studying compliments. LoCastro says that in the U.S., compliments are used as ice-breakers and general conversation initiators . She draws contrasts between American compliment culture and Asian compliment cultures and discusses how the genders may use compliments differently. LoCastro also argues in favor of turning learners into ethnographers.

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LoCastro, V. (2012). Pragmatics for language educators: A sociolinguistic perspective. Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 617-620.

This article discusses the three forces of pragmatics. If we analyze the phrase "I'm going to the store", the locutionary force (the literal meaning) would mean that the speaker is about to leave their home to go to a store. The illocutionary force (the intended meaning) could be that the speaker might be asking the interlocutor if they need anything from the store by letting them know where they're going. Finally, perlocutionary force (the interpreted meaning) might be that the interlocutor interprets the phrase to mean that the speaker is asking them if they would like to come to the store with them. 

This is an excellent article for explaining the difference between intent and impact, which is useful for both expert speakers and learners. It is very easy to misinterpret an utterance, so understanding that the literal meaning, the intended meaning, AND the interpreted meaning can all be very different can help speakers pay close attention to both what they say and how they say it.

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Luu, C. (2018, July 11). The uncertain art of the American compliment. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/the-uncertain-art-of-the-american-compliment/ 

The way Americans compliment is maximalist and enthusiastic, but it may not always be sincere. The author of this short article unpacks the language of politeness.

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Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen. (2012). “Was that a compliment?” Implicit compliments in English and Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(8), 980-996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.04.004 

Implicit compliments are present relatively less in daily conversation than formulaic ones (that are taught in textbooks). The author of this article suggests that implicit compliments are a modest way to apprise others - there is a lower chance to make the interlocutor feel embarrassed or unwelcome. An example of an implicit compliment is comparing a person to someone that the speaker thinks the other person might admire and referring to something that a person has done and that he or she is proud of. For example, “there's something Karen Carpenterish about your voice on this album” or “‘I see where she gets her beauty from”.

Results of this study show that implicit compliments are preferred when evaluating someone's qualities, achievements or personal appearance in order to avoid face-threat, especially when the relationship between the interlocutors is still distant. However, not all implicit compliments share the same degree of implicitness.

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Maíz-Arévalo, C., & García-Gómez, A. (2013). ‘You look terrific!’ Social evaluation and relationships in online compliments. Discourse Studies, 15(6), 735-760. https://doi.org/10.1177/146144561349001 

The authors of this article investigated how users of online social networks like Facebook use compliments to evaluate others and strengthen social rapport in English and Spanish. The analysis revealed that compliments constitute a system of choices where several available options help Facebook users to encode their evaluation of the other from various perspectives (e.g. as an emotion, as an unquestionable truth, etc.). Results also showed that despite superficial similarities, compliments in both languages follow remarkably different frequencies of use which reflect deep cultural differences.

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Niezgoda, K., & Röver, C. (2001). Pragmatic and grammatical awareness: A function of the learning environment? Pragmatics in Language Teaching, 63-79. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524797.008 

This article replicates a previous study that attempts to determine whether pragmatic errors or grammatical errors are perceived as more serious by learners of English. The authors argue for the importance of pragmatics and suggest that pragmatic failures are more severe than grammatical failures, but most language courses in high schools and colleges focus more on vocabulary. There is a discrepancy between what is useful and what is taught, and this article suggests that these language courses would benefit from a shift in focus.

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Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines 

Anyone interested in language learning - or any learning, for that matter - can benefit from Harvar's Project Zero, which is a repository thinking routines, "a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking." Metacognitive strategies suggested on the site should help learners think critically about their learning, connect past knowledge to new information, reflect, analyze, synthesize, hypothesize, and set goals. Thinking routines are divided into ten color-coded categories that will help teachers quickly find the routines best suited to their lesson plans. This way, learners consider multiple perspectives. 

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Richards, J. C. (2013). Creativity in language teaching. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 1(3), 19–43. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1127396 

At times teachers question their colleague’s use of TikTok, memes, and other decidedly non-academic digital realia to support students' learning. When teachers include such items in their lesson, they strive to achieve learning outcomes and they add creativity to lessons. As Richards notes, creative teachers make lessons unique experiences; they create “effective surprises”; they take risks; they vary their strategies; they avoid repetition; and, they connect material to learners' lives and identities (among other things).

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Satar, H. M. (2015). Sustaining multimodal language learner interactions online. Calico Journal, 32(3), 480-507. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v32i3.26508 

In this article, Satar explains the results of a study conducted on a video platform called ooVoo. Study participants were teacher candidates and advanced learners of English. In the study, Satar outlines digital discourse strategies and tools individuals can employ when body language is absent including emoticons, continuing a thread, asking questions and expressing agreement. 

Some of the best ways to sustain interaction during a video chat via self report from the study participants include asking follow-up questions to further the current topic, asking questions that probe new topics and initiating a topic of mutual interest. In addition, establishing intersubjectivity and encouraging one’s partner to talk more by initiating new topics helps sustain interaction and allows the other interlocutor to feel validated and heard. Another potential strategy is smiling to encourage the speaker to continue. Finally, providing backchannels and language-related compliments which encourage one’s interlocutor to continue talking is a great strategy to try out in video digital discourse.

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Shahidi Pour, Vahid, and Reza Zarei, Gholam (2016). Investigating the Use of Compliments and Compliment Responses in Persian: Effect of Educational Background. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 6(1), 227-239. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.6n.1p.227 

This study aimed to analyze Persian speakers' compliment and compliment response strategies. The top strategies employed by the participants were Downgrade, Return, and Appreciation. Taking this into consideration, it is helpful to know each speakers' preferred responses to compliments to build solidarity in interpersonal relationships. 

If a learner is curious about the impacts of elevating their compliment and compliment response strategies in concordance with their career goals, this could be an interesting article to support the need to employ different strategies across speech functions to better relate to new communities of professional interest.

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Starks et al. (2020). Linguistic Landscapes as Transformative Curriculum Artefacts in Schools and Universities (Australia & Germany). In Mickan, P. & Wallace, Ilona (Eds.). The Routledge handbook of language education curriculum design (pp. 238-257). Routledge.

This is a highly recommended article on linguistic landscapes. The authors describe two case studies where groups of students were instructed to venture out into their linguistic landscapes and report on their findings. One group was a class of middle schoolers who startled the authors with their insightful commentary on data collected from their real-world linguistic landscapes. The second case study involved a group of teachers in training-- all international students-- at a small university in Australia. The authors discovered that, given proper scaffolding and support, investigation of the linguistic landscape through exploration of signs, advertisements, and even soundscapes, can give learners new insights to and perspectives on the language all around them.

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Sun, N. (2013). Gender-based differences in complimenting behaviour: A critical literature review. The ANU Undergraduate Research Journal, 5, 213-222. http://press.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n1673/pdf/Nan_Sun.pdf 

This article discusses how gender impacts the offering and the reception of compliments. It discusses the purpose of compliments and their function as a speech act; for example, compliments are given in order to express solidarity, positive evaluation or admiration, or desire for the hearer's possessions. They can also be used as verbal harassment, in the case of backhanded compliments or sarcasm. Syntactic patterns typically used for compliments are also explained in the article. Examples of compliment responses are organized into categories and subcategories. The category of Acceptance, for example, is further organized into Appreciation ("Thank you") and Agreement ("I like it too"). 

This article is a great resource for introducing the topic of compliments and how they can be influenced by gender in English-speaking cultures. This overview can give learners some insight on how a person of a certain gender might give or receive a compliment and whether it aligns with their own identity.

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Tsuda, S. (1992). Contrasting attitudes in compliments: Humility in Japanese and hyperbole in English. Intercultural Communication Studies, 2(1), 137–146. https://web.uri.edu/iaics/files/10-Sanae-Tsuda.pdf

This article discusses differences between English and Japanese speakers in their use of compliments. The usage rules in each culture create a strong contrast in the production of the compliments.

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Wolfson, N., & Manes, J. (1980). The compliment as a social strategy. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 13(3), 391-410.

The authors argue that American English compliments have the social function of creating and/or maintaining solidarity, regardless of what the discursive function may be. They discuss the formulaic nature of American English compliments and argue that this feature makes the compliments more comprehensible, which in turn makes the goodwill of the speaker or writer more comprehensible. The authors assert that in order for a compliment to succeed, the receiver must believe it is both spontaneous and sincere. This gets at the trouble of flattery, a topic relevant to making compliments.

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Wojno, M. A. B. (1997). My life, my choices: Key issues for young adults. Paulist Press.

This book covers issues faced by young adults from the learner perspective, and includes a section on compliments (see pp. 163-170). The reflective journaling activities the author presents would be excellent classroom activities for teens as well as young adults, as the author asks young people to consider: How does a sincere compliment make you feel? How do you act toward a person who gives you a compliment? (we could add: "...and why?"!) Do you give compliments on a regular basis? Why or why not? ...and many more thought-provoking questions. 

As Herbert (1986) noted, the HOW and the WHY of extending and receiving compliments should always be explored, and Wojno's work will help learners do that through reflective activities that should be motivating for young adults, since they encourage exploration of identities (something adolescents typically enjoy doing!).

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Wolfson, N. (1981). Compliments in cross-cultural perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 15(2), 117–124. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586403

The speech act of complimenting, as an example of the kind of sociolinguistic information needed in order to understand the problems of language learners, is examined in this article. The semantic and syntactic structure of compliments in American English is described and comparisons are made with complimenting behavior in other cultures.

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Yu, M. (2005). Sociolinguistic competence in the complimenting act of native Chinese and American English speakers: A mirror of cultural value. Language and Speech, 48(1), 91–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309050480010501 

This study examines sociolinguistic features of paying compliments by comparing and contrasting native Chinese and native American speakers' performances. It aims to illuminate the fact that, in cross-cultural communication, foreign language speakers have to pay close attention to sociolinguistic rules of the target language in addition to structure and discourse rules to meet the needs of linguistic accuracy and fluency. This is due to the fact that such rules play an indispensable role in appropriating the proper use of linguistic forms. 

The analysis section of this paper explores both the features of distribution of paying compliments and the functions they may serve in spoken exchanges for Chinese and American English speakers. To present a fuller picture of the socio-cultural features this speech act may represent in Chinese and American societies, the analysis further focuses on the issues of topics, the addresser-addressee relationship, and culture-specificity versus universality.

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Yusof, S. Y. A. M., & Hoon, T. B. (2014). Compliments and compliment responses on Twitter among male and female celebrities. Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 22, 75-96.

This study examined how compliments and compliment response strategies differ across gender among celebrities in Malaysia. By analyzing them on Twitter, the researcher found women prefer to compliment on their appearance while men like others to compliment on possessions. The researchers also noticed women received compliments on social media a lot more than men. It might be because women compliment each other more than men. Another interesting result was that most of the compliment comments about men’s possessions were made by women.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON GREETINGS IN ENGLISH

(with a focus on Chinese EFL)

Resources in this section curated by: Elaine Sun, Lily Li

Abbott, J. (1963). The Teaching Of Greetings. Journal of American Indian Education, 2(3), 25-29.

The greeting is the first thing that happens between two individuals if they are going to have interactions. Since teaching a non-native English speaker to speak English is to help that speaker to become a functioning member of the target culture, the greeting is a good topic to start with. In this journal, the author gives many examples of how to teach greeting in a class. Also, some example activities are given in this journal. It is helpful for teachers to read through when they are planning a lesson for ESL learners, especially for beginners.

In this journal, the author gives many examples of how to teach greeting in a class. Also, some example activities are given in this journal. It is helpful for teachers to read through when they are planning a lesson for ESL learners, especially for beginners. The teacher could use the practice questions in this article in class as in-class activities or practices.

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Burgucu-Tazegul, A., Han, T., & Engin, A. O. (2016). Pragmatic Failure of Turkish EFL Learners in Request Emails to Their Professors. International Education Studies, 9(10), 105. doi: 10.5539/ies.v9n10p105 

This article talks about how Turkish EFL learners did not have greetings in the email to professors to request something. Thirty-four Turkish EFL learners' emails are being observed. The results show that inappropriate greeting and closing statements occur. This reading gives us an idea of how we should tell students that it is important to greet the professor in the email.

After reading this article, I will guide students on how to write an appropriate email to the professor with greetings inside. It is known that Turkish students in the article did not greet the professor in the email and it is important to greet the professor in order to give respect to the professor. Therefore, I will give a small homework assignment to the students to write an appropriate email to the professor with an appropriate greeting inside. This reading is related to our topic since it talks about the greeting in the email, how greeting the professor is important even in the email and many people do not greet the professors in the email.

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Chamberlin, A., & Senior. (2015). In defense of the greeting 'y'all'. University Wire.

This short article talks about how some normal daily greeting phrases become offensive to some people for some reason. The author gives reasons like saying “hi guys” could be offensive when there is someone who doesn't identify him/herself as male. This article gives some points of view on how to greet appropriately with people due to some aspects. 

The teacher could use this article as an extra reading resource for students to understand the informal greeting and its cultural aspects on the back side of the greeting words. This word is an example and students could explore more words like this and try to find out the cultural aspects of greeting words.

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Duranti, A. (1997).  Universal and Culture-Specific Properties of Greetings.

There are many functions of greeting except just saying “hi” to people. In this journal, the author states that people also exchange stories, feelings and other kinds of information while greeting. This journal gives teachers ideas about how to inform students about the functions of greetings. Also, it brings the topic of small talks in greetings.

I will use the information in this article to teach students that greeting is not only limited to “hi” but also many ways other than “hi”. Students can tell the stories of themselves as one way of greeting. I will let students walk around the classroom to greet other classmates other than “hi”, they are required to give a story of what is going on in their life. This reading is related to our topic since it tells us that greeting can be other than “hi”, telling a person’s own story or own life is also a greeting and small talk is considered a greeting. 

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Dindia, K., Timmerman, L., Langan, E., Sahlstein, E. M., & Quandt, J. (2004). The function of holiday greetings in maintaining relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21(5), 577-593.

Holiday greeting cards have become a tradition for people to keep their relationships. This “tradition” is totally different from Chinese people greeting each other. For Chinese EFL students, they might not have ideas and experiences of greeting cards and reasons why people write greeting cards on holiday. Now, we have many kinds of ways to greet and share happiness and loves. Why are people still using greeting cards?

The purpose of this study was to examine the function of holiday greeting cards in maintaining relationships.  From the results, researchers speculated that holiday greeting cards are hygiene factors; their presence does not positively affect relational maintenance, but their absence may have a negative effect on relational maintenance. For later pragmatic class, this article could be used as a really great resource to explain the reason for greeting cards.

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Kaur-Kasior, S. (1987). The treatment of culture in greeting cards: A content analysis. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I.

Greetings happen in written forms a lot. Greeting card is one traditional way of greeting through writing. According to the study, though greeting cards do not reflect every cultural aspect of American society, they provide people a chance to see some cultural changes, message themes and communicative functions. Also, greeting cards do develop relationships for people. Teachers could arrange a follow-up activity on making greeting cards so the students could learn something related to the greeting culture of Americans. 

In this article, one of the most interesting parts is the greeting cards chosen for the content analysis were of six periods,  from industrial period to information period. The changing of greeting cards could not reflect every aspect of American society, but it could show some cultural changes, message themes, and communicative functions. Although this article is old from now, it still has some interesting information that students could learn from it.

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Li. (2009). Different Communication Rules between the English and Chinese Greetings. Asian Culture and History, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.5539/ach.v1n2p72 

This article talked about communication rules in English and Chinese. It has several theoretical resources to explain the differences. As the author mentioned, “In communication, rules act as a system of expected behavior patterns that organize interaction between individuals’. Communication rules include both verbal and nonverbal components.”  In addition, at the end of the article, the author states that in this world with a diversity of cultures, no culture may necessarily be better or worse than another. No culture may necessarily be superior or inferior to another. It is true that there are real differences between groups and cultures. It can be learned to perceive those differences, appreciate them, and above all to respect, value and prize the personhood of every human being, and meanwhile achieve successful communication. 

Students will be able to see culture and communication from a more general perspective. It seems that this topic is far from greeting but it gives students ideas of differences in culture and the attitudes of facing the culture.

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Ma, J. S. (. (2000). On english and chinese greetings from cultural perspective (Order No. H004486). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (1027132507).

This book talks a lot about greeting, including functions, definitions, social meanings, etc. One of the chapters talks about the culture differences between Chinese and American, which make greetings different and sometimes misunderstandings may occur. In some cases, greetings which are normal for American people could be very rude for Chinese people. This book gives teachers and students some ideas of possible cultural shocks and how to avoid awkwards in the greeting process. 

In this book, the most useful part for students is chapter 4, greetings in different cultures. The west culture emphasizes more on individualism, freedom and independence; while the east  culture pays more attention to collectivism. Because of the differences in cultural values, greetings pose many problems for nonnative speakers. So I really encourage students to read this chapter and bring their thoughts to the class. The teacher could analyze the different situations with students.

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Shleykina, G. (2019). The Interlanguage Pragmatics of Greetings. Beyond Words, 7(1), 43–60. doi: 10.33508/bw.v7i1.1848 

This journal focuses on interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics. This study investigates the semantic formulas in the speech act of greeting between the non-native speakers and native speakers. Free Discourse Completion Test is used to compare the differences between them. The result showed that there are differences between them in the number and the frequency of greetings and the content of greeting strategies. Therefore, this reading is useful for us to see what we can do to help students who are learning English greeting pragmatics to master like a native speaker. 

I will use the information from this journal to help students learn English greeting pragmatics better. The article pointed out that explicit instruction of speech, cross-linguistic comparisons, cross-cultural awareness and the explicit strategic approach to the development of ILP are important in teaching English greeting pragmatics. Therefore, I will cover more information about comparing and contrasting the greeting culture between China and the US and the language used in greeting between Chinese and English. This article relates to our topic since it covers the differences between how non-native and native speakers greet. Also, the way that one greets someone has to do with the cultural background and non-native speakers learn the ways to greet from the textbook more.

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Sullivan, P. (1979). Conversation: Saying hello and goodbye. TESOL Newsletter, 13(1), 29.

      This journal gives data of frequencies of different ways of greeting. Also, it compares differences of greetings and farewells between English native speakers and ESL speakers. It is also a discussion of why people choose such different texts to greet and farewell, and how native speakers greet versus how ESL speakers do. Teachers could get ideas of how to clarify some points from this journal. 

There are some examples in this article saying the differences of greet and farewell between English native speakers and ESL speakers. Students will list their ways of giving greetings and farewells first in groups. Then they will look at those examples from the article and compare the examples to their notes. In groups, they will discuss and decide which ones are better to use. After the discussion, each group will present their results to the class.

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Valdes. (1990). The Inevitability of Teaching and Learning Culture in a Foreign Language Course. Culture and the Language Classroom. Modern English Publications and the British Council. p.p 20.

Learning the target culture is as important as learning the target language itself when people are learning a second or foreign language. Greetings reflect basic cultural aspects. There is no reason for teachers to ignore teaching greetings in an L2 classroom. The author states that learning greetings is important and there are many different ways of greeting depending on who, where, when, and situations.

Many examples of greeting to different people in different situations are given in this article. The teacher could design some role play practice based on the relationship. Students will pay attention to the phrases they choose to greet different people. Through role play, students will learn how to greet in some specific situations better.

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Vyas, M. A., & Patel, Y. L. (2015). Teaching English as a second language: a new pedagogy for a new century. Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited.

This chapter claims that greeting is important in communication. However, there is a lack of literature that covers the English greeting lesson. Therefore, this chapter focuses on discussing the contextual issues involved in English greeting. It stated that by learning an appropriate greeting in an appropriate context, it is important to not only know the grammar but also the culture because by not knowing the culture, the speakers might greet unnaturally. This article helps us to understand that other than grammar, culture is also one of the important elements that the learners need to know, so from there, we may introduce more cultural information when teaching English greetings. 

This reading chapter lets me keep in mind that it is important to also cover the culture of English greeting in the lesson because there is a lack of a culture of English greeting cover in the English greeting lesson. Therefore, I will give an introduction to the English greeting culture. This chapter in the book is related to our topic since it talks about how knowing the greeting culture is important in the greeting lesson, how greeting is important in the communication and there is a lack of English greeting lessons in the class.

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Wu, Y. (2015). Strategies of L1 and L2 greeting and small talk in Chinese. Available from Social Science Premium Collection.

This article talks about a study on the functions of small talks and greeting in a language. Target students are CFL (Chinese Foreign language Learning) students. The data shows that there are 12 major strategies in Chinese greeting. Small talks also show people’s feelings and proficiency. L1 and L2 speakers have different strategies in greeting due to their cultural background, language style, etc. This article could also be a reference for teachers to see what and how they could apply some methods and materials to their courses.

To use this article in our lesson, the teacher will go through the article with students and analyze those 12 Chinese greeting strategies. Also, the teacher will emphasize the importance and functions of small talk in greeting. After doing these, the teacher will introduce American greetings to the class. Students will compare and contrast between Chinese greeting and American greeting.

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Zayed, Mohammad N. (2014). Jordanian EFL Teachers’ and Students’ Practice of Speech Acts in the Classroom. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL),

In this article, one of the elements the study is trying to investigate in the practice of speech act is the greeting. In the experiment, thirty female EFL teachers and their students are being observed in the classroom setting. The result shows that there is not enough practice of speech act in greeting. Although the practice of greeting is done more than the other elements, still they need more practice on greeting. This reading is useful for us to read and let us know how we can create more practices on English greeting for students. 

This reading invites me to keep in mind that it is important to give a massive amount of proper practice to the students in greeting. It is known that there is a lack of proper practices since the teachers are often the ones that ask the greeting phrases and the students answer all the greeting phrases perhaps at the same time with the same phrase. Therefore, I create an activity where students need to walk around the classroom and greet each other. This article is related to our topic since greeting (our topic) is one of the speech acts stated in the article. Also, it demonstrated to what extent is greeting practiced by the teachers in the classroom setting and the way they practice greeting is improper (Teachers asking students and students only answer).

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Zeff, B. Bricklin, (2016). The Pragmatics of Greetings: Teaching Speech Acts in the EFL Classroom. English Teaching Forum, v54 n1 p2-11.

Greeting is an important speech act for us to learn. However, many teachers usually do not pay a lot of attention to teaching it. This article states why greeting is treated as a subordinate thing to learn in an ESL class and why greeting is important to learn. According to the author, cultural knowledge involves a lot in the greeting process as well. The article also discusses different tools that could be used for teaching greetings to ESL learners. It is a good reference for teachers to look at.

This article gives reasons for saying that greetings are important to learn. Before class, the teacher should read through this article to get some ideas of how to teach greeting and why it is important to teach greeting. At the beginning of the class, the teacher could have a quick discussion with the whole class on “What are some functions of greeting and why greeting is important to learn?”. Depending on students’ answers, the teacher could give some tips which he/she read in this article.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON APOLOGIZING IN ENGLISH

Resources in this section curated by: Dustin Robson

Limberg, H. (2016). Teaching how to apologize: EFL textbooks and pragmatic input. Language Teaching Research, 20(6), 700-718. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168815590695 

This article looked at the kinds of apology input that German learners of English were receiving from their textbooks. The author's belief is that apologizing is an important skill to learn, because when a cultural norm has been violated, the speaker needs to have the more than just formulaic routines to repair the situation. An examination of German textbooks reveal that while there is some existence of input for apologies, it lacks in variety of expressions, and in authenticity of input. Additionally, there is a noticeable difference between implicit and explicit activities, which can have an influence on learner development.

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Kemala Sari, Mezia. (2016). Apology Strategy in English By Native Speaker. Lingua Cultura. 10. 13. 10.21512/lc.v10i1.815. 

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Istifci. (2009). The Use of Apologies by EFL Learners. English Language Teaching (Toronto), 2(3), 15–. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v2n3p15 

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Cohen, A. & Olshtain, E. (2006). Developing a measure of sociocultural competence: The case of apology. Language Learning. 31. 113 - 134. 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1981.tb01375.x.  

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Cohen A. D., Olshtain, E., & Rosenstein, D. S. (1986). Advanced EFL apologies: what remains to be learned? International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1986(62), 51–74. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1986.62.51 

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Ishihara N. & Cohen, A. D. (2021). Teaching and learning pragmatics: where language and culture meet (Second edition.). Routledge. 

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Demir, Cuneyt & Takkac, Mehmet. (2016). Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian. International Journal of English Linguistics. 6. 73. 10.5539/ijel.v6n1p73.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON SMALL TALK IN ENGLISH

Resources in this section curated by: Ellie Collins and Holly Shao

OVERVIEW OF SMALL TALK

al-Qinai, J. B. S. (2011). Translating phatic expressions. Pragmatics : Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association, 21(1). 23-39. doi: 10.1075/prag.21.1.02qin

This article was written by Jamal B.S. al-Qinai of Kuwait University. In this article, the author compares phatic expressions and informational expressions and the translations of those functions. In this article, phatic expressions are described as a “social function of language which arises in order to maintain rapport between people in line with the maxims of politeness.” The authors consider different kinds of phatic communication including compliments, greeting, and leave-taking. They go on to discuss the importance of context for this phatic communication and consider how different dialects of Arabic deal with this kind of communication.

When considering the differences between Arabic and English in small talk exchanges, the authors consider the importance of how these phrases are translated between languages. They argue that when they are translated word-for-word, phrases lose much of their meaning which relies more on sociopragmatic information than on literal semantics. Mistranslations of these phrases can lead to other real communication problems as the intended and interpreted illocutionary forces might not match. Language teachers can use this information in the classroom as they teach small talk. It is not always sufficient to translate word-for-word small talk from students’ L1 to the target language; there are pragmatic functions that literal translation will not necessarily cover.

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Copeland, George, & Maier, David. (1984). Making smalltalk a database system. SIGMOD Record, 14(2), 316–325. https://doi.org/10.1145/971697.602300

This study explores computers learning the rules of English small talk, providing a discussion of our parameters of small talk in day-to-day use and how we can teach technology to understand those limitations and expectations. Contributors to this academic journal recount issues with existing computer and program models with regards to small talk ability. Included also is a detailed explanation of how the computers are programmed to read certain linguistic features, including semantics, hierarchy, identity, and the basic merging of language data and programming.

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Coupland, J. (2014). Small talk. Routledge.

This study presents a new perspective on small talk and its crucial role in everyday communication. The new approach presented here is supported by analyses of interactional data in specific settings-private and public, face-to-face and telephone talk. Each chapter in the book argues a different perspective on small talk, supported by a number of analyses on social settings and situations; much of these analyses take a methodological approach. Throughout the book, the author considers the placement of small talk in a theoretical framework, the structure and content of small talk, and the role of small talk in social spaces.

This book would be beneficial for anyone who wanted to gain a wholistic view of small talk. The wide variety of topics in the book provides varying perspectives on the pieces and aspects of small talk. Additionally, there are several chapters that focus on varying contexts--including family dinners, medical spaces, and service encounters. This could be a useful resource for native speakers and language learners alike.

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Hinkel, E. (1994). Topic appropriateness in cross-cultural social conversations. Pragmatics and Language Learning Monograph Series, 5, 163–179.

In this article, the author looks at various topics and their level of appropriateness in different cultures. They did this by surveying students from varying language/cultural backgrounds; the participants consisted of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, and American university students. Each participant was asked to rank the appropriateness of various topics and these responses were compared across the different groups. The author notes that the concept of "appropriateness" is not easily defined, but it is important to consider these topics since successful conversations require cooperation between all the interlocutor. Miscommunication can happen if speakers try to breach a subject that the interlocutor finds inappropriate.

This article could be useful for educators and learners alike. Though it is a little dated, the concept of certain topics being appropriate or inappropriate in different cultures still stands. This article gives a good overview of categories of topics as well as a general idea of which ones are consider generally appropriate across cultures and which ones can be touchy in certain cultures.

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Jin, Y. (2018). Small talk in medical conversations: Data from China. Journal of Pragmatics, 134, 31-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2018.06.011 

This paper explores where and how small talk is positioned, initiated, and closed between participants in two types of medical practices that co-exist in China: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine. Analysis of 69 consultations suggests that small talk permeates into the boundaries of talk. The findings also demonstrate a marked clinical difference in relation to the distribution and discourse functions of small talk.

The article investigates “Small Talk” in the medical field between medical providers and patients through five different components, they are: what is small talk? Theoretical framework, methods and data, analysis, and discussion. The author defines and cites “Small Talk” from multiple sources, rather emphasizes on  “core medical talk” which is high informative conversations occurring during doctor visits in this article. In the “theoretical framework” component, the author states an analytical approach to interactional sociolinguistics that aims to show how participants engage conversation through producing small talks in speeches in order to achieve their communicative goals. In the “method and data” component, the author reports data were drawn from 39WMto 30 TCM audio-recordings between 6 doctors (1 male, 5 female) and 69 elderly patients (34 male, 35 female) with chronic disease in a general public hospital in Mainland China. The “analysis” component provides several conversation examples that occurred at doctor offices, and analyzes the greeting, the exchanging information, and the closing  in each conversation. The author illustrates sociolinguistics analysis into this component, to reveal language and power, and reflect social relations between doctors and patients in China.Finally, the “discussion” component, the variation of small talks in the medical field between doctor and patients are reflections of power, social relations, clinical philosophy and pathology.

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Zegarac, V., & Clark, B. (1999). Phatic interpretations and phatic communication. Journal of Linguistics, 35(2), 321-346.  

This article is written by Vlad Zegarac and Billy Clark from University of Luton and Middlesex University respectively. It covers the basics of phatic communication which covers the function of small talk. The authors first consider what types of communication should be labeled as ‘phatic’ and why. The authors argue that a large part of that decision--whether or not to label something as phatic--relies on the listeners’ interpretation of the utterance. The authors consider phatic communication in terms of Relevance Theory. In light of this, the authors consider several characteristics of phatic communication including language that is used “as a mode of action, rather than the transmission of thoughts” and  “to establish an atmosphere of sociability and personal communion between people.” The authors suggest that listeners tend to have intuitions as to whether language is phatic or not, and this is shown through their interpretation and reaction to it. 

This article could be useful for language teachers who are interested in teaching small talk or other forms of phatic communication in the classroom. This article outlines some of the basics of small talk along with possible reactions and interpretations to phatic utterances. This can also help with the “awareness” quadrant of the IPIC model because it can help learners recognize the success of their small talk.

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PRAGMATICS AND SMALL TALK

Coupland, Justine. (2003). Small talk: Social functions. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 36(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3601_1 

This study analyses small talk in the English language with a specified focus on its social functions. In this article, the author mainly looks at the social and sociopolitical dynamics associated with small talk. The author takes into consideration a collection of articles which have explored small talk in varying contexts including a number of diverse social settings and situations. Additionally, the author considers genres and varying topics that may be utilized during small talk. There is also a focus on what about small talk makes it ‘small’ compared to other forms of conversation. Coupland discusses the social function of small talk beyond the literal content that is covered in conversations.

This article is helpful for understanding the importance of small talk in varying situations. When small talk can be viewed beyond the formulaic exchange of "small" information, learners of English might have some insight into the value of the function of small talk. Mastering small talk will prove to be a useful skill in numerous contexts.

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Holmes, J. (2003). Small talk at work: Potential problems for workers with an intellectual disability. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 36(1), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3601_4 

This article talks about the challenges of navigating small talk in a workplace setting for some neurodiverse speakers. The authors look at how small talk is present in the workspace and examines how it changes depending on the specific context. Additionally, the authors explore the functions that small talk serves between co-workers. They find that small talk plays an important role in helping the social sphere of the workplace continue to function, and when speakers are unable to successfully participate in the small talk they must find other ways to negotiate.

This article helps to demonstrate some of the challenges that people can face if they are unable to master the function of small talk in English. Additionally, this article could be useful for helping expert speakers understand how to empathize and support speakers who may not have mastered all of the elements of small talk.

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Holmes, J. (2005). When small talk is a big deal: Sociolinguistic challenges in the workplace. Second language needs analysis, 344, 371.

In this article, the author explains the importance of small talk from a sociolinguistic perspective. Learners need to have the ability to manage on-going, dynamic social interaction in a wide range of settings, and this entails accuracy, fluency and other dimensions of sociolinguistic, for instance, power, solidarity, formality, and function. Small talk or social talk are crucial in the workplace. This paper brings attention to the social dimension of language learning and teaching.

Some common topics of small talk, typical distributional patterns, and some of the functions of small talk at work are identified, as well as the problems each of these areas may raise for new employees. Some suggestions are provided for ways in which teachers and trainers may assist workers acquire some of the sociolinguistic skills required to manage small talk effectively in their workplaces. Workers from non-English-speaking backgrounds often face difficulties with social interaction in new cultures and new workplaces. Small talk as an interpersonal aspect of the workplace is sometimes considered too basic to deserve serious attention, as a result, how teachers may assist workers to acquire some relevant sociolinguistic skills in the area of small talk that they need to operate effectively. Small talk at work serves a wide range of functions, primarily social functions, expressing friendliness, maintaining solidarity among people. Selecting appropriate topics for a particular workplace involves sociolinguistic skills. Making a good beginning is important; it establishes a sound basis for developing, with the assistance of supportive and understanding co-workers, more sophisticated aspects of social competence that are most effectively acquired in the workplace context itself.

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Meierkord, C. (2013). Interpreting successful lingua-franca interaction. An analysis of non-native-/non-native small talk conversation in English. Linguistik Online, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.5.1013 

In this article written by Christiane Meierkord, English is observed as a lingua franca in tape-recordings from a student hall at a university in Great Britain. The data consists of naturally occurring face-to-face group conversations. The most notable feature of English as a lingua franca that will be discussed is small talk. One of the aspects that is observed in this data is the concept of turn taking. In the absence of turn taking, it is described as a 'noticed event' by others in the group and results in the use of repair mechanisms. 

The author found that when comparing the pragmatics of English as an international lingua franca and native speakers of British English and American English, they differ in politeness and discourse structure. For example, when two non-native English speakers are having a conversation, they often jump from topic to topic and only discuss them superficially. They also tend to not end the conversation the same way that a native speaker would, like with the phrase "I'd better be off now", and stick with "Bye" instead.

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Padilla Cruz, M. (2001). The relevance of what seems irrelevant: Remarks on the relationship between phatic utterances and sociopragmatic failure. Estudios De Linguistica Inglesa Aplicada (ELIA), 2, 199-212. 

This article was written by Manuel Padilla Cruz, a faculty member of the English Language Department at the University of Seville in Sevilla, Spain. Padilla Cruz looks at sociopragmatic failure through the lens of relevance theory which suggests that the context and pragmatics of an utterance can carry more meaning than the literal semantics of the utterance itself. The author suggests that phatic communication (small talk) can help interlocutors better understand details of the context. Padilla Cruz goes on to say that in order to become a successful member of a language community, a speaker must be familiar with sets of social contexts. These social contexts in phatic communication do not always translate across languages which is where sociopragmatic failures can occur.

This article can help provide some helpful insight for second language teachers teaching small talk in their classrooms. When small talk is framed as communication which helps to define a context, the utility of small talk becomes much more evident. Additionally, if learners can glean contextual information from phatic communication this can help them in choosing what type of language to use in the context. The author provides several strategies that teachers can use in their classroom to help learners recognize the contexts of a situation.

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Yates, L. & Major, G. (2015). “Quick-chatting”, “smart dogs”, and how to “say without saying”: Small talk and pragmatic learning in the community. System (Linköping), 48, 141–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.09.011  

In this article written by Lynda Yates and George Major, they focus on the perspective of adult immigrants whose first languages are not English and have low levels of knowledge of English, in Australia. One of their findings was the participants realization of how important small talk is, especially in the work place. For example, they discussed how they'd observed people joking around with one another as a form of small talk and it wasn't just contained to peers, but it extended onto superiors as well. The participants also talked about how they often didn't understand the jokes being made around them during small talk but later attributed it to cultural differences.

At the end of the article, the authors give some suggestions for teaching practice. One of the examples given when having the learners watch a short video that has either naturally or semi-naturally occurring small talk and have the students talk about what they see in terms of who does it, where and when it happens, and then reflect on what they see. They also suggest giving homework assignments where they are supposed to write down when they see small talk happening in the world around them. These activities are supposed to help bridge their own cultures with how small talk happens in English.

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SMALL TALK AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Dooly, M., & Tudini, V. (2016). ‘Now we are teachers’: The role of small talk in student language teachers’ telecollaborative task development. Journal of Pragmatics, 102, 38–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.06.008 

This article considers the importance of small talk discourse in a digital space--more specifically, over video conferencing software. The authors look at how the use of different types of small talk affect an individual's ability to achieve a goal over video conferencing software.  The study in this article focuses specifically on synchronous video computer mediated communication between a student teacher from Spain and a student teacher from the United States. The researchers look at the topics that the student teachers cover in small talk while working together on a task. The small talk in these situations helps to propel the conversation toward completing the tasks together. One interesting thing the authors found was that, though both participants were expert speakers of both English and Spanish, they tended to use English as the main mode of communication between them. 

The content of this article could be useful for both educators and learners interested in small talk. The study in this article provides useful insight into how small talk functions in telecollaboration. Additionally, the authors covers several types of small talk and small talk topics that learners (or English speakers) can implement to improve their small talk skills.

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Hunter, J. (2012). 'Small Talk': developing fluency, accuracy, and complexity in speaking. ELT Journal, 66(1), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccq093 

This article points out the challenging question for language teachers: how to ensure that learners develop accuracy and complexity, as well as fluency in their speaking. Through exploring a methodology “Small Talk”, which resolves some of the tension between the need to encourage learners having communicative language ability and to bring focus on forms into the syllabus that are valid and relevant by both teachers and learners. 

The activity provides a comprehensive approach to developing accuracy, fluency and complexity in oral production. In a “Small Talk” session, students have conversations based on their language proficiency without intervention by the teacher, and receive feedback at the end of the activity. Each session has a pre-appointed student leader, who is in charge of choosing topics, providing questions and relevant vocabulary to further discussions, putting cohorts into small groups, timing the conversation, and leading a check-in session at the end. This activity involves preparation and communication before and after the class. For instance, the day before the class, the student leader announces the topic, so that the participants will be able to come to class prepared. At the end of the session, the current student leader reveals the next session date and the new leader, therefore the new student leader will take over the responsibility for the next session. During the session, students are encouraged to report their interactions on the topic and their own part in it. The teacher has no role in the conversations, though the teacher does observations during the session. This activity is designed for a typical 50-minute class, the teacher takes responsibility for the last 10-minute in class to give feedback and comments.

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Morris-Adams, M. (2014). From Spanish paintings to murder: Topic transitions in casual conversations between native and non-native speakers of English. Journal of Pragmatics, 62, 151–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.008 

In this journal article written by Muna Morris-Adams, the strategies used by non-native English speakers when switching topics during casual conversations with native English speakers are discussed. The data presented consists of conversations recorded between 10 non-native speakers and native English speakers. The aim was to get conversations that were as authentic as possible. One of the findings was the importance of asking questions, this was often a source of topic change between the speakers. Another way that non-native speakers changed the topic was through the introduction of current events or announcements, this can effectively move the conversation from general to more personal ground. 

This study found that non-native speakers produced an equal, if not greater, number of topic initiations in the conversation. The ability to move from topic to topic in a natural way can help with the confidence and interactional competence of the language learner.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON REFUSALS IN ENGLISH

Resources in this section curated by: Jaidan McLean

Lin, M. F. (2014). An Interlanguage Pragmatic Study on Chinese EFL Learners’ Refusal: Perception and Performance. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 5. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.5.3.642-653

The research presented in this article is aiming to fill a gap in the literature for Chinese EFL learners’ since the majority of the pragmatic research of Chinese refusals focus on Chinese ESL ones. Although this article also discusses portions of study that examines cross-cultural differences in Chinese and English refusals which is useful for the Chinese+English part of this site, focusing on the EFL side of the study is beneficial because of the lack in literature. The different aspects to this study makes it a useful one to the language teaching field, because the Chinese EFL learners were often compared to the Chinese L1 and English L1 speakers.

One major finding from this study in comparing the EFL and L1 speakers is that the EFL learners had a higher ranking of mitigation strategies in maintaining solidarity and distance. In other words, the EFL learners used more varied refusal strategies than just choosing to be direct or indirect, while also using softening devices more often than the L1 Chinese or English speakers. However because the EFL learners are still on their way to being fluent L2 speakers, more instructions in the classroom seem to be needed in order to help these learners refuse others more appropriately, as this study found a lack of politeness in some situations with EFL learners.

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Ren, W. (2012). Pragmatic development in Chinese speakers’ L2 English refusals. EUROSLA Yearbook 12, 63-87. https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.12.05ren

This research done on Chinese speakers’ L2 English refusals focuses on the students’ learning environment. The two environments analyzed in this article is English as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language, specifically with study abroad and at home learning settings. The goals of this article are to see how refusal strategies differ overall depending on the Chinese speakers’ environment, as well as how does the environment affect the learners’ choice to opt-out of refusal situations. The pragmatic competence was found to be more complex than a “one group did this, the other that” type of scenario with the refusal strategies, therefore showing how complex pragmatics can be.

Using a Multimedia Elicitation Task where participants would be given a refusal scenario and asked to orally respond, the author did find one fairly concrete pragmatic trend. Over the year that the data was collected from the 20 study abroad and 20 at-home learners, the study abroad students’ frequency of choosing to opt-out was consistent, while the at-home learners was not.