Refusals in Jordanian Arabic and Chinese: A cross-cultural pragmatic study of language and gender

This paper explores the effectiveness of grammar-based teaching (GBT) and communicative language teaching (CLT) in second language acquisition. Grammar-based teaching focuses on explicit grammar instruction and structured practice, while communicative language teaching emphasizes interaction and real-life communication to develop language skills. A comparative analysis of existing studies reveals that GBT aids in building a solid grammatical foundation and accuracy, particularly in controlled environments. However, CLT is more effective in fostering fluency, pragmatic competence, and learner engagement through meaningful language use. The research concludes that a balanced approach, integrating elements from both methods, may offer the most effective pathway for language learners, depending on their specific learning goals and contexts.

Pragmatic competence plays a crucial role in communication, particularly in academic discourse. Previous studies on sociopragmatics have largely focused on second language learners’ speech acts; however, limited attention has been paid to adult learners in higher education who strategically employ the local language. Specifically, this research examines Acceptance Act Response (AARs) strategies through a sociopragmatic lens and remains underexplored in multilingual academic contexts in Indonesian higher education. This research aims to investigate how adult learners in higher education utilise local language in academic discourse as a sociopragmatic for expressing AARs strategies. This research adopts a qualitative approach, and the data are described descriptively. The research was conducted in Indonesian Language Education at PGRI Jombang University. Data were collected through classroom observations and audio recordings of academic interactions involving local language use. The recorded data were analysed descriptively. The findings reveal that adult learners frequently use local language as a pragmatic strategy to express AARs in academic discourse. Several AARs strategies were identified, including: absolution, dismissal, formal, thanking, intensifiers, requests, expressing emotion, and questioning. Among these strategies, absolution was the most frequently used (25.3%), while expressing empathy was not observed in the data. These patterns indicate that local language serves as an effective resource for managing social relations and maintaining pragmatic appropriateness. It implies that lecturers should pay closer attention to instructional practices to support the development of adult learners’ pragmatic competence. Integrating awareness of the local language into academic instruction can enhance learners’ sociopragmatic competence and reduce the risk of pragmatic failure.

This study investigates politeness strategies represented in the German textbook Netzwerk A1 and contrasts them with documented Indonesian politeness norms to explore their pedagogical implications for German language teaching in Indonesia. Grounded in contemporary politeness theory and contrastive pragmatics, the research employs a qualitative descriptive design based on systematic document analysis. Dialogic interactions in the textbook were examined to identify patterns of directness, grammatical mitigation, hierarchical encoding, lexical politeness markers, and the use of Konjunktiv II. A micro-contrastive analysis of representative request forms further illustrates divergences between German structurally direct but grammatically mitigated formulations and Indonesian relationally oriented, lexically mediated politeness strategies. Interpreted through the distinction between pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic dimensions, the findings reveal that differences extend beyond linguistic structure to culturally grounded evaluations of appropriateness and hierarchy. These divergences highlight potential areas of pragmatic transfer among Indonesian learners of German. This study contributes to the field of pragmatics by expanding contrastive analysis beyond English-centered paradigms and by providing a multi-layered account of politeness that integrates structural, lexical, and grammatical dimensions. The findings also offer pedagogical insights for developing intercultural pragmatic competence in German language teaching.

The smooth development of international students in China in their academic progress and interpersonal communication cannot be achieved without the support of excellent Chinese language proficiency acquisition. This paper combines existing research and actual situations, takes the immersion level of international students in Chinese language environment as the core influence factor, and puts forward relevant research questions. The experimental samples are selected and the Chinese pragmatic competence acquisition test is conducted to confirm the feasibility of the study based on the test data. The Chinese language proficiency of international students was taken as the dependent variable, and language shock, cultural shock and immersion environment were taken as the independent variables. A Chinese language acquisition cognition model was constructed and analyzed by multiple statistical regression, and it was determined that language shock, culture shock and immersion environment were the most important factors influencing the acquisition cognition of Chinese language proficiency of international students. Among them, immersion environment has the most significant influence (P=0.000), with a regression coefficient of 0.941, which indicates that international students in long-term immersion environment have better cognitive acquisition of Chinese language proficiency.

Purpose This paper examines how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming cross-cultural consumer engagement by reshaping how people encounter, learn and perform culture. We conceptualize GenAI as a cultural intermediary that enables “model-mediated contact,” extending acculturation theory beyond both direct and media-mediated forms of cultural learning to explain how algorithmic systems reshape cultural exposure, identity formation and adaptation in international marketing contexts. Design/methodology/approach We integrate acculturation theory, affordance theory and research on global consumer culture to build a conceptual framework linking four GenAI affordances – translation and localization, synthesis, role-play and simulation and conversational memory – to four mechanisms that shape AI-mediated cultural learning: secondhand acculturation, algorithmic cosmopolitanism, curated curiosity and the control illusion. The framework patterned tensions and trade-offs that affect both consumers and marketers, which we theorize as paradoxes rather than linear effects. Findings GenAI broadens cultural access but compresses nuance. It enables surface fluency while weakening pragmatic competence and authenticity. The four mechanisms reveal how algorithmic mediation fosters breadth over depth, legibility over meaning and efficiency over originality. These dynamics generate four paradoxes: Understanding–Authenticity, Connection–Resonance, Choice–Creativity and Democratization–Dominance. Together, they show how greater technological reach can simultaneously erode cultural richness, symbolic depth and brand distinctiveness. Originality/value This paper advances international marketing theory by introducing model-mediated acculturation and distinguishing algorithmic cosmopolitanism from experiential cosmopolitanism. It redefines consumer agency as interactive in form but bounded in substance and calls for updated frameworks that reflect GenAI's role in shaping cultural contact, authenticity and identity. It further specifies how GenAI-mediated acculturation reshapes core international marketing constructs, including brand authenticity, legitimacy, consumer–brand identification, perceived cultural distance and standardization–adaptation dynamics. For managers, it offers diagnostic guidance on preserving cultural depth, balancing AI and human mediation, redesigning journeys for model-shaped discovery and protecting provenance in a GenAI-driven marketplace.

Oral presentations require the effective communication of ideas while managing interpersonal dynamics and institutional expectations. This study explored the types of speech acts employed by an EFL learner during an English oral presentation and examined the dynamics of power relations found in the discourse. The research employed a qualitative design using the Interaction Analysis Method (IAM). The data were obtained from a documentary recording of a speech performance, available on the YouTube link for the National English Speech Contest hosted by the English Education of Universitas Timor. The participant focused on the first-place winner as the subject of analysis. The speech was transcribed and analyzed using Austin’s and Searle’s frameworks of speech acts. The findings reveal that the speech includes five types of speech acts: assertive (47%), directive (24%), expressive (13%), commissive (11%), and declarative (5%). The dominant use of assertive and directive speech acts shows that the speaker's primary goal was to inform and persuade the audience. Furthermore, the data identified several power markers, such as epistemic power, deontic power, affective power, moral commitment power, and performative power. These power markers demonstrate how the speaker constructs authority, influences the audience, and negotiates relational dynamics through strategic language choice. The study enhances comprehension of pragmatic competence in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context and has pedagogical implications for teaching public speaking and presentation skills.

This research paper analyzed the pragmatic transfer errors created by Arab students while practicing EFL writing skills in a virtual classroom. This research aimed to identify practical errors related to discourse and contextual components of the target language writing skills. The study took into consideration the negative pragmatic transfer errors made during written communication of EFL students using chat (synchronous) and discussion board(asynchronous) in the computer-mediated environment (CMC) of Blackboard. This research employed a mixed-mode method comprising of observations of students’ online interaction (pragmatic transfer error analysis and categorizing them and a questionnaire for students to determine their pragmatic competence. The population of this research was the EFL students of the preparatory year, at Jazan University KSA. A random sample was collected with 381 respondents. The Data was collected and then analyzed with the help of the statistical package SPSS. The results were displayed in tables, charts, and percentages. This research will be beneficial for EFL teachers to improve pedagogy and Arab EFL students alike. This paper also made recommendations for future research.

Politeness is a core aspect of language use and is frequently realized through modality, particularly modal verbs expressing permission and indirectness. In EFL contexts, textbooks play a crucial role in shaping learners’ pragmatic competence by modeling how modal verbs encode culturally appropriate politeness strategies. This study aims to explore modal verbs expressing politeness in English textbooks for grades 10, 11, and 12. A corpus-assisted approach was employed and the primary data consisted of reading and instructional texts from the three English textbooks constructed as a corpus. The texts were converted into txt format and processed using AntConc to analyze six modal verbs associated with politeness: may, might, can, could, will, and would. The analysis focused on frequency counts and contextual usage identification to determine how each modal conveyed politeness in different topics and tasks. The results showed an increasing frequency of modal verbs across grade levels, with 183 occurrences in Grade 10, 329 in Grade 11, and 343 in Grade 12. Across all grades, the modal verb can was the most frequently used, while modal verbs might and could were rarely used. Modal verbs like may, can, might, could, will, and would in the textbooks reflect Indonesian social norms of politeness. Among them, modal verbs can, will, and may are used most often, showing common expressions of permission and polite requests in formal and everyday contexts. The findings suggest that modal verb usage in the textbooks reflects Indonesian cultural values, particularly the preference for polite, indirect communication in formal and educational settings.

Abstract As a pragmatic competence, irony comprehension plays an important role in everyday communication and social relationships. Research to date has mainly focused on irony comprehension in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. More recently, pragmatic competences of children with ADHD have also received attention, although the focus has been more on global pragmatic competences. A few studies have examined irony comprehension in children with ADHD as a specific pragmatic sub-competence, but many questions remain unresolved. Therefore, the aim of this article is to map the state of research regarding irony comprehension in children with ADHD and, on this basis, to outline a research agenda for future studies investigating this important pragmatic sub-competence in children with ADHD.

In conversation with andy kirkpatrick: Teaching and assessing pragmatic competence in a global Englishes context

Abstract Study abroad (SA) programs are widely recognized for their role in enhancing students’ language skills through immersive environments. However, there remains a gap in understanding how social interaction within these contexts influences their pragmatic development. This study examines the relationship between international students’ social networks and their pragmatic competence, introducing a novel individual network of linguistic practice (INoLP) framework to conceptualize language use and interactions in SA settings. Appropriateness judgment tasks were administered to 311 Chinese international students in the UK to measure their receptive pragmatic competence. Their social networks were mapped using a graphical interactive questionnaire. Quantitative analysis revealed significant correlations between pragmatic competence and several social network properties, including size, similarity, the presence of L2-speaking interlocutors, tie strength, contact frequency, and tie dispersion. Moreover, four network properties—tie dispersion, tie strength with multinationals, contact frequency with conationals, and the presence of L2-speaking contacts—emerged as significant predictors of pragmatic competence. This study pioneers a quantitative exploration of pragmatic competence through a social network lens, offering insights with theoretical, methodological, and practical implications.

This systematic literature review focuses on the use of technology-enhanced applications in second language (L2) pragmatic instruction. This paper will systematically analyze papers from several electronic databases between the years 2012 and 2023 that investigate the use of technology in L2 pragmatic instruction, with a focus on the type of technology used, its effectiveness in enhancing pragmatic competence, and its impact on learners' motivation and engagement. The review also considers the pedagogical implication that underlie the design and implementation of technology- enhanced pragmatic instruction. The findings suggest that technology-enhanced applications can effectively enhance learners' pragmatic competence, motivation, and engagement. However, the effectiveness of such applications is highly dependent on the pedagogical principles that inform their design and implementation, including the incorporation of authentic materials, task-based instruction, and learner-centered approaches. The review concludes with recommendations for future research and pedagogical practice in this area.

<p>This research examines how chatbots assist the development of English pragmatics among Mainland Chinese undergraduates and multilingual Malaysian students. The research uses Vygotsky’s sociocultural framework to analyze chatbots as culturally mediated tools instead of neutral tools. The results show that pragmatic competence improved significantly among participants who learned to make requests, refuse, and apologize. The Malaysian students demonstrated better understanding of appropriate context, which led to better performance than their monolingual Chinese peers in pragmatic aspects. The Malaysian participants demonstrated higher metapragmatic awareness, faster adoption of instructor feedback, and better sociocultural cue recognition according to qualitative results. The Chinese participants experienced challenges in understanding implicit sociopragmatic norms during the study. Students reported two main issues with the chatbot system through their reflective statements: (1) the system generated responses that did not match local communication standards, and (2) the tone shifted abruptly, causing students to lose trust in the chatbot’s pragmatic advice. The research findings demonstrate that standard chatbot systems have restrictions, which require developers to include cultural sensitivity features in AI-based learning platforms. The research adds to existing discussions about digital learning agency while advocating for educational models that focus on cultural awareness and fair access for all students. The research indicates that chatbot-mediated instruction needs to base its approach on local communication practices to deliver effective pragmatic fluency support for diverse student populations.</p>

Pragmatic competence without embodiment? Evaluating LLM performance on implicature, presupposition, and speech acts

This integractive literature review aims to improve the quality of language teaching through the systematic analysis of error correction strategies releted to pragmatic competence. In current language teaching practice, progmatic competence often does not receive sufficiente attention, as priority is given to correcting grammatical and lexical errors. However, saccess of oral communication is not based solely on linguistic structures, it requires the appropriate use of speech acts within their social and cultural contexts. In this article, the authors review 20 academic articles published between 2020 and 2025 in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Based on these studies, pragmatic errors correction strategies, including direct, indirect, and metapragmatic approaches, are examined comparatively. At first, the collected literatures were coded through critical analysis, and then the common trends and contradictions that take place in the corrective strategies of teachers were identified. The results of the study showed that the methodological models currently in use have limitation in their adaptation to multicultural contexts. In this regard, the article presents a pedagogical structure based on intercultural flexibility to improve the quality of pragmatic learning. The proposed structure is recommended for use in language courses and multilingual educational institutions and can be used to improve teacher training programs. Based on the shortcomings identified in this study regarding correction and feedback, the authors propose the Culture-Adaptive Pragmatic Correction Frame (CAPCF) model that adapts to the culture. The model considers pragmatic error correction to situational diagnostic context, learner factors, and coping strategies and is seen as culturally based decision-making.

Refusal is a complex pragmatic act that often entails face-threatening consequences, requiring speakers to balance clarity, politeness, and interpersonal harmony. This study examines the refusal strategies employed by senior high school English teachers in Adonara Timur when responding to requests outside the classroom context. Using a qualitative research design and content analysis, data were collected from 13 teachers through a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) consisting of ten situational scenarios. The responses were analyzed using Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss-Weltz’s (1990) taxonomy of refusal strategies. Findings show that indirect refusal strategies—such as providing explanations, expressing regret, offering alternatives, and citing external circumstances—were the most frequently used. Teachers also consistently employed adjuncts, including expressions of gratitude, appreciation, and apologies, to mitigate the force of their refusals and maintain positive interpersonal relationships. Direct refusal strategies appeared less frequently and were mostly used in situations involving institutional rules or established agreements, particularly in interactions with students. Overall, the study highlights the teachers’ strong orientation toward politeness, relational harmony, and context-sensitive communication. These findings contribute to understanding the pragmatic competence of English teachers in Indonesian educational settings and offer insights for integrating pragmatic awareness into language teaching materials and professional development programs.

Stance expressions and markers are a heated topic in global linguistic research, with style stance adverbs as a core form of stance markers, classified alongside epistemic and attitude stance adverbs. This study employs an AI-powered corpus-based comparative analysis method to probe into 11 top English style stance adverbs in the Chinese Learners of English Corpus, British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary American English. AI instruments are applied to optimize corpus data retrieval, statistical analysis and positional distribution mapping and make comparative analyses of their use characteristics and positional distribution of the style stance adverbs between Chinese English learners and native speakers to probe into their interpersonal pragmatic functions and use characteristics. The research findings reveal significant discrepancies: Chinese learners overuse style stance adverbs with a narrow vocabulary range, and misapply spoken-language positional conventions (initial/final placement) in written discourse resulting from insufficient understanding of their structural and functional features in academic contexts. This study deeps and widens stance adverb research and provides guidance for EFL teaching and learners' pragmatic competence improvement.

This study examined the importance of instructing pragmatic competence. The research assessed the pragmatic competence levels of Iraqi EFL female students when producing the speech act of advice. The current study was conducted at the Department of the English Language, College of Education for Women, University of Baghdad, Iraq, 2024/2025. The participants of this study were two groups, a beginner group and an advanced group; each group contained 30 female students. The primary purpose of the study was to compare the advising speech act as performed by Iraqi EFL female advanced students with a high level of proficiency and Iraqi EFL female beginner students with a low proficiency level. This study demonstrates the significance of explicit pragmatic education in EFL classes, indicating that focused teaching of speech acts may reduce negative transfer from the native language and enhance intercultural communication performance. Therefore, the study examined the ability of Iraqi EFL female users to use appropriate pragmatic expressions when giving advice as well as the observable variations in the level of (in)directness between the two groups. The data-collection tool was the Discourse Completion Task. The statistical program, SPSS, analyzed these data. The findings of this study revealed that, at earlier stages of EFL learning, Iraqi EFL students’ perception of directness when giving advice is influenced by Arabic (L1) as their proficiency develops.

In Gricean pragmatics, inference during communication is regarded as a form of rational, domain-general reasoning about the intentions of other agents. Studies using the pictorial communication “reference game” task are sometimes used in support of this hypothesis. Yet, measures of pragmatic reasoning in this task sometimes reveal poor performance, with participants requiring many rounds of play before they exhibit patterns which match Gricean inferences, and demonstrating substantial individual differences in behavior. Do these results challenge the idea of widespread inferencing via fundamental social competence? We advance an alternative proposal here, which posits that these patterns emerge as a factor of the way participants perform pragmatic reasoning in a task: namely, they prefer to use simpler interpretation strategies until experience motivates the use of additional resources. Building off of work modeling task adaptation as reinforcement learning, we use the cognitive architecture ACT-R to simulate the expected behavior of individuals with this kind of resource-rational performance algorithm, subject to individualized parameters for reinforcement learning. These simulations provide a proof-of-concept for our adaptation proposal, recreating known patterns and generating new concrete predictions for the particular domain-general sources of individual variance in reference game tasks. We then go on to validate some of these new predictions in a pre-registered experiment, and find that pragmatic response behavior is indeed related to a participant’s general persistence in self-directed exploration of strategies for task completion. Our results offer a path to reconcile variable empirical data with models of core pragmatic competence. From a broader perspective, we see this as an important step towards more robust theories of performance factors in pragmatic reasoning, and ultimately, a case study in the value of process-level computational modeling.