Refusal strategies in English among Malay ESL students

Good communication requires not only linguistic knowledge, but also an understanding of social and cultural factors in a situation. Studies on refusal strategies are not new. Many studies relating to refusals in English were focusing on western languages. The present study was an attempt to explore the use of refusal strategies as a speech act by Malay university students in Malaysia. Specifically, the study was looking at gender differences in refusal strategies and the most revealing social strategies in response to refusals used for power distance. The study employed a quantitative approach with survey as its research design. The participants consisted of 43 Malaysian students, (20 males and 23 females), studying in their bachelor degree programmes. Data was collected through a Discourse Completion Task (DCT). All data collected were analysed by Mann-Whitney U Test and the Kruskal-Wallis H test. The findings showed that the Malay English as a Second Language (ESL) students employed more indirect strategies compared to the direct strategies. The high frequency in use of indirect strategies demonstrates that the subjects were aware of the fact that the use of the indirect strategies lessens the face-threatening effect of the speech act of refusal