The present study investigated the difference in refusal act of Korean native speakers and KFL learners. The goal of the study is to compare the realization of refusal speech act across cultures and languages. The data was collected by Discourse Compl...
The present study investigated the difference in refusal act of Korean native speakers and KFL learners. The goal of the study is to compare the realization of refusal speech act across cultures and languages. The data was collected by Discourse Completion Test from 75 objects (25 Korean native speakers, 25 Russian native speakers, 25 intermediate and high level Korean learners as a foreign language). In the theoretical part of the study we examined relationship between culture and speech act. We hypothesized that pragmatic failure in refusal act can occur because of different interpretation of politeness, and other sociocultural factors. In the practical part we analyzed speech act of refusals. We compared the average frequencies of direct and non-direct strategies, using linguistic expressions. The analyze of the study shown us the differences and similarities in refusal act of Korean native speakers, Russian native speakers and KFL learners. According to the result we could say that KFL learners used less refusal strategies than Korean speakers did. Another finding illustrated than KFL learners used more direct strategies and less adjuncts to refusals. Also we found that KFL learners did not use vary politeness expression Korean native speaker did. The findings from the research illustrate a pragmatic transfer by both intermediate and higher proficiency KFL learners.