A Cross-Sectional Study of Refusal Speech Act Used by Iraqi Undergraduate Students (original) (raw)
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Koya University, 2020
This paper is conducted to investigate how Iraqi EFL learners refuse different speech acts across different proficiency levels. It aims to examine the most appropriate strategies used by 2nd year students of English as compared to those of 4th year when refusing their interlocutors' invitation, suggestion, and offer. WDCT questionnaire was used to collect data from 40 Iraqi undergraduate students of English: 20 2nd year and 20 4th year. Adopting Beebe et al.'s (1990) theory of refusal, data collected was analyzed quantitatively using statistical analysis. The findings revealed that the 2nd year students of English were more frequent in using direct refusals than their 4th year counterparts. This means the latter were more aware of using refusals politely than the former. On the other hand, the findings showed that 4th year students more frequent in their use of indirect refusal strategies that the 2nd year students. This indicates that the EFL learners of low proficiency level might not bridge the gap between the pragmalinguistic strategies and the grammatical form of the target language. This means that they were not pragmatically competent of the use of the appropriate pragmalinguistic strategies. This implies that the 2nd year students need to pay more attention to pragmatics and use their refusal strategies appropriately. Thus, the paper recommends conducting further research on the use of refusal speech act in Arabic and English.
International Journal of Languages’ Education and Teaching , 2015
This study aims at comparing the pragmatic competence of Turkish EFL Learners to that of native speakers of English when performing the speech acts of refusals. The study was conducted with 26 Turkish EFL Learners, who were junior year ELT students at Trakya University, and 10 Native Speakers of English. To elicit data, Discourse Completion Task was implemented and obtained data was analyzed with content analysis technique. The frequencies of formulaic refusal expressions applied by Turkish EFL Learners were compared to the ones of native speakers' of English by means of qualitative methods. The qualitative data gathered from participants revealed that the quality of the refusal strategies uttered by Turkish EFL Learners differed significantly from those made by the native speakers of English. Besides, it is apparent that the quality of linguistic and socio-pragmatic knowledge of Turkish EFL Learners is not native-like as they do not prefer appropriate refusal strategies used by native speakers of English.
Realization of the Speech Act of Refusals Among Malay Esl Students
Jurnal Pembangunan Sosial
Refusing to participate in an action is a negative response that might lead to a dispute and jeopardise the connection between the hearer and the speaker. To avoid the conflict that may arise when a speaker must decline a request, the speaker must offer an acceptable refusal and adjust to the position of the interlocutor as well as the circumstances of the situation. This study examined the strategies and sequence order of the strategies employed by Malay speakers of English as a second language (MSE) when they refused requests made by higher and equal status interlocutors. Twelve MSE undergraduates from a local university participated in the study. Data were collected using an open role-play which were transcribed, classified into semantic refusal strategies (Beebe et al., 1990) and categorized into the types of sequence orders of the strategies. The findings revealed that the MSE preferred indirect strategies when refusing higher and equal status interlocutors’ requests. When usin...
This intercultural communication study investigates the similarities and differences of the speech act of refusals in English between Jordanian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and Malay English as a Second Language (ESL) postgraduate students. Data were collected using a modified version of the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) initially developed by Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz (1990). To obtain responses as natural as real-life communication, an interviewer audiotaped and read the situations aloud to both groups in English to enable the participants to respond verbally to situations. Next, the audiotaped responses obtained from both groups of participants were transcribed with broad transcription convention. Data were analysed in terms of semantic formulaic sequences and were categorized by four trained coders based on the classification of refusal strategies established by Beebe et al. (1990). Results revealed that both groups used almost similar strategies with similar frequency in performing refusals. For example, the most frequently used refusal strategies by the Jordanian and Malay participants were excuse, reason, explanation, and expressing statement of regret. However, they differed in the use and frequency count of indirect strategies with the Malays using less indirect strategies than the Jordanians. In addition, the results indicate that the Jordanian participants expressed ‘gratitude’ less frequently than the Malay participants when refusing invitations by equal and lower status person. Similar results were found when performing refusal in all request situations. The results are expected to be useful in studies in intercultural comparisons.
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE REFUSAL SPEECH ACT OF TURKISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH
This study investigates and compares politeness strategies of Turkish learners of English (TLE) and American English speakers (AE) when they produce the speech act of refusal in English. A total of 24 participants took part in this study and each of them completed a background survey, an open role play and a semi-structured interview. The role-play asked all of the participants to refuse a party invitation offered by a classmate/colleague and was audio- recorded. The refusal interactions were coded according to the classification proposed by Beebe et al. (1990), and the sequence of the refusal interactions (i.e., head act, pre- and post-refusals) was also examined. The results showed that providing excuse/reason/explanation was the most preferred strategy by both groups overall, but closer examination of the strategy revealed that the TLE group was more specific in their explanations compared to the AE group. In addition, when the conductor of the role play insisted on the invitation, the AE group continued to refuse without giving specific reasons, whereas the TLE group chose to provide elaborate reasons upon insistence. During the interview session after the role play, the TLE group commented on cultural factors that influenced their choice of refusal strategies. Based on the findings, this study also proposed implications of the teaching of pragmatics in the English as a second language (ESL) context.
Language Proficiency and Appropriateness of Using the Refusal Speech Act by Iranian EFL Learners
Applied Linguistics Research Journal, 2019
The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of language proficiency on production of the refusal speech act among Iranian EFL learners. Using the Preliminary English Test, the participants were divided into high and low groups based on their proficiency scores. To examine their pragmatics competence, data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire in the form of Discourse Completion Task (DCT) consisting of 12 refusal situations. Their responses were scored by two English native teachers based on Hudson, Detmer, and Browns' (1995) analytical rating criteria considering four aspects of appropriacy, i.e. the ability to use correct speech act, correct expressions, amount of information, and level of politeness. The findings of the statistical analysis showed language proficiency was not the influential factor in the degree of pragmatic knowledge which indicated that high EFL learners did not perform significantly better than their low counterparts in pragmatic production. These findings underscore that teaching pragmatics and cultural behaviors of the target language in language classrooms might build up pragmatic competence of language learners.
Refusal Strategies Used by Malay Esl Studentsand English Native Speakers to Refuse a Request
Proceedings of the ICECRS
The present study investigates similarities and differences of a speech act of refusal in English as realized by Malay Speakers of English (MSE) and Native Speakers of English (NSE). The study examined the types and also the contents of the strategies used by the two groups when refusing a request made by a higher status interlocutor. An Enhanced Open Role-play was utilized to obtain data on the types and content of refusal strategies. Participants of the study comprised 12 MSE undergraduate students from a local university and 12 NSE who were IGSCE and Diploma Baccalaureate students from an international school who had refused to the higher status interlocutor’s request. Qualitative data analytic methods were used to analyse the data which were classified into semantic refusal strategies and politeness strategies. Brown’s and Levinson’s politeness theory, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Hall’s high- and low-context cultures were used to guide the study. The findings revealed tha...
A Sociolinguistic Study of the Realization of Refusals Among Yemeni EFL Learners
IJEL, 2019
The present paper attempts to study the realization of refusal responses to invitations and requests among Yemen EFL learners in equal, higher and lower social status. It also aims to find out the pragmatic failure resulted from negative pragmatic transfer. In order to do so, refusals of 40 Yemeni EFL (20 high and 20 low proficient) learners were compared with refusals of 20 native speakers of English (ENS) and 20 native speakers of Arabic (ANS). Data were collected using a Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) consisting of six refusals to invitations and requests in higher, equal and lower social status. This study finds out that Yemenis and Americans used different refusal strategies when refusing persons of equal and lower social status. ANS also used the adjunct of invoking the name of God which is religiously rooted and culturally specific to assert their excuses. Interestingly, Yemeni EFL learners showed a tendency toward the L1 pragmatic norms in the use of invoking the name of God and also in the use of more Direct strategies when refusing someone equal or lower in status. With respect to the content of refusals, Yemenis used general and vague excuses when refusing someone equal or lower in social status whereas Americans, on the other hand, were found to use detailed and clear excuses with persons of different social status.
Use of Refusal Strategies among Saudi EFL Students: An Investigative Study
English Language Teaching, 2021
The current study seeks to probe the use of refusal strategies and their frequency among Saudi EFL students of Bachelor of Science (BS) at Moon University (pseudonym), Saudi Arabia. Through a convenient sampling procedure, 20 students were selected, and Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was administered. This test comprised 12 situations eliciting refusals to suggestions, requests, offers, and invitations. Their answers were then coded using the refusal strategies categories laid down by Beebe, Takahashi & Uliss-Weltz (1990) and were analyzed via content analysis. Each participant's refusal strategy for each speech act was analyzed using descriptive statistics, to discover exact frequency counts. The results indicated that the indirect refusal strategies were adopted by Saudi EFL students with greater frequency than the direct strategies even though Saudi culture is characteristically inclined towards directness resulting in numerous face-threatening acts. The results demonstrated the tendency towards the use of adjuncts by EFL students which to some extent indicated the cultural grooming of interlocutors. Moreover, lack of pragma-linguistic competence was reflected in flawed and ambiguous syntactic structures which impacted the clarity of meaning. The findings also suggested that in this globalized world where cross-cultural communication is unavoidable, the teaching of English should be geared towards the development of both pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic competence among EFL students.
Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2016
To date, little research on pragmatic transfer has considered a multilingual situation where there is an interaction among three different languages spoken by one person. Of interest was whether pragmatic transfer of refusals among three languages spoken by the same person occurs from L1 and L2 to L3, L1 to L2 and then to L3 or from L1 and L1 (if there are more than one L1) to L2. This study aimed to investigate the production of refusals in three languages and to specify the impact of linguistic knowledge on pragmatic transfer of refusals. To this end, 161 participants in 5groups filled out a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Data was coded and analyzed according to semantic formula sequences. The data obtained from Kurdish learners of English who were also fluent in Farsi (Trilinguals) were compared with those in other four groups: 1)Native English speakers; 2)Monolingual speakers in Farsi; 3) Monolingual speakers in Kurdish; and 4) Bilingual Farsi learners of English. The results ...