Clarifying some cultural aspects of giving compliments and some suggest implications for english teaching in high schools

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
BAC SON HIGH SCHOOL
EXPERIENCE INNOVATION
CLARIFYING SOME CULTURAL ASPECTS OF GIVING COMPLIMENTS AND SOME SUGGEST IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH TEACHING IN HIGH SCHOOLS
Writer: Đinh Văn Thiện
Position: Teacher
Topic in the fields of: English
THANH HOA 2016
INDEX 
CONTENT
Page
A. INTRODUCTION 
3
I. Reasons to choose the theme 
3
II. Aims of the research
3
III. Subjectives of the research 
4
IV. Scope of the research
4
V. Methodology of the research
4
B. CONTENTS 
5
I. Theoretical basis of the study.
5
1. Compliment function
5
2. Basic rules
5
3. Giving compliments
6
4. Data analysis and disscussion
7
II. Reality of the issue 
9
1. Advantages
9
2. Disadvantages
9
3. The practical basics of the theme.
10
C. CONCLUSION 
14
1. Conclusion
14
2. Proposal 
14
REFERENCE 
15
CONVENTIONS OF ABBREVIATIONS
15
A. INTRODUCTION
I. Reasons to choose the theme
As polite expressions conveying appreciation and admiration towards others, compliments are easily found in our daily lives. Giving a compliment is an extremely simple but a highly effective way in communication. Actually, it is not always successful. Despite the same positive intentions of compliments, the differences in linguistic and cultural settings may lead to mutual incomprehension among foreign conversational partners. For example, Vietnamese people might not find the compliments on their little children appropriate without the phrase “trộm vía” whereas it may be difficult for an English to understand why Vietnamese prefer downgrading or denial to response to compliments. 
Further more, the mutual incomprehension appears not only among foreign conversational partners but also among the communicators who share a common language. We can learn from the following situation:
On Nam’s birthday, many attendants persuaded Lan to sing a song but her voice was not very good. After having tried to finish, Minh talked to everyone with a clear voice: “Đó là giọng hát hay nhất mà tôi đã từng được nghe! Tại sao Lan của chúng ta không tham gia cuộc thi Sao mai điểm hẹn nhỉ? Tớ nghĩ bạn ấy sẽ giành giải nhất.” As soon as Minh stopped to talk, some smiled, some even laughed and others kept silence while Lan appeared to be very disappointed. Then what is wrong with Minh’s compliment? 
Giving compliments is an art and complimenters are really artists. In other words, suitable compliments are not easy for us to give, especially high school students who need to understand them in both Vietnamese and English. Unfortunately, the materials or researches concerned with this theme are unavailable. Therefore, in order to reduce the chance of such misfortune and assure the effectiveness of their communication, obtaining some basic knowledge about the art of giving compliments in Vietnamese culture is an indispensably important factor. For that reason, I, in my efforts, try to concentrate upon the topic to enhance learners’ language competence as well as to help them overcome the difficulties they encounter during their learning.
II. Aims of the research
In my study, I would like to present systematically issues of the definition, function, strategies and patterns of giving to compliments. There are some comparisons to help students master the difference in language meanings which results from the cultural differences. In that way, they would not only know the proper ways of complimenting but also would be able to avoid the inappropriate expressions. Being provided with a detailed series of structures and the instruction how those structures work, students can easily apply them to their real life conversations.
III. Subjective of the research
Basing on the fact of teaching and learning English through each year for high school students, especially students in mountainous areas, I have understood students’ problems and difficulties in their learning process to gain the knowledge and competence cultural aspects in high school textbooks. Therefore in this topic, I studied the fundamental solutions applied to my students in Bac Son High School, who are mostly at low level of English.
IV. Scope of the research
With the topic “Clarifying some cultural aspects of giving compliments and some suggest implications for English teaching in high schools”, my research is focused on the theoretical background of compliments and discussion to similarities and differences between cultural aspects of giving compliments in Vietnamese and English with some possible explanations. In general, the speech acts focused is “giving compliments” and the context is high school-talk nowadays.
V. Methodology of the research	
In this research, I have collected and integrated several different sources of information to create an informative and concise presentation.
	Firstly, I had to find any documents related to the topic. As there were few text books and researches concerned with compliments in the libraries or bookshops, I had to make use of the sources on the internet. I only focused on some online journals which included international recognized researches to contribute to my study.
	Next, after collecting needed information, I have had some short conversations with some high school students to see what they needed when giving compliments in their daily lives. Especially, through this conversation, I also could come up with some interesting examples to clarify the main points in my orientation. 
B. CONTENTS.
I. Theoretical basis of the study.
1. Compliment function
According to Nguyen (2005, p.568) a compliment is sometimes more than a compliment. However, in everyday life, people usually compliment others not only to praise them but also to achieve some special goals which are called compliments functions which have been listed by Nguyen (2005, p.568-569) as request for help, suggestion, gratitude and encouragement.
For example: 
“You look great in your skirt. Why don’t we go down the town for sightseeing?”
In the above compliment, the complimenter wants to address his or her primary intentions to go sightseeing. This way of speaking is widely used among the Vietnamese and is adopted by Vietnamese learners of English.
2. Basic rules
	In cultural communication in Vietnam as well as in English, there are some basic rules that they should respect to be more successful in giving compliments.
Be polite
Be various
Avoid flattery
Give more than receive
a, Be polite: To put more value and truthfulness in a compliment, the complimenters should be as polite as possible. The same go for receiving compliments. The speakers will think that the hearer really appreciates what they are talking about.
b, Be various: A golden key when giving compliments is the variety. People should compliment differently in many situations, or respond the others’ compliment creatively. That will show the respect to the other side.
c, Avoid flattery: When giving compliments, the complimenters should base on the reality. A too exaggerated compliment is not as welcome as a modest but exact one.
d, Give more than receive: the poverty in giving a compliment will become a hindrance when a foreigner tries to get in harmony in Vietnamese society. Thus, giving many more compliments would be such a good strategy to improve his or her relationship with Vietnamese people.
3. Giving compliments
3.1. Strategies of giving compliments
	There are two main parts in the strategies, which are topics for compliment and tactics of complimenting.
3.1.1. Topics for compliments
	Appearance, posession, ability and accomplishment are common topics for complimenting. 
	Similar to English speakers, Vietnamese often commence a friendly conversation by giving compliments on other’s appearance, especially when that person has something new or different such as a new haircut, new car. Belongings such as shoes, hats, or houses, etc. are also suitable subjects for compliments. 
For example:
Giầy đẹp thế! (Nice shoes!)
	Nevertheless, positive compliments on appearance of babies or small children should be delivered carefully. Traditionally, Vietnamese people, especially the elderly, regard compliments using positive adjectives for young child may bring mishap to him/her. Hence, Vietnamese often add “trộm vía” that is used more typically for the Vietnamese Northerners to the compliment or using indirect expressions (negative adjective with positive attitude): 
For example:
“Nói trộm vía cháu, độ này nó mập lắm” 
(which means “My child has gained a lot of weight”). 
	For the compliment on ability and accomplishment, Vietnamese people often focus more on talent and skill rather than the result or product. For instances, if you want to praise a man for his painting talent, the expression “Anh vẽ đẹp quá!” (You draw so well!) sounds more straightforward, sincere and the complimentee would feel prouder. 
	For both topics, the complimenters should always mind their attitude, facial expressions and intonation in order not to create the wrong impression of superiority or irony.
3.1.2. Ways to compliment
a) Explicit compliment 
According to Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary, explicit means “clear and exact”. Explicit compliment can be understood as “direct praise to the target”. 
For example:
	- Cô ấy xinh thật! (She’s so beautiful!)
b) Implicit compliment 
	On the other hand, “implicit” means suggested but not communicated directly. Thus, implicit compliment means indirectly praise. This type of compliment can be offered by some ways such as comparing to the speaker’s him/ herself or questioning. 
For example:
- Sao mà bạn chơi hay thế? (How could you play so well?)
3.2. Patterns of giving compliments
According to Maines and Wofson (1981), there are nine popular ways to give compliment:
- NP is / looks really Adj. (Your hat is really beautiful)
- I really like/love NP. (I really like your house)
- Pro is (really) (a) Adj NP. (That’s a really nice reading lamp.)
- You V (a) really Adj NP. (You did a really good job.)
- You V (NP) (really) Adv. (You really did that assignment well.)
- You have (a) Adj NP. (You have a such beautiful voice.)
- What a Adj NP! (What a lovely face you have!)
- Adj NP ! (Excellent game !)
- Isn’t NP Adj (Isn’t your phone beautiful?)
The first three are also the most widely used structures in many countries worldwide, including Vietnam. One difference, nevertheless, is that unlike English, Vietnamese usually use the second person pronoun instead of the first person pronoun in their compliments (Dang, T. T. N., p.5). Therefore, instead of saying “I really like your new hair style”, it is more appropriate to say “Your new hair style is nice”. 
	Besides, there are many other ways to give compliments in Vietnamese language. They are categorized according to their sentence types: statements, exclamations and questions.
4. Data analysis and discussion
4.1. Data analysis
There are many definitions of compliment. According to Cambridge dictionary, a compliment is defined as “a remark that expresses approval, admiration or respect”. In linguistics, Holmes (1986, p.446) indicated that a compliment was used to “explicitly or implicitly attribute credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the person addressed, for some ‘good’ (possession, characteristic, skill, etc.), which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer.” In other words, giving compliments is considered giving positive comments on others for their good characteristics, good skills, or good possessions.
4.2. Discussion
4.2.1. Similarities
As mentioned above, a compliment is defined as a remark that expresses approval, admiration or respect. As a result, there are many resemblances in cultural aspects of giving compliments in Vietnamese and English.
Firstly, in both English and Vietnamese, communicators tend to use explicit compliments that can be understood as “direct praise to the target” to their conversational partners
For example:
- Cô ấy hát hay thật ! (She sings really well!)
Sometimes, they also apply encouragement compliments for their conversation in which the complimenters to address their primary intentions to do something.
 For example:
- Chữ viết tay của em tuyệt đấy, cứ tiếp tục phát huy nhé !
(Your handwriting is excellent, keep up your good job!)
Lastly, the complimenters’ attitude, facial expressions and intonation play important roles in succeeding in giving compliments. They decide the wrong impression of superiority or irony to the complimentee even though the compliment is perfect in linguistic aspect.
4.2.2. Differences
Differences in culture often create many distinctions in conversational understanding between the communicators. Giving compliments is a sample that cannot be similar between English and Vietnamese. Due to English tends to simplicity, English people often use explicit compliments in their conversation whereas the Vietnamese prefer delivering implicit ones to express their feelings.
For example:
To praise a woman for her cooking talent, 
- English people: “You cook very well!”
- Vietnamese people: “Chị nấu ăn giỏi thế?” (How could you cook so well?)
Besides, positive compliments on appearance of babies should be delivered carefully in Vietnamese conversational culture. Traditionally, they regard compliments using positive adjectives for young children may bring bad luck to him/her. Therefore, “trộm vía” is often added to the compliment by complimenters, especially the Northerners in Vietnam.
	Last but not least, exclamation, one of the patterns of giving compliments, probably contains many differences in complimenting between Vietnamese and English because of its structure added with “quá/lắm/thế/thật/nhỉ/đấy/ghê/phết” at the end of the sentence. Hence, it sometimes causes a lot of difficulties for the language learners to apply fluently these words for their compliments.
II. Reality of the issue 
1. Advantages
Complimenting is a such practical and interesting topic that most of students and even teachers would like to discover.
Further more, although many problems directly affect to the teaching and learning process, our teachers and students have overcome the difficulties and have gradually improved the quality of English teaching to meet the constantly changing requirements of the textbook programmes. 
• For teachers: 
- They have absorbed initially to new teaching methods. 
- They have constantly improved knowledge and learned experiences from each other to promote the quality of teaching.
• For students: 
- Most of them participate regularly and positively in learning English. 
- They are always interested in learning new teaching methods.
2. Disadvantages.
Most of the students in High School are embarrassed when they are asked to give compliments in English. This would have been also the remarkable interest of the teachers who are teaching these students to learn English.
A survey was proceeded to find out factors leading to this problem, perhaps followings are some major difficulties:
2.1. Time to perform the research
Being considered as an extra-activity, the research is not planned into schools’ curriculum, whereas its performance for each class is indicated at least fifteen minutes. This orders teachers to choose the suitable time to carry out the study in effective ways.
2.2. References
Despite an interesting topic, complimenting is quite scarce to search on most of resources.
2.3. Background of compliments
As mentioned above, giving a compliment is simple, but a true one is a really difficult issue since the fact that many people do not have enough basic knowledge of it.
2.4. Level of target language
Students usually have difficulties in giving a reasonable compliment in English because not only their vocabularies are poor but also many structures concerned with complimenting are really strange to them.
3. The practical basics of the theme.
3.1. Solutions 
Based on the reality of the issue, I would strongly suggest some following solutions to the problems: 
3.1.1 Time
There are correction periods after tests in the curriculum. Normally, we cannot use up the time to do the tasks in these periods. This is a good chance for teachers to indicate the research. Because the minimum time of the research is about fifteen minutes, teachers can carry out it either totally or partially depending on the last time of that period and the learners’ level.
3.1.2. Procedure of complimenting
Teachers can use their own favorite methods in which they have to the background knowledge that mentioned above and some particular situations in which express giving compliments in English and Vietnamese below:
Situations of compliments
Vietnamese 
English 
Analysis 
Request for help
Tuan! Cậu rất hào phóng, ngày mai cậu đưa mình đến trường được không?
Tuan! You are very generous, could you please take me to school tomorrow?
This way of speaking is widely used among the Vietnamese and English communication
Gratitude
Tao chưa thấy ai nhiệt tình như mày! Cám ơn nhé!
You are the kindest person I’ve met, thank you very much!
This way of speaking is widely used among the Vietnamese and English communication
Ability and accomplishment
“Bạn hát hay quá!” 
You sing so well!
This way of speaking is widely used among the Vietnamese and English communication
Encouragement
Bài văn này em làm tốt đấy, cứ tiếp tục phát huy nhé!
Your essay is excellent, keep up your good job!
This way of speaking is widely used among the Vietnamese and English communication.
Appearance and possession
“Con chị nhìn thấy ghét quá”
“Your baby is not cute at all”
“The baby is so cute”
Traditionally, Vietnamese people, especially the elderly, regard compliments using positive adjectives for young child may bring bad luck to him/her. Therefore, they often add “trộm vía” to the compliment or using indirect expressions (negative adjective with positive attitude)
Statements
Ước gì người yêu tớ ga lăng như bạn. 
I wish my boyfriend were as gallant as you
Your boyfriend is very gallant .
In this way, if the compliment conveys so much feeling from the speaker it might sound a little fake to the listener. 
Exclamations
Hôm nay bạn trông xinh lắm! 
How beautiful you are today!
These structure adding “quá/lắm/thế/thật/nhỉ/đấy/ghê/phết” at the end of the sentence sometimes cause difficulties to Vietnamese learners as well as foreign conversational partners
Bạn đá bóng siêu thế! 
What a great footballer you are!
Thầy giáo dễ tính thật!
How easy-going the teacher is!
Bạn làm việc chăm chỉ ghê! 
How hardworking you are!
Trông cậu xinh như hoa ấy! 
You look as pretty as a flower.
Nhà bạn hoành tráng phết! 
How glamorous your house is!
Nhìn thế mà khéo tay gớm! 
How skillful you are!
Rhetorical questions
Mày học thế nào mà siêu thế? 
You learn so well. How do you do it?
These questions only aim at showing the speakers’ appreciation towards the listeners, not at seeking any particular answer
Implicit compliment
Tớ còn lâu mới được như cậu 
I have to try a lot to catch up with you
The complimentor does not compare but indirectly praise the complimentee
Although whichever pattern is used, the compliment may turn out to be too flattering or impudent to the complimentees if it is given in an inappropriate context, on an indelicate object or with a conflicting attitude expressed in the complimenters’ tone, facial expression and gestures. For that reason, in my point of view, apart from the strategies and patterns, the vital key to a heart-winning compliment is nothing more than the complimenters’ own sincerity. 
3.1.3. Practice
Teachers should give some real situations to expect students’ responses then correct them in two ways:
- Student practices à teacher corrects
- Student practices à the partner corrects
SITUATIONS:
1. You are a good student in a high school. Your mothe