Developing the ability to refuse: A cross-sectional study of Greek FL refusals

Bella, Spyridoula

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.015

Cited by 55 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Kasper and Rose (2002) summarized five stages of L2 request development in L2 environments based on findings from the longitudinal studies by Achiba (2002) and Ellis (1992): (1) pre-basic (highly context-dependent), (2) formulaic (unanalyzed formulas), (3) unpacking (shifting to conventional indirectness), (4) pragmatic expansion (adding new forms), and (5) fine tuning (of request force and context). This proposed developmental pattern of L2 request production is supported by crosssectional studies (Hill, 1997;Rose, 2000;Trosborg, 1995) as well as longitudinal studies of other speech acts (Ren, 2013a) and can be generalized to foreign language environments and L2s other than English (Greek in Bella, 2014;Spanish in F elix-Brasdefer, 2007; Indonesian in Hassall, 2003;and Chinese in Wen, 2014). However, learners in foreign language environments tend to show less sociopragmatic development than those in L2 environments (Hill, 1997;Ren, 2013b;Rose, 2000;Scarcella, 1979;Trosborg, 1995).…”

Section: Literature Review Acquisitional Research Of L2 Requests Undementioning

confidence: 72%

Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence in Mandarin Chinese: Sequential Realization of Requests

Ren

2017

Foreign Language Annals

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The present study explored the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners' ability to negotiate requests in interactions. It investigated the effect of proficiency on learners' use of request strategies and internal modifications and on their sequential realization of requests in L2 Chinese. Twenty‐four American English learners of L2 Mandarin Chinese at three different proficiency levels completed a three‐scenario role‐play task. The scenarios were kept low in imposition and social distance but variable in power relations. Each participant interacted with a native speaker interlocutor who assumed different roles in those scenarios. Baseline data were provided by 10 native speakers (NSs) of Chinese. A total of 102 role‐plays were coded for request strategies, internal modifications, and supportive moves, as well as the sequential placement of supportive moves in pre‐, insert, and postexpansions. Situational variations as reflected in role‐play production were considered alongside. The results showed that learners across proficiencies had the same range of pragmatic strategies as in NSs' repertoire, but they showed a general incompetence in employing internal modifications. Learners' ability to delay the requests improved with increasing proficiency, but learner production in general did not show the same level of situational variations as observed in the NS data.

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Section: Literature Review Acquisitional Research Of L2 Requests Undementioning

confidence: 72%

Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence in Mandarin Chinese: Sequential Realization of Requests

Ren

2017

Foreign Language Annals

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“…Over the past two decades, a number of studies have compared the order, frequency, and content of the semantic formulae of L1 refusals produced by native speakers of different languages and of L2 refusals made by nonnative language learners having varied proficiency levels (e.g., Allami and Naeimi 2011;Bella 2014) or different lengths of residence in the target community (e.g., Bella 2011;Félix-Brasdefer 2006;Sadeghi and Savojbolaghchilar 2011;Ren 2012). Empirical data were collected mainly through a DCT or role play task and were used to analyze the semantic formulae of refusals based on Beebe et al's refusal classification system (1990).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adult native speakers of some languages, such as Chinese (Guo 2012;Li 2007;Wang 2001;Yang 2008) and Malay (Satter et al 2011), prefer indirect refusals, an inclination that is attributable to the indirect communication style prevalent in their cultures. Comparisons of L1 and L2 refusals as responses to requests, offers, invitations, and suggestions made by some adult native speakers and language learners, such as learners of Greek (Bella 2011 andBella 2014), learners of Spanish (Félix-Brasdefer 2006), and learners of English (e.g., Allami and Naeimi 2011;Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford 1993;Beebe et al 1990;Chang 2009 andChang 2011;Liao and Bresnahan 1996), provide evidence for varied degrees of L1 pragmatic transfer in L2 refusals due to the learner's proficiency level and length of residence in the target community. Unlike requests that have been well researched in terms of semantic formulae from cross-cultural and crosslinguistic perspectives (e.g., Economidou-Kogetsidis 2011;Ellis 1992;Fukushima 1996;Hassall 2003;Lee 2004, Lee 2005, Lee 2011Rinnert and Kobayashi 1999) and L2 developmental patterns from childhood through the teens (Achiba 2003;Rose 2000, Rose 2009), refusals produced by other age groups and the ways in which their refusals' semantic formulae are different from or consistent with adult counterparts and development patterns are rarely investigated and discussed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding refusal style and pragmatic competence of teenage Cantonese English learners in refusals: An exploratory study

Lee

2016

Intercultural Pragmatics

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The paper investigates the refusal style of teenage Cantonese learners of English in terms of strategy use, pattern, order, and content of refusals' semantic formulae quantitatively and qualitatively, and discusses learners' pragmatic competence and refusal style with reference to that of adult native Mandarin Chinese (L1) speakers and Chinese English learners reported in the literature. One hundred fifty-six Cantonese English learners aged between 14 and 18, studying in Form 2, Form 4, and Form 6, participated in the study. Refusals to requests were collected using five closed role plays in which sociolinguistic variables were controlled. It was found that three indirect refusal patterns were generally used by the three age groups across situations, with the strategy of giving a specific reason being dominant. Only the difference in use of single strategy was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The frequency rate of refusing directly decreased when age and language-learning exposure increased. The older teenage learners refused more indirectly than the young ones. The indirect-with-specific-reason refusal style for requests is consistent with the indirect Chinese communication style of adult native Chinese speakers and Chinese English learners. In addition, the direct-then-indirect development in L2 refusals is similar to that in L2 requests and complaints expressed by young Cantonese English learners, and there are some signs of L1 pragmatic transfer. Teenage learners were able to show sociopragmatic competence by using different refusal strategies in face of different request natures and relationships with interlocutors. However, their pramalinguistic resources were limited, and adjuncts did not exist.

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“…This preference for CIs can be interpreted as a manifestation of the general tendency of more advanced learners to employ indirectness as proficiency increases and learners manage to acquire linguistic means, like interrogative constructions, which allow them to be conventionally indirect (see e.g. Bella 2012Bella , 2014Félix-Brasdefer 2007;Hassall 2003). It appears that these speakers are eager to use more complex grammatical forms and at the same time take advantage of those forms' more obvious politeness effect.…”

Section: Initiative Offer Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In respect to the development of individual speech acts, requests have unquestionably received the most attention (Achiba 2003;Barron 2003;Bella 2012;Ellis 1992;Félix-Brasdefer 2007;Flores Salgado 2011;Göy et al 2012;Hassall 2003;Hill 1997;Otcu & Zeyrek 2008;Scarcella 1979;Schauer 2004Schauer , 2009Trosborg 1995;Woodfield 2012). Significantly fewer developmental insights have been provided on a limited few other speech acts, such as suggestions (Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford 1990, 1993, greetings (DuFon 1999;Omar 1991), apologies (Maeshiba et al 1996;Flores Salgado 2011;Rasouli Khorsidi 2013;Trosborg 1995), complaints (Trosborg 1995) and refusals (Bella 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Offers by Greek FL learners

Bella¹

2022

PRAG

Self Cite

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This study investigates developmental patterns in the ability of Greek foreign language learners to make offers. Drawing data from role-plays and retrospective verbal reports it attempts to explore the initiative offer strategies, the syntactic modification and the degree of insistence that learners of three different proficiency levels (lower intermediate, intermediate and advanced) employ when performing offers in two symmetrical (-P, -D) and two asymmetrical (+P, +D) situations. The results suggest that, although there is a great deal of grammatical and pragmalinguistic development regarding both initiative offer strategies and syntactic modification devices, this does not guarantee concomitant levels of sociopragmatic development (cf. Bardovi-Harlig 1999). Specifically, it is shown that learners of increased proficiency tend to overgeneralise complex grammatical structures like interrogative constructions and the conditional in situations in which NSs employ more direct and simple grammatical means in order to achieve a solidarity effect. Furthermore, the learners appear to lag far behind NSs in the appropriate use of insistence. The findings of the study lend support to both the developmental stages of pragmatic competence acknowledged in the relevant literature (Ellis 1992; Achiba 2003) and to Bialystok's (1993) model regarding the acquisition of pragmatic competence.

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Developing the ability to refuse: A cross-sectional study of Greek FL refusals

Cited by 55 publications

References 37 publications

Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence in Mandarin Chinese: Sequential Realization of Requests

Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence in Mandarin Chinese: Sequential Realization of Requests

Understanding refusal style and pragmatic competence of teenage Cantonese English learners in refusals: An exploratory study

Offers by Greek FL learners

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