Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Refusal strategies in L1 and L2: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English

  • EMAIL logo and
Published/Copyright: November 6, 2013
Multilingua
From the journal Multilingua Volume 32 Issue 6

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore pragmalinguistic strategies employed by a group of Iranian English language learners when making refusals to invitations, requests, offers and suggestions in their first (Persian) and second (English) languages. Data were collected from 86 participants through a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The social variables under study were gender and social power differentials between the interlocutors. As a novel attempt in studies of interlanguage pragmatics, cultural schemas underlying refusals of Iranian English language learners were also investigated through Focus Group Interviews (FGI). The findings indicated that the participants used refusal head acts, the core components realising refusals, with similar frequency in their L1 (Persian) and L2 (English). However, differences were observed in the use of supportive move strategies in the Persian and English responses of the participants. The FGI responses associated certain Persian cultural schemas, in particular tă’ărof (ritual politeness) and ru-dar-băyesti (state/feeling of distance-out-of-respect), with the production and interpretation of refusals by the Iranian students both in Persian and English to a large extent.

Keywords: refusal strategies; English as an international language; speech act; cross-cultural communication
Published Online: 2013-11-6
Published in Print: 2013-11-5

© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Masthead
  3. Articles
  4. Away with linguists! Normativity, inequality and metascientific reflexivity in sociolinguistic fieldwork
  5. Teaching staff’s views about the internationalisation of higher education: The case of two bilingual communities in Spain
  6. Mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyber-consultation
  7. Refusal strategies in L1 and L2: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English
  8. Book reviews
https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2013-0038
Keywords for this article
refusal strategies; English as an international language; speech act; cross-cultural communication

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Masthead
  3. Articles
  4. Away with linguists! Normativity, inequality and metascientific reflexivity in sociolinguistic fieldwork
  5. Teaching staff’s views about the internationalisation of higher education: The case of two bilingual communities in Spain
  6. Mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyber-consultation
  7. Refusal strategies in L1 and L2: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English
  8. Book reviews
Downloaded on 15.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/multi-2013-0038/html
Scroll to top button