mailto:uumlib@uum.edu.my 24x7 Service; AnyTime; AnyWhere

Refusal strategies used by Malays ESL students and English native speakers to refuse a request

Saad, Norma and Bidin, Siti Jamilah and Shabdin, Ahmad Affendi (2017) Refusal strategies used by Malays ESL students and English native speakers to refuse a request. Proceedings of the ICECRS, 1 (1). pp. 253-266. ISSN 2548-6160

[thumbnail of ICECRS 1 2016 253 266.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Available under License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

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 that the two groups shared many similarities in terms of types and contents of the strategies when refusing to the higher status interlocutor’s requests. Nevertheless, the NSE demonstrated a higher use of direct strategies and the content of their indirect strategies and adjuncts to refusal strategies reflect the western individualistic values.The MSEs,’ on the other hand exhibited the eastern values which prioritize group’s importance.These findings provide further insights on the complexities of refusal interaction and the patterns could be used by English language teachers as pragmatic input to develop English as a Second Language students’ ability to use socially appropriate language for the situation they encounter.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: International Seminar UUM - UMSIDA, 25-27 October 2016, Theme : Generating Knowledge Through Research, CAS Auditorium - Universiti Utara Malaysia This inaugural seminar, a joint initiative between the School Of Education and Modern Languages (SEML), UUM (Universiti Utara Malaysia) and UMSIDA (Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Refusal strategies, Politeness strategies, Speech act, Enhanced open role-play, English as a Second Language
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PE English
Divisions: School of Language, Civilisation and Philosophy
Depositing User: Mdm. Norma Saad
Date Deposited: 12 Jun 2017 00:13
Last Modified: 12 Jun 2017 00:13
URI: https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/22351

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item