خلاصة:
Professionalism in communication is a matter of concern for speakers of all
languages. Awareness about some features such as face-threatening property of
refusal speech acts leads language users to apply some specific linguistic forms.
Considering the significance of cultural and social variations in performing refusal
speech acts and the importance of preserving “face”, this study tried to find
differences between native-Persian and English speakers. To collect the data, 60
native Persian and English speakers were asked to complete a two-phase
questionnaire, a discourse completions test (DCT) and a self-report, including four
different situations and Beebe's classification of refusals, was used. Great tendency
toward using indirect forms between both Persian and English participants was taken
as an indicator of noticeable consideration of face-preserving in refusals, although
Persian speakers seemed more concerned about it. The differences between two
groups of participants were inferred as cultural variations’ reflection. Some
implications for language teaching were discussed.
ملخص الجهاز:
73-84, 2015 <H1>Face-Threatening Aspect of Refusal Speech Acts: A Contrastive Study</H1> Nargol Mokhtari * Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch Abstract Professionalism in communication is a matter of concern for speakers of all languages.
Considering the significance of cultural and social variations in performing refusal speech acts and the importance of preserving &quot;face&quot;, this study tried to find differences between native-Persian and English speakers.
To collect the data, 60 native Persian and English speakers were asked to complete a two-phase questionnaire, a discourse completions test (DCT) and a self-report, including four different situations and Beebe's classification of refusals, was used.
Vaezi (2011) attempted to investigate the similarities and differences in using the speech act of refusals between Persian learners of English as a foreign language with some Persian native speakers in Iran.
The main purpose of this study is to find the level of English and Persian native speakers’ consideration towards face-threatening aspect of refusal speech acts.
There is a noticeable difference between English and Persian native speakers in using refusal speech acts due to cultural differences in relation to face-threatening aspect.
To analyze and compare Persian and English data in each situation derived from the second part of the questionnaire, which was about self-report of participants’ perception of the speech act of refusal, statistical analysis procedure was used to get sum and mean.
To analyze obtained data from the second part of the questionnaire which was about self-report of participants’ perception of refusal speech acts, some relevant factors such as truthfulness, directness, clarity, and face- preserving were selected and the results are presented in Table 4.