A Study of Pragmatic Transfer in Compliment Response Strategies by Chinese Learners of English

For decades, the first language culture influence on second language acquisition has fascinated researchers. Based on Giao Quynh Tran’s classification, this paper uses the naturalized role-play to conduct a research on pragmatic transfer in compliment responses strategies by Chinese learners of English. The data collected through the naturalized role-play are analyzed quantitatively between the Chinese learner of English and native English groups, and between the Chinese learner of English and native Chinese groups. The research has concluded that the strategies which have  the statistically significant differences in terms of compliment response strategy use between the Chinese learner of English and native English groups are those strategies which have the close similarities in the respect of compliment response strategy use between the Chinese learner of English and native Chinese groups. This conclusion has proven that there is, to some extent, pragmatic transfer in compliment response strategies by Chinese learners of English