A Study On The Acquisition Of Refusal By Advanced Chinese L2 Learners From European And North American Countries

In the process of communication,refusal is a common but sensitive speech phenomenon,which often makes us in the awkward situation.Sometimes we have to decline others for many reasons.It is opposite to the claim of setting up and maintaining friendly relationship among people.So it is significant for us to refuse properly.In recent years,the refusal has become the focus of research.But most of the survey scenarios were set in the English context,while the research in the Chinese context is still inadequate.This study is based on speech act theory,the principle of cooperation,face theory,the principle of politeness,pragmatics transfer theory and linguistic adaptation theory,which aims to describe the tendency of advanced learners’refusal in Chinese and analyze why they are different from Chinese native speakers.In the end the advice of refusal teaching will be put forward.The data of this thesis are collected through a combination of Choice Question Test of Refusal and Discourse Completion Task(DTC).The produced data are analyzed quantitatively with the statistical tool:chi-square test,independent-samples T test and the Mann-Whitney test.When significant differences are identified,they would be interpreted qualitatively in many theories.In this paper,three research questions are presented:1)Among the four scenarios,what is the tendency for advanced Chinese L2 learners from European and North American countries choosing the way of refusal in the Chinese context?Do they choose differently from native Chinese speakers?If so,what are they?2)In the context of refusal,what is the overall tendency for advanced Chinese L2 learners from European and North American countries choosing the indirect refusal and adjuncts.Do they choose differently from native Chinese speakers?If so,what are they?3)Among the twelve scenarios,what is the tendency for advanced Chinese L2 learners from European and North American countries choosing the indirect refusal and adjuncts.Do they choose differently from native Chinese speakers?If so,what are they?The survey found that:1)Except the scenario of the invitation,there is no significant difference between the advanced Chinese L2 learners from European and North American countries and native Chinese speakers on the way of refusal in the other three scenarios.The number of choosing the indirect refusal is the most.But there are statistical differences in the scenario of invitation.The number of native Chinese speakers who choose the combination of direct and indirect refusal is more than the advanced learners from European and North American countries.2)Generally,there are statistical differences between the advanced learners from European and North American countries and native Chinese speakers only on the use of reasons,suggestions and apologies.There are also statistical differences between the advanced learners from European and North American countries and native Chinese speakers only on the use of address forms,compliments and initiations.3)There are statistical differences in the first scene,the sixth scene and the seventh scene.Reasons were given behind the conclusions.To some extent,this article reveals the trait of the refusal using by advanced Chinese L2 learners from European countries and North American countries and its findings have valuable implications for teaching of Chinese as a foreign language.