“I’m afraid I can’t”: Initiating Acts on Refusal Strategy Realization

Nadya Rezkhita Dwiana, Yazid Basthomi, Mirjam Anugerahwati, Indawan Syahri

Abstract


This study aimed to investigate how initiating acts affect refusal strategies realization. The subjects were 45 English Education Program students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Palembang. The study used Discourse Completion Task (DCT) which consisted of 12 situations covering four initiating acts; suggestion, request, offer, and invitations, and the classification of refusal strategy by Beebe et al was also used to categorize refusal strategies realized. The results showed that initiating acts were not insensitive towards the use of direct strategy. However, it has an impact on the realization of indirect strategies and adjuncts. It was also found that both initiating acts and the social status of interlocutors play an important role in producing refusal utterances. Hence, it is highly suggested to introduce initiating acts and social status factors to EFL learners so that they would be able to produce an appropriate refusal depending on the context.

Keywords


initiating acts, refusal realization, refusal strategies, semantic formula

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alemi, M., & Tajeddin, Z. (2014). Pragmatic Rating of L2 Refusal: Criteria of Native and Non-native English Teachers. TESL Canada Journal, 30(7), 63. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v30i7.1152

Allami, H., & Naeimi, A. (2011). A cross-linguistic study of refusals: An analysis of pragmatic competence development in Iranian EFL learners. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(1), 385–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.010

Astia, I. (2020). Politeness Strategy in Interlanguage Pragmatics of Complaints by International Students. IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics), 4(2), 349. https://doi.org/10.21093/ijeltal.v4i2.528

Beebe, L. M., Takahashi, T., & Uliss-Weltz, R. (1990). Pragmatic transfer in ESL refusals. Developing Communicative Competence in a Second Language, November, 55–70.

Chang, Y. F. (2009). How to say no: an analysis of cross-cultural difference and pragmatic transfer. Language Sciences, 31(4), 477–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2008.01.002

Chen, S., & Yang, M. (2007). Interlanguage Refusals and the Initiating Acts. 2, 1–17.

Chojimah, N. (2015). Refusal and Politeness Strategies in Relation to Social Status: A Case of Face-threatening Act among Indonesian University Students. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(5), 906. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0505.04

Eslami, Z. R. (2010). Refusals: How to develop appropriate refusal strategies. January 2010, 217–236. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.26.13esl

Hariri, E., & Moini, M. R. (2020). Refusal Speech Act in EFL Context : The Relation between Social Status , Distance , and Strategies Used. 5(7), 1301–1313.

Ilmiani, D., Wijayanto, A., & Hikmat, M. H. (2016). Politeness in Efl Refusals: The Comparison Between Indonesian and Thai Learners Of English. Prosiding Konferensi Nasional, May, 156–164.

Sahragard, R., & Javanmardi, F. (2011). English Speech Act Realization of “Refusals” among Iranian EFL Learners. Cross-Cultural Communication, 7(2), 181–198. https://doi.org/10.3968/j.ccc.1923670020110702.021

Satiç, C. Ö., & Çiftçi, H. (2018). Refusal strategies and perceptions of social factors for refusing: empirical insights from Turkish learners of English. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 14(1), 11–27.

Wijayanti, M. A. (2016). I’m Sorry, I’ve got Something to Do: A study of EFL learners’ refusal strategies. 4(1), 64–75. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.30813/jelc.v6i1.271

Wijayanto, A. (2019). Refusals in Javanese and English: A Comparative Study of Saying “no” in Two Different Cultures. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 50, 1–23. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED597926.pdf




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21093/ijeltal.v5i2.716

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.



Creative Commons License
IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics) by http://ijeltal.org is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


 

Abstracting and Indexing

                       

 




Contact Us: IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics;

Address: Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris Samarinda

Jl. H.A.M. Rifadin, Samarinda, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia. Email: ijeltalj@gmail.com