Proficiency and Preference Organization in Second Language Mandarin Chinese Refusals

Abstract

This study investigates second language (L2) interactional competence in Mandarin Chinese, with a specific focus on dispreference organization in refusals. Twenty-eight L2 Chinese learners at 3 proficiency levels (A2, B1, and B2) and 10 native speakers each participated in 3 role plays. We found that learners at different levels clearly differed in their ability to organize refusals as dispreferred and to fine tune their refusal to the initiating action. Lower intermediate (A2) learners either fronted negative responses or adopted a single dispreference marker (e.g., apologies, pauses, prefatory particles, etc.), whereas upper intermediate (B1) learners overwhelming delayed their refusals and never produced straightforward negations, also showing different organizations of refusals depending on the initiating action. Advanced learners combined sequential tools and linguistic devices to demonstrate a strong orientation toward affiliation, and clearly oriented to scenarios differentially. However, they lagged behind native speakers, who had more diversified interactional tools and systematically oriented to features of the initiating actions. We attribute the differences partially to L2 proficiency, though proficiency-independent increase in contextual sensitivity can be observed.