Compliment response in teacher-student interaction: Examples from ICT platforms

Abstract

The recent development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) allows online platforms including Moodle to be applied in education. This paper, having looking through research on compliment responses from different perspectives, intends to conduct an empirical research to explore patterns and functions of teacher-student compliment response in ICT platforms of an English course in a Chinese Research University. The findings of this study suggest that in ICT platform setting, Chinese EFL students tend to choose agreement strategy when responding to teachers’ compliments, and that teachers tend to use compliments as approval of students’ work. The research also indicates that ICT platforms might help facilitate meaningful teacher-student interaction after class, thus making language education more motivating and engaging.