Digital Games in English

PRACTICAL IDEAS & RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Cameron Teubner-Keller

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.