Compliment response is among the most common speech acts used in everyday conversations. Recipients’ responses to compliments differ depending on distinct social variables, including power, the degree of intimacy, social distance, culture and gender. The current study investigates Compliment Responses (henceforth, CRs) among Moroccan male and female EFL learners based on four topics of compliments (ability, character, possession and appearance). Thence, the present paper aims to explore the most frequent CR strategies used by Moroccan male and female EFL learners. Besides, it endeavors to find out the differences between the two groups in CRs. 50 female and 50 male EFL learners from Sultan Moulay Slimane University took part in the present study, epitomizing higher education population. In order to attain the required data for the study, discourse completion test (DCT) was used and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentages) and inferential statistics (Independent T-test) based on Herbert’s (1989) classification of CRs. Results of the study revealed that the most frequent CR strategies used by Moroccan male and female EFL learners at the macro level are agreement strategies; however, the most frequent CR strategies used by the two groups at the micro level are appreciation token, praise upgrade and return strategies, wherein females showed a great tendency towards the use of praise upgrade and return strategies, while males were more inclined to the use of appreciation token strategy. Furthermore, the study results showed that there is a consonance between Moroccan male and female EFL learners in CRs at the macro level, whereas there is a significant difference between the two groups at the micro level in all situations except for character.
Pragmatic competence, generally defined as the study of language in its social context, has been part and parcel of language learning and teaching. Oftentimes, second language learners tend to fall short in expressing themselves in spite of their linguistic competence. Second language pragmatic research has shown that the greater the difference between cultures, the greater the likelihood of pragmatic failure among non-native speakers of English. With this in mind, this study aims at comparing the similarities and differences between Moroccan University Learners of English (MLE) and Native Speakers of English (NSE) apology strategies in order to identify and predict aspect of language use which are likely to create intercultural communication breakdowns among the two cultures, thus contributing to foreign language education. Henceforth, using a discourse completion task, data was elicited from 50 MLE and 50 NSE, who responded to 8 apology situations. Results showed that the most frequent strategy used for both groups is the explicit Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID); however, the two groups differ in the frequency of other implicit apology strategies.
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