Study on Refusal Strategies and Implication to English Teaching

Abstract

This study makes an analysis of the refusal strategies of 30 native speakers of English (NS) and 50 Chinese EFL learners (NNS). It implicates that the latter adopts more strategies than the former when making a refusal in general. Both groups adopts more indirect strategies than direct strategies, and the order and frequency of semantic formulas in each situation were different in different situations. So in English teaching, teachers should focus on developing the learners' ability to overcome obstacles in communicative interactions and to become strategically competent.