چکیده:
This study aimed to examine cross-cultural differences in
performing refusal of requests between Persian native
speakers (PNSs) and English native speakers (ENSs) in terms
of the frequency of the semantic formulas. Also examined in
this study was whether Persian EFL learners would transfer
their L1 refusal patterns into the L2, and if there would be a
relation between their proficiency level and the transfer of
refusal strategies. To do so, 66 PNSs (studying Archeology and
Law) and 59 ENSs from both genders filled out the Persian
and English versions of the same discourse completion test
(DCT), respectively. Also, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT)
was used to form 2 groups consisting of 61 high proficient (HP)
Persian L2 learners and 81 low proficient (LP) ones, who all
filled out the English version of the DCT. The refusals
strategies used by the participants were turned into semantic
formulas, and then classified into 3 groups of Direct, Indirect,
and Adjuncts to Refusals. Findings showed no significant
differences in the use of Direct refusal strategies between the
ENSs and the PNSs. Unlike the PNSs who outweighed the
ENSs in the use of Indirect strategies, the ENSs employed
substantially more Adjuncts to Refusals. Findings also
indicated the occurrence of pragmatic transfer in the use of
Indirect and Adjuncts to Refusals by both the HP and LP L2
learners. However, the LP group was found to transfer their
L1 refusal patterns more than the HP group.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"g. Beebe & Takahashi, 1989; Blum-Kulka, 1982; Olshtain & Cohen, 1989) hypothesized that L2 proficiency is positively correlated with pragmatic transfer, whereas, Maeshiba, Yoshinaga, Kasper, and Ross (1996) found that higher proficiency L2 learners were less likely to transfer L1 apology strategies that did the lower proficiency L2 learners.
Keeping the vital role of pragmatics and its transfer in L2 in mind, it is necessary to make Iranian L2 learners cognizant of potential cross- cultural differences in performing such a sensitive face-threatening act (FTA) as refusals because they have already been reported to transfer strategies of thanking (Ghobadi & Fahim, 2009) and disagreements (Farnia, Sohrabie, & Musurra, 2009).
To investigate if pragmatic transfer occurred in the refusals of the PNSs in terms of the frequency of semantic formulas and the effect of proficiency level on transfer of L1 strategies, the same English DCT was translated into Persian and was administered to the PNSs. In addition, the OPT (r = 0.
In order to answer the third research question concerning the relationship between L2 proficiency and pragmatic transfer, the frequency of the semantic formulas produced by both Persian L2 learner groups were compared with the patterns of English and Persian.
So, the following directional hypothesis comes to notice • H3: There is a relationship between proficiency level and pragmatic transfer in the refusals of the Persian L2 learners of English in terms of the frequency of semantic formulas."