A contrastive study of compliment responses among Persians and Australians: The effects of exposure to a new speech community

In  this  paper,  the  authors  investigate  whether  Persians  who  have  been  exposed  to  Australian culture are still affected by their cultural norms—in particular by the politeness system taarof—in responding to compliments in an intercultural interaction.  Compliment responses  were elicited—through  a  Discourse  Completion  Task—from  thirty  participants  (five  males  and  five  females  in each  of  three  groups):  Persians  in  Iran,  Persians  in  Australia,  and  Anglo-Australians.  These responses  were  categorised  according  to  Herbert's  (1986)  taxonomy  and  the  results  show  that although  there  are  similarities  in  the  choice  of  compliment  response  types  by  Australians  and Persians  living  in  Australia,  there  are  still  some  differences.  This  paper  aims  to  contribute  to knowledge of potential areas for miscommunications in intercultural interactions, and also to find ways to improve language teaching and learning.