التعليمية

The Pragmatics Of Refusals In English: A Study Of Third-year Lmd Efl Students At The University Of 08 Mai 1945, Guelma, Algeria

Auteurs : Himoura Kawther .

Résumé

Refusal speech acts are among the most challenging aspects of pragmatic competence because they require speakers to balance linguistic appropriateness with politeness. This study investigates the refusal strategies employed by third-year LMD EFL students at the University of 08 Mai 1945 Guelma and examines the influence of power, social distance, degree of imposition, and gender on their pragmatic choices. A convergent mixed-methods design was adopted using a Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT) administered to 50 students. The responses were coded according to Beebe et al.'s (1990) taxonomy and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings revealed that indirect refusal strategies, particularly statements of regret and explanations, predominated. Contextual variables significantly influenced learners' refusal behavior, whereas gender had only a limited effect. The study highlights the need to integrate pragmatic instruction into EFL teaching to enhance learners' communicative competence.

Mots clés

refusal speech acts ; pragmatic competence ; EFL learners ; interlanguage pragmatics ; WDCT