本研究旨在探討台灣以英文為外語的國中生在拒絕時所採取的策略。資料收集由每組40位的青少年，共三組所組成。分為：以中文為母語的受試者 (NC)，以英文為外語的學習者 (EFL)，和以英文為母語的受試者 (NA)。實驗經由設計好的8個不同情境 ( 2個請求，2個建議，2個邀請，2個提供 )，分別為4種不同的拒絕的「完成對話問卷」(DCT) 來達成。距離和性別是二個控制的變項。120 位受試者的回答根據直接拒絕、間接拒絕、不拒絕、沒有回應四種拒絕策略分類。卡方檢定用來分析三組間是否有統計上的顯著差異。
結論顯示，以中文為母語的，以英文為外語的，和以英文為母語的這三組在表達拒絕時，確實有顯著差異。以中文為母語的 (NC) 和以英文為外語的 (EFL) 二組比較喜愛使用間接拒絕策略；而以英文為母語的 (NA) 這一組傾向選擇直接拒絕策略。此外，以英文為外語的 (EFL) 這組的表現常出現遵循他們母語 (L1) 的模式，雖然他們有些行為表現顯示出受到外語文化 (L2) 的影響。此外，或許由於缺乏足夠的語言能力，以英文為外語 (EFL) 的一組，在拒絕時，傾向表達過多的道歉。因此本研究建議，教師在教學上應幫助學生學習多使用綜合的拒絕策略來取代過多或不必要的道歉。根據以上的發現，本研究也提出一些在英語教學上的啟示和應用，以及對未來研究的建議。

The purpose of the study was to investigate what strategies were employed when EFL junior high school students in Taiwan performed a refusal. The data collected from three groups of forty teenagers in each group: native Chinese speakers (NC), EFL learners (EFL), and native American English speakers (NA). The experiment was carried out through the Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which was designed to eight situations: 2 requests, 2 suggestions, 2 invitations, and 2 offers to elicit four types of refusal. Two social variables, distance and gender, were controlled. Responses from 120 participants were categorized according to refusal strategies including direct refusal, indirect refusal, non-refusal, and no response. The chi-square was employed to test the presence of statistically significant difference existing across the three groups.
Results revealed that the Chinese, the EFL, and the American groups were virtually different in expressing refusals. The Chinese and EFL groups preferred to employ indirect refusal strategies, while the American group tended to select direct ones. Moreover, the performance of the EFL group frequently followed their L1's norms, although some of their behaviors were influenced by the L2's culture. Besides, perhaps due to a lack of sufficient pragmatic knowledge and vocabulary, the EFL group tended to express more regret when performing a refusal. Therefore, the present study suggests that the instructors may help learners acquire the usage of combination strategies to decline rather than utilizing verbose or unnecessary regret. Based on the findings, the study also proposed some pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research.

Agresti, A., & Agresti, B. (1979). Statistical methods for the social sciences. NJ:
Dellen Press.
Al-Issa, A. (1998). Sociopragmatic transfer in the performance of refusals by
Jordanian EFL learners: Evidence and motivating factors. Doctoral
dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Hartford, B. S. (1991). Saying ”no” in English: Native and
nonnative rejections. In L. Bouton and Y. Kachru (Eds.), Pragmatics and
Language Learning, Vol. 2 (pp. 41-57). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Beckers, A. M. (1999). How to say “no” without saying “no”: A study of the
refusal strategies of Americans and Germans. Doctoral dissertation, University
of Mississippi.
Beebe, L. M., Takahashi, T., & Uliss-Weltz, R. (1990). Pragmatic transfer in ESL
refusals. In R. C. Scarcela, E. Anderson, & S. D. Krashen (Eds.), Developing
communicative competence in a second language (pp. 55-73). New York,
NY: Newbury House.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1982). Learning how to say what you mean in a second language: A
study of speech act performance of learners of Hebrew as a second language.
Applied Linguistics, 3, 29-59.
Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests
and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Bonikowska, M. P. (1988). The choice of opting out. Applied Linguistics, 9(2),
169-181.
Borkin N., & Reinhart, S. M. (1978). “Excuse me” and “I’m sorry.” TESOL Quarterly
12(1), 57-70.
Boyle, G. J., & Langley, P. D. (1989). Elementary statistical methods: For students of
psychology, education, and the social sciences. Sydney: Pergamon.
Bresnaham, M. J., Ohsahi, R., Liu, W. Y., Nebashi, R. & Liao, C. (1999).
A comparison of response styles in Singapore and Taiwan. Journal of
Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30, 342-358.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals of language usage: Politeness
phenomena. In E. Goody (Ed.), Questions and politeness. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press (pp. 56-234).
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burt, Susan M. (2001). Non-conventionalized blessings: Have a good rest of your life
in Illinois. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association
of Applied Linguistics, February, St. Louis, MO.
Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to
second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1-47.
Chen, X., Ye, L., & Zhang, Y. (1995). Refusing in Chinese. In Kasper G. (Ed.) (1995).
Pragmatics of Chinese as native and target language (pp. 119-163). Honolulu,
HI: University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Second Language Teaching and
Curriculum Center.
Chen, H. (1996). Cross-cultural comparison of English and Chinese Metapragmatics
in refusal. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University.
Chen, Y. (2003). Responding to English Requests: A study on speech act of EFL
junior high school students in Taiwan. Master’s thesis, National Taipei Teacher
College.
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational
Psychological Measurement, 20, 37-46.
Cohen, A. D., & Olshtain, E. (1981). Developing a measure of sociolinguistic
competence: The case of apology. Language Learning, 31, 112-134.
Cramer, P. K. (1997). Refusals of Japanese business professionals in Japanese –
American companies: An exploratory study. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana
University.
Eisenstein, M., & Bodman, J. (1986). “I very appreciate”: Expressions of gratitude by
Native and non-native speakers of American English. Applied Linguistics, 7(2),
167-185.
Félix-Brasdefer, C. (2002). Refusals in Spanish and English: A cross-cultural study of
politeness strategies among speakers of Mexican Spanish, American English,
and American learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Doctoral dissertation,
University of Minnesota, Minnesota.
Fraser, B. (1990). Perspectives on politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 219-236.
Fraser, B. (1991). Methodological issues in pragmatic research. In The encyclopedia
of language and linguistics. Pergamon Press, 1992.
García, C. (1989). Disagreeing and requesting by Americans and Venezuelans.
Linguistics and Education 1, 299-322.
Gass. S. M. & Houck, N. (1999). Interlanguage refusals: A cross-cultural study of
Japanese-English. Berlin, etc.: Mouton de Gruyter.
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole and J. Morgan (Eds.), Speech
acts (Vol. 3: Syntax and semantics), (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.
Gu, Y. (1990). Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics,
14(2), 237-257.

Gudykunst, W. B., & Ting-Toomey, S. (with Chua, E.) (1988). Culture and
interpersonal communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Gudykunst, W. B., Matsumoto, Y., Ting-Toomey, S., Nishida, T., Kim, K., &
Heyman, S. (1996). The influence of cultural individualism-collectivism,
self construals, and individual values on communication styles across cultures.
Human Communication Research, 22, 510-543.
Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (1997). Communicating with strangers: An approach
to intercultural communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hancher, M. (1979). The classification of cooperative illocutionary acts. Language in
Society, 8, 1-14.
He, W. (1998). Issues in second language teaching: Pragmatics and discourse
analysis in teaching Chinese as a second language. Doctoral dissertation, Clark
University.
Henstock, M. I. (2003). Refusals: A language and cultural barrier between Americans
and Japanese. Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University.
Hill, B., Ide, S., Ikuta, S., Kawasaki, A., & Ogino, T. (1986). Universals of linguistic
politeness: Quantitative evidence from Japanese and American English.
Journal of Pragmatics 10, 347-371.
Hofstede, G. (1984). The cultural relativity of the quality of life concept. Academy
of Management Review, 9(3), 389-398.
Holmes, J., & Brown, D. F. (1987). Teachers and students learning about
compliments. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 523-546.
Houck, N., & Gass, M. S. (1996). Non-native refusals: A methodological perspective.
In S. M. Gass, & J. Neu (Eds.) Studies on language acquisition: Vol. 11.
Speech acts across cultures (pp. 45-64). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de
Gruyter.
House, J. (1996). Developing pragmatic fluency in English as a foreign language:
Routines and metapragmatic awareness. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 18, 225-252.
Hsu, Y. (2003). The development of Taiwanese EFL children’s speech act
Performance: Social variables and request strategies. Master’s thesis, National
Taipei Teachers College.
Hu, H. (1994). The Chinese concept of “Face.” American Anthropologist 46, 45-64.
Hu, H. (2004). A study on strategy use of EFL high school students in the
face-threatening speech acts. Master’s thesis, National Chung Cheng
University.
Hymes, D. (1962). The ethnography of speaking. In J. A. Fishman (Ed.), Readings in
the sociology of language (pp. 99-138). Le Hague: Mouton.
Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.),
Sociolinguistics, 269-293. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.
Ide, S. (1989). Formal forms and discernment: two neglected aspects of universals of
of linguistic politeness. Multilingua 8, 223-248.
Ikoma, T., & Shimura, A. (1993). Pragmatics transfer from English to Japanese: The
speech act of refusals. Journal of Japanese Language Teaching, 79, 41-52.
Kanemoto, M. (1993). A comparative study of refusal assertion in the United States
and Japan. Ryudai Review of Language and Literature, 38, 199-212.
Kasper, G.., & Dahl, M. (1991). Research Methods in Interlanguage Pragmatics.
(Tech. Rep. No. 1). Manoa, Hawai’i: Hawai’i University, Second Language
Teaching and Curriculum Center.
King, K. A. & Silver, R. E. (1993). “Sticking points”: Effects of instruction on NNS
refusal strategies. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 9(1), 47-82.

Kinjo, H. (1987). Oral refusals of invitations and requests in English and Japanese.
Journal of Asian Culture, 6, 83-106.
Koike, D. A. (1989). Pragmatic competence and adult L2 acquisition: Speech acts
in interlanguage. Modern Language Journal 73, 279-289.
Krathwohl, R. D. (1993). Methods of educational and social science research.
New York, NY: Longman.
Kwon, J. (2003). Pragmatic transfer and proficiency in refusals of Korean EFL
learners. Doctoral dissertation, Boston University.
Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness; or minding your p’s and q’s. Papers
from the 9th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 292-305.
Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York: Harperand Row.
Lee, T. (2004). A cross-cultural study of refusal strategies adopted by English native
speakers and EFL learners. Master’s thesis, Tamkang University.
Leech, Geoffrey. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.
Levenston, E. (1975). Aspects of testing the oral proficiency of adult immigrants to
Canada. In L. Palmer, & B. Spolsky (Eds.), Papers on language testing
1967-1974. Washington: TESOL.
Levenston, E. & Blum, S. (1978). Discourse completion as a technique for studying
lexical features in interlanguage. Working Papers in Bilingualism 15, 13-21.
Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Liao, C. (1994). A study on the strategies, maxims, and development of refusal in
Mandarin Chinese. Taipei: Crane.
Liao, C., & Bresnahan, M. (1996). A contrastive pragmatic study on American
English and Mandarin refusal strategies. Language Sciences, 18(3-4), 703-727.

Liao, C. (1997). Comparing directives: American English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese
English. Crane.
Madsen, H. S. (1983). Techniques in Testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mao, L. (1992). Invitational discourse and Chinese identity. Journal of Asia Pacific
Communication, 3(1), 79-96.
Mao, L. (1994). Beyond politeness theory: “Face” revisited and renewed. Journal of
Pragmatics, 21, 451-486.
Moran, P. R. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectives in Practice. Boston: Heinle &
Heinle.
Morrow, C. K. (1995). The pragmatic effects of instruction on ESL learners’
production of complaint and refusal speech acts. Doctoral dissertation,
State University of New York, Buffalo.
Nelson, G.., & Hall, C. (1999). Complimenting in Mexican Spanish: Developing
grammatical and pragmatic competence. Spanish Applied Linguistics 3, 91-121.
Olshtain, E. (1993). Language in society. In A. O. Hadley (Ed.), Research in language
learning: Principles, processes, and prospects (pp. 47-65). Lincolnwood:
National Textbook Company.
Paulston, C. (1974). Linguistic and communicative competence. TESOL Quarterly, 8,
347-362.
Ramos, J. (1991). No…because: A study of pragmatic transfer in refusals among
Puerto Rican teenagers speaking English. Doctoral dissertation, Columbia
University.
Rintell, E., & Mitchell, C. (1989). Studies of requests and apologies: An inquiry into
method. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (Eds.), Cross-cultural
pragmatics: Requests and apologies (pp. 248-272). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Rose, K. (1992). Speech acts and questionnaires: The effect of hearer response.
Journal of Pragmatics 17, 49-62.
Rubin, J. (1981). How to tell when someone is saying “no” revisited. In N. Wolfson,
& E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 10-17).
Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Sasaki, M. (1998). Investigating EFL students’ production of speech acts: A
comparison of production questionnaires and role-plays. Journal of Pragmatics
30, 457-484.
Savignon, S. (1983). Communicative competence: Theory and classroom practice.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Saville-Troike, M. (1989). The ethnography of communication. New York: Basil
Blackwell Ltd.
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Searle, J. R. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In P. Cole, & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and
Semantics, Vol.3: Speech acts (pp. 59-82). New York: Academic Press.
Searle, J. R. (1979). The classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society, 8,
137-151.
Stevens, P. B. (1993). The pragmatics of “no!”: Some strategies in English and
Arabic. Ideal, 6, 87-112.
Takahashi, T., & Beebe, L. (1987). The development of pragmatic competence by
Japanese learners of English. JALT Journal, 8, 131-155.
Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2),
91-112.
Thomas, J. (1984). Cross-cultural discourse as “unequal encounter”: Towards a
pragmatic analysis. Applied Linguistics, 5, 226-235.
Tickle, A. L. (1991). Japanese refusals in a business setting. Applied Linguistics
Michigan 6(2), 84-108.
Trenchs, M. (1995). Pragmatic strategies in Catalan and English complaints: A
comparative study of native and EFL speakers. Language Quarterly, 33,
160-182.
Trosborg, Anna. (1994). Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints, and
apologies. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
Tsai, P. (2002). A study of the speech act of apology in Chinese. Master Thesis,
National Tsing Hua University.
Tseng, M. (1999). A pragmatic study on speech acts in Chinese invitational
conversations. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Turnbull, W. (1994). An appraisal of pragmatic elicitation techniques for the study of
social factors in language use. Unpublished ms.
Ueda, K. (1974). Sixteen ways to avoid saying no in Japan. In Condon, J. and
M. Saito (Eds.), Intercultural encounters with Japan: Communication – contact
and conflict (pp. 185-192). Tokyo: Simul Press.
Walters, J. (1979). Strategies for requesting in Spanish and English: Structural
similarities and pragmatic differences. Language Learning 29, 277-293.
Wierzbica, A. (1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantic of human interaction.
New York: Mouton.
Widjaja, C. (1997). A study of date refusal: Taiwanese females vs. American females.
University of Hawai’i Working Papers in ESL 15(2), 1-43.
Wolfson, N. (1981). Invitations, compliments, and the competence of the native
speakers. International Journal of Psycholinguistics, 24, 17-22. Mouton
Publishers.

Wolfson, N. & Manes, J. (1981). The compliments as a social strategy. Papers in
Linguistics, 13(3), 391-410.
Wolfson, N. (1983). An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American
English. In N. Wolfson & E. Judd (Eds.) Sociolinguistics and language
Acquisition (pp. 82-95). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Wolfson, N., D'Amico-Reisner, L., & Huber, L. (1983). How to arrange for social
commitment in American English: The invitation. In N. Wolfson & E. Judd
(Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 116-130). MA: Newbury
House.
Wolfson, N. (1986). Research methodology and the question of validity. TESOL
Quarterly, 20(4), 689-699.
Wolfson, N. (1988). The bulge: A theory of speech behavior and social distance. In
Fine (Ed.), Second language discourse: A textbook of current research
(pp. 21-38). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Wolfson, N. (1989). Perspectives: Sociolinguistics and TESOL. Newbury House
Publisher.
Wolfson, N., Marmor, T., & Jones, S. (1989). Problems in the comparison of speech
acts across cultures. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (Eds.)
Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies (pp. 174-196). NJ: Ablex.
Wood, T. J. (1993). Gender, communication, and culture. In Samouvar, L. A. & Porter,
R. E. (Eds.) Intercultural communication: A reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Yu, M. (1999a). Cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics: Developing
communicative competence in a second language. Doctoral dissertation,
Harvard University.

Yu, M. (1999b). Universalistic and culture-specific perspectives on variation in the
acquisition of pragmatic competence in a second language. Pragmatics 9(2),
281-312.
Yu, M. (2003). On the universality of face: Evidence from Chinese compliment
response behavior. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, 1679-1710.
Yu, M. (2004). Interlinguistic variation and similarity in second language speech act
behavior. The Modern Language Journal 88, 102-119.