SAYING 'NO' IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: EFL LEARNERS' ELICITED REFUSALS

This study aims to shed light on the pragmatic development of EFL learners by investigating their uses of refusals. EFL learners aged between 20 and 29 were invited to take a video-mediated DCT. Although the EFL learners may express their refusals indirectly in general, they appear to alter their refusal strategies with regard to the communicative situation. In addition, the advanced EFL learners appear to perform refusal strategies by the use of refusal routines, while the intermediate EFL may find it difficult to do so. Moreover, the use of a video-mediated DCT seems to elicit interesting uses of adjunct strategies. It can be conjectured that the discrepancy between the advanced and the intermediate EFL learners in the performance of refusal strategies may reflect their interlanguage pragmatics and linguistic competence. Compared to the refusing strategies used by the L1 speakers of Mandarin Chinese, those used by the EFL learners may not entirely be an outcome of pragmatic transfer.