Analysing the speech act of refusing in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy

Abstract

Appropriate refusal interactions may be a difficult task for learners of English in a foreign context since they tend to apply the pragmatic rules of their native language to the target language. As a consequence, they may be seen as rude and impolite. An increasing number of scholars are focusing their efforts on the importance of pragmatics in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom. Recent studies have shown that video materials such as TV shows, news broadcasts or films provide students with authentic pragmatic input, by portraying plenty of instances of refusing situations in real settings. However, some researchers have questioned the validity of these situations considering that the language used in video materials is not real but ‘fictitious’, as it has been written in advance. Bearing in mind the results obtained by Fernandez-Guerra in her 2008 and 2013 studies empirically proving the benefits of using TV series to teach the speech act of refusing, the present paper analyses the occurrences of all refusal situations appearing in three episodes from the first season of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, to determine its usefulness in the FL classroom.