Investigating L2 Refusals: A Case Study of Chinese Native Speakers’ L2 Pragmatic Competence

Abstract

The speech act the researcher studies in this paper is refusal which, according to Ellis (2008), involves high level of pragmatic competence of the speaker, especially when it is compared with other speech acts like apology and request . Refusal seems to be particularly high-demanding for L2 learners, for L2 linguistic proficiency might be the hindrance. The researcher studies on one Chinese L2 learner’s pragmatic competence by focusing on the pragmatic strategies adopted in his L2 refusals. The result of this study suggests that L2 pragmatic competence is restrained by learners’ linguistic proficiency from utilizing more effective pragmatic strategies. Both linguistic and pragmatic transfer limits Chinese L2 learners’ pragmatic behaviors. Therefore, pedagogical intervention involving pragmatic knowledge for enhancing Chinese L2 learners’ pragmatic competence is advised and it might be even more helpful to the learners if culture is covered in the intervention.