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Article published In:
Applied Pragmatics
Vol. 2:1 (2020) ► pp.26–53

Proficiency effects on L2 Arabic refusals

Appropriateness, linguistic strategies and multidialectal practices

| Carnegie Mellon University
| Carnegie Mellon University
| Palestine Polytechnic University

This study examined the relationship between L2 proficiency and (1) appropriateness of refusals, (2) use of refusal strategies, and (3) multidialectal practices in performing refusals in Arabic. Using a spoken discourse completion task (spoken DCT), data were collected from 45 learners of Arabic at three different proficiency levels and from 15 Arabic native speakers. The situations used in the spoken DCT varied in power and social distance (i.e., refusing a friend’s request to lend money, refusing a neighbor’s request to lend a car, and refusing a boss’s request to stay late to work extra hours). Findings generally revealed a positive relationship between proficiency and L2 Arabic learners’ appropriateness, use of refusal strategies, and multidialectal practices in their refusals. However, results showed that native speakers solely employed spoken Arabic (i.e., the dialect), while learners relied heavily on Modern Standard Arabic. Analysis of refusal strategies showed that native speakers tended to provide vague explanations in their refusals except when refusing the neighbor’s request, whereas the learners preferred to provide specific reasons for their refusals. Moreover, advanced-level learners were substantially verbose; as a result, their refusals could be perceived as lecturing or criticizing their interlocutor. This paper concludes with implications for researching and teaching L2 Arabic refusals with special attention to multidialectal practices.

Keywords: pragmatic competence, refusal strategies, L2 Arabic, proficiency, multidialectal practices, interlanguage pragmatics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instrument
      • 3.2.1‘Friend’ situation (−Power, −Distance)
      • 3.2.2‘Boss’ situation (+Power, +Distance)
      • 3.2.3‘Neighbor’ situation (−Power, + Distance)
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Analysis of appropriateness ratings
    • 4.2Analysis of linguistic strategies
      • 4.2.1Refusing to lend money to a friend (−P, −D)
      • 4.2.2Refusing boss’s request to stay late and work extra hours (+P, +D)
      • 4.2.3Refusing to lend car to a neighbor (−P, +D)
    • 4.3The Use of multidialectal and multilingual practices (MSA, spoken Arabic, and English)
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Pedagogical implications
  • 7.Conclusion and future directions
  • References
Published online: 10 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ap.19007.mas
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