Abstract

This study investigates the pragmatic development of the refusal strategies to the four different stimulus types (1 request, 1 suggestion, 1 invitation, and 1 offer) by Chinese English major students with low-intermediate language proficiency. The data was collected through written discourse completion tasks, and coded based on the modified taxonomy by Beebe et al. (1990). Refusal strategies were analyzed in terms of frequency and contents of the semantic formulas. The results suggested on the whole a downward pattern was observed but statistically there was no significant development towards the learners’ refusal strategies (directness, indirectness and adjuncts). The findings also revealed that the Chinese English major students relied heavily on the indirectness and adjuncts to realize their refusals. Learners’ data displayed the tendency of being verbose and were also found with ungrammatical forms.

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