Complimenting in Spanish in a short-term study abroad context

This study examines the effects of learning context on the production of compliments among Study Abroad (SA) learners of Spanish during an eight-week summer program in Mexico, and a group of learners in an At Home (AH) context. Baseline data from Native Speakers (NS) of Mexican Spanish and US English were analyzed and compared to the learner data. A subset of the SA group provided data for a delayed posttest, four months after learners returned to their home country. Learner data were collected in a pretest-posttest design, using a modified oral Discourse Completion Task (DCT). All participants produced compliments in four situations with equal status but differing levels of social distance. Results indicate that, while evidence of change toward the NS norm was observed in the SA learners, there was also evidence of change that reflected deviation from NS pragmatic norms. This study addresses the issue of individual learner variation, quality and intensity of the input, and the effects of the SA context.