L1-Korean L2-English Speakers’ Performance of Refusal Speech Acts in EFL and ELF contexts

Abstract

Refusal speech acts have received much attention in the L2 pragmatics literature due to their complexity and learning difficulty. However, most of previous research studies were conducted with English-learning students with focus on situations in which English was used as a foreign language (EFL) in interaction with a native speaker of English, making it difficult to generalize their findings to professionals using English as a lingua franca (ELF) in interaction with non-native speakers of English. To address this research gap, the present study investigated refusal speech acts performed in EFL and ELF contexts by participants whose working language was English. Data were obtained using the Discourse Completion Task. Thirty-four L1-Korean L2-English speakers’ response in English in both EFL and ELF contexts provided L2 data, while 36 L1-Korean and 35 L1-English speakers’ response in their native languages provided L1-baseline data. L1-Korean L2-English speakers showed both L1 transfer and target-like performance in terms of frequencies of different refusal strategies and content of expressions used to perform refusal strategies, with L1 transfer effects being clearer in content of expressions. Possible reasons for the complex pattern of L1 transfer and potential roles of characteristics of participants and contexts were discussed.