Chapter 4
Multimodality in refusals in English as a lingua franca
This study investigates how multimodal cues are used for rapport management in refusals in the context of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Ten Chinese and ten Indonesian speakers were put in pairs and conducted role-plays in relation to requests and refusals. After the role-plays, they had immediate interviews to reflect on their own and their partners’ performance. The results suggest that body positions (standing/sitting), smiling voices and smiling facial expressions, and the long gaze aversion are used by ELF refusers to maintain rapport: controlling power relationships, mitigating the force of refusals, and conveying a non-engagement stance. The results show that mitigation in the ELF context is a multimodal achievement which can be intentionally realized through various multimodal cues.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Approach to politeness
- 2.2Empirical studies on refusals
- 2.3Refusals and English as a lingua franca (ELF)
- 2.4Multimodal politeness
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Instruments
- 3.3Research procedures
- 3.4Data analysis method
- 4.Findings
- 4.1Body position
- 4.2Smiling voices/smiling facial expressions
- 4.3Long gaze aversion
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1Multimodal politeness in refusals
- 5.2Refusals and English as a lingua franca
- 6.Conclusion
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Notes
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References
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Appendix