Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students

The current study investigated the refusal strategies realized by young adult Egyptian students in their L1 (Egyptian Arabic) and L2 (English). The study also explored the socio-pragmatic features of Egyptian refusals in terms of power and distance as well as the pragmatic transfer in the students’...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Darwish, Alaa Kamel
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2016
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613409513570304
access_status_str Open Access
author Darwish, Alaa Kamel
author_browse Darwish, Alaa Kamel
author_facet Darwish, Alaa Kamel
author_sort Darwish, Alaa Kamel
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.
description The current study investigated the refusal strategies realized by young adult Egyptian students in their L1 (Egyptian Arabic) and L2 (English). The study also explored the socio-pragmatic features of Egyptian refusals in terms of power and distance as well as the pragmatic transfer in the students’ L2 refusals. 2270 cases of refusal were collected by means of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and field notes. The sample consisted of 200 DCTs (collected from 100 students in L1 and L2) and 60 instances of refusals extracted from field notes collected by the researcher. The data were analyzed according to an adaptation of the taxonomy of refusal strategies by Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz (1990). The findings reflected a great amount of positive pragmatic transfer as most of the students refusals were indirect refusals. The strategies that were mainly used by students were statements of explanations, statements of alternatives, and statements of regret. In addition, adjuncts to refusals such as gratitude and positive opinion were used to refuse the requests and offers of higher and equal power. Furthermore, the results also showed an amount of negative pragmatic transfer in students’ L2 refusals as a result of both pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic failures. Implications and recommendations for future research were suggested based on the given results.
format Thesis
id oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-1376
institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:41.195Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher AUC Knowledge Fountain
publisherStr AUC Knowledge Fountain
record_format dspace
source_str AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-1376 Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students Darwish, Alaa Kamel The current study investigated the refusal strategies realized by young adult Egyptian students in their L1 (Egyptian Arabic) and L2 (English). The study also explored the socio-pragmatic features of Egyptian refusals in terms of power and distance as well as the pragmatic transfer in the students’ L2 refusals. 2270 cases of refusal were collected by means of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and field notes. The sample consisted of 200 DCTs (collected from 100 students in L1 and L2) and 60 instances of refusals extracted from field notes collected by the researcher. The data were analyzed according to an adaptation of the taxonomy of refusal strategies by Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz (1990). The findings reflected a great amount of positive pragmatic transfer as most of the students refusals were indirect refusals. The strategies that were mainly used by students were statements of explanations, statements of alternatives, and statements of regret. In addition, adjuncts to refusals such as gratitude and positive opinion were used to refuse the requests and offers of higher and equal power. Furthermore, the results also showed an amount of negative pragmatic transfer in students’ L2 refusals as a result of both pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic failures. Implications and recommendations for future research were suggested based on the given results. 2016-02-01T08:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/377 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/1376/viewcontent/Thesis_20__20Alaa_20Darwish_20.pdf The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy. Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Speech act theory Politeness theory
spellingShingle Speech act theory
Politeness theory
Darwish, Alaa Kamel
Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students
title Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students
title_full Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students
title_fullStr Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students
title_full_unstemmed Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students
title_short Refusal strategies in L1 and L2 among undergraduate Egyptian students
title_sort refusal strategies in l1 and l2 among undergraduate egyptian students
topic Speech act theory
Politeness theory
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/377
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/1376/viewcontent/Thesis_20__20Alaa_20Darwish_20.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT darwishalaakamel refusalstrategiesinl1andl2amongundergraduateegyptianstudents