A Study of Date Refusal: Taiwanese vs. American Females

Abstract

ln the interlanguage pragmatic literature, the speech act of refusal has been found to be extremely problematic for many non-native speakers. Refusing a date is even more stressful in ESL situations due to the two conflicting spcaker goals of convcying both explicitn€ss and politeness. This study d€scribes how Taiwancsc female ESL learners refuse dates in an American setting and examines the factors affecting their choice and execution of date refusal strategies. The participants, 10 Taiwanese female (TF) and 10 American female (AF) college students ranging from age 19 to 26, performed tree different dating roleplays in which the interlocutors were of equal status with a male American. In addition to video-taped roleplays, retrospective interviews were conducted to uncover participants' thought processes and strategy formulation. This study found that TFs, unlike AFs, preferred higher directness when refusing dates. Besides social distance, three other factos that potentially influenced the TFs' choice and realizations of date refusal strategies were: (a) overgeneralizetion, (b) L1 pragmatic knowledge, and (c) lack of pragmatic knowledge in L2. Futue resealch may reveal the extent to which such pragmatic difficulties result in cultural stereotypes and may lead to a greater pedagogical emphasis on pragmatics in the classroom.