Paper Title
Pragmatic Failure In Compliment Responses Among Saudi Speakers of English

Abstract
In the present study, I examined pragmatic failure in compliment responses among Saudi Arabic speakers of English. The findings of the study show that Saudi participants did not produce target-like compliment responses in many of the given situations. In addition, proficiency level did not play a role in producing target-like compliment responses. These findings tell us that it is very important to raise our students� awareness of the acceptable sociocultural norms. In other words, L2 speakers need to be aware of the rules of politeness and the appropriate speech act formulas within the target culture. Language teachers should introduce their students to some compliment responses and show them how they differ from those that are produced by native English speakers. Keywords - pragmatic failure; pragmatic transfer; formulaic language; sociocultural; speech acts